Ruby Tuesday, El Pollo Loco Sign on to Brightloom’s Customer Growth Platform
Brightloom closed out the first half of the year by adding new restaurant brands – Ruby Tuesday, El Pollo Loco, and Cactus to its customer growth platform (CGP).
In exchange for licensing its digital flywheel technology, Starbucks took an equity stake in Brightloom (formerly eatsa) in 2019. After building out its team of 50 data scientists and data engineers, Brightloom announced the release of CGP in January.
Brightloom uses first-party data, machine learning and predictive modeling to convert them to smart segments. This gives brands ability to make the right-sized offer, Adam Brotman, Brightloom's CEO and former CDO at Starbucks, tells HT.
While making personalized offers is a great goal to have, it is “very difficult to do that level of machine learning and predictive modeling on your own,” Brotman said. It took Brightloom's team of 50 data scientists and data engineers a year to build the CGP.
That move proved to be prescient, as COVID-19 forced restaurants and retailers to accelerate digitization of their operations at warp speed, and in turn, brands digitized a majority of their customer relationships. According to The Boston Consulting Group, one-third of restaurants’ digital customers ordered online for the first time during the pandemic.
[[ This survey found that of vaccinated patrons, 92% say they will continue to use mobile order-ahead, curbside pickup and delivery.]]
According to Hospitality Technology’s 2020 Customer Engagement Technology Study, 66% of all respondents report that ease of online ordering is highly important when opting for takeout, delivery or curbside, reinforcing the need for a streamlined guest journey.
Brightloom says now is the time for restaurants to leverage these new digital relationships to drive sustainable revenue.
Andrew Rebhun, VP & Digital Officer of El Pollo Loco, agrees. “The COVID-19 pandemic heightened the need to deliver seamless digital customer experiences,” he said. “We value both the efficient time to value and configurable nature of Brightloom’s CGP. Now we can take advantage of the new digital relationships we’ve cultivated over the past year to deliver highly relevant offers while directly attributing them to customer activation.”
[El Pollo Loco expands its digital platform with FlyBuy curbside pickup technology to automate and enhance the order pickup process.]
Right Message at the Right Time
Personalized and relevant offers are becoming the gold standard for restaurant brands.
At Ruby Tuesday, “Brightloom maximizes our customer data by sending consumers the right message at the right time, while also giving us the opportunity to better understand what influences their’ purchase decisions," said Shawn Lederman, CEO of Ruby Tuesday. "Brightloom Pro allows us to expand these capabilities and learnings to a broader spectrum of media.”
Since the CGP release in Q1, Brightloom has seen promising results across the 30+ consumer brands that have leveraged their customer transaction data and Brightloom’s proprietary predictive modeling. Key highlights include: 5.7% revenue increase on average. CGP-powered campaigns generated a 12.6% customer reactivation lift, when compared to the control, as a result of highly targeted, personalized promotions and precise product recommendations. Plus, Brightloom’s SaaS platform simplifies and expedites the use of data science. Built around custom transaction data and powered by measurement and predictive modeling, customers are up and running with the CGP in a matter of days with measurable campaign results in 4-6 weeks.
Brightloom recently introduced Brightloom Pro, to help brands more effectively activate their customers, increase revenue, and accelerate sustained business growth. The offering includes tailored brand solutions, custom analytics, and customer acquisition and engagement programs.