How Syrve Works - Part 11: Loyalty

Our eleventh edition of How Syrve Works focuses on loyalty - a major topic these days given the sheer volatility of customer traffic. Inflation, rising prices and cost-of-living struggles are making diners far more selective about their preferred dining options.

Because of this, operators are falling over themselves to build lasting customer relationships. Rewarding repeat visits is one of the most effective ways to do this.

To help operators, Syrve features a comprehensive suite of tools designed to incentivise return visits and strengthen long-term customer engagement. Together, these tools form Syrve Loyalty.

What is Syrve Loyalty?

Syrve Loyalty is an integrated customer retention module that’s available, to varying degrees, across our Basic, Professional and Enterprise tiers. In short, it allows you to create an expansive range of customer incentives including coupons, discounts, point-based schemes and referral rewards.

These programs are supported by RFM analysis to ensure you target the right guests with the most appropriate offers. SMS and push notifications are also included, making it easier to deliver personalised promotions directly to diners.

Loyalty Programs

Syrve Loyalty features a collection of core loyalty programs which can be run at a single site or on a chain-wide basis. These include:

• Combos
• Progressive Discount
• Sequential Discount
• Re-Engagement Gifts
• Rewards Program
• Food Program
• Gift Card Program
• Coupon Program
• Referral Program

Combos

Combos tend to be used for short-term promotions and time-limited discounts. They don’t require customer accounts but instead serve as promotional tools for indirectly incentivising return visits.

In Syrve, they can be set up in a variety of ways. There are fixed price bundles, item-level combos in which each item is set a certain price (e.g. Two Pizzas, £5 each), percentage discounts for the cheapest or most expensive item and discounts on all items within a set. Syrve automatically recognises combo items and applies the promotion at point of sale.

Progressive Discount

One of the most effective ways of driving return visits, Syrve’s progressive discount program allows you to reward customers with money off an order when they reach a certain spend over time.

Syrve uses condition-based rules for setting one up according to three thresholds: Order total, order amount and the period of time. Once these have been set, you merely choose the size of your discount.

Sequential Discount

Like progressive discounts, sequential promotions employ a carrot-on-a-stick approach, rewarding customers for continued engagement over time. A common example is a discount on second and subsequent orders.

In Syrve, this particular incentive relies on SMS messaging. Again, it’s a case of setting your order and quantity thresholds as well as the period of time in which the promo will apply. Once you’ve added your message text, it’s sent by the system as soon as the customer places an order.

Re-Engagement Gifts

Win-back gifts are another useful tool that can re-engage lapsed customers. In addition to reactivating dormant customer segments, they can genuinely help you to recover lost revenue and strengthen long-term customer relationships.

In Syrve, this is driven by the system’s ability to check the date of a customer’s last visit. As is the case with the progressive and sequential discount programs, it’s all about setting thresholds. In this instance, you add a Date of Last Visit condition and set the number of days a customer last visited. The system will then send out the message once this has been reached.

Rewards Program

Reward programs accumulate value in your customer accounts whenever they spend at your restaurant. For example, if a customer spends £100, £10 can be credited to their account. As with progressive and sequential discounts, these types of promotions can be powerful motivators for repeat visits.

Activating a rewards program in Syrve can be done using the Top Up Account with Percent of Order action. You can set the top-up percentage, limit the maximum number of top-ups permitted per day and filter out products that should not be included in the program.

Reward accrual can also be tied to specific days or events such as a guest’s birthday or the days preceding or following it. This is especially useful for incentivising a future visit. Rewards can also be accrued if a guest arrives on recommendation.

Food Program

In addition to points-based incentives and monetary gifts, it’s common practice among operators to allow customers to accumulate individual menu items at a discounted price.

For example, a customer would pay an upfront price for a subscription and would then unlock ten espresso coffees for £15 instead of the normal £20. As well as locking in future visits, this provides customers with a clear value incentive.

Within the Syrve system, this is configured using the Product Units selector. So when a product relating to a food program is purchased, the system automatically credits the customer’s account with a predetermined number of units (for example ten espresso coffees). Each time the guest orders the item, one unit is deducted from their account until the subscription is spent.

Gift Card Program

Gift card programs can prove highly valuable to restaurants because they can generate immediate cash flow while also securing future visits. Typically, a customer purchases a gift card for a certain amount and then gives it to someone as a gift. The card can then be redeemed either in a single transaction or across multiple visits.

With Syrve, you can link gift cards to specific menu items and a dedicated payment type. It’s also possible to issue different card values and organise them into different series. They can be sold online, by email or directly at the POS. There are two types. Multi-use and single-use cards.

Multi-use cards can be used across multiple visits until the value is depleted. Single-use cards can be redeemed once and are deactivated after the transaction, even if part of the balance remains.

Should a customer pay using a gift card, the server simply selects it as a payment method. The system will then automatically deduct the bill from the card balance.

Coupon Program

Coupons are a flexible promotional tool that allow restaurants to offer discounts and gifts via unique redemption codes. These can be distributed by text, email, social media promotions and website offers. They’re a great way to drive traffic and to measure the effectiveness of marketing campaigns.

In Syrve, coupons can be generated in series and linked to specific campaigns. When a coupon code is entered at checkout, the system verifies it and applies the associated reward, be it a discount, special price or gift.

Anonymous coupon campaigns are also supported which allow guests to redeem promotions without registering or creating a loyalty account – particularly useful for acquisition campaigns and time-limited offers.

Referral Program

For restaurants, referral programs can prove particularly effective because they leverage word-of-mouth marketing. This is often far more persuasive than traditional advertising simply because a recommendation by a family or friend carries more weight.

Syrve allows you to link an existing customer with a new one via phone number or email. When the new customer arrives at your restaurant and provides these details, both receive bonus points, a gift or discount. The new customer can also be added to a referral program once registered.

Push and SMS Notifications

Direct communication with guests is of course critical for CRM, no matter what industry you’re in. And Syrve Loyalty allows you to contact customers via automated SMS, email and push notifications. You can send messages promoting campaigns, send birthday greetings and also to remind guests about rewards balances.

This can be done either by one-time mail-outs at specific dates and times or according to a schedule. It’s also possible to send out messages based on visit history.

Reporting

To measure the success of your campaigns and also to send out targeted communications, Syrve Loyalty includes a reporting section that includes critical data regarding account balances, number of orders, deductions and last visits.

Syrve Wallet

Digital loyalty cards are becoming very popular in restaurants. They obviously tick the ‘convenience’ box for customers. At the same time, they allow operators to communicate directly through notifications which makes it much easier to promote offers and encourage repeat visits.

Syrve Wallet allows restaurants to do exactly this. Customers can store it on their smartphones and use connected apps such as Apple Wallet, Google Pay or Wallet Passes. It effectively functions as an electronic version of a standard plastic loyalty card and displays a barcode that can be scanned at the POS and which identifies the customer and available benefits.

Once registered, your customer can use the card to accumulate rewards, check their balance and redeem offers.

Syrve Wallet also supports push notifications, so you can send real-time updates such as balance changes, promotional messages or location-based reminders when customers are near the venue. This makes it a convenient way to keep loyalty programmes visible and encourage repeat visits without relying on physical cards or manual communication.

Final Thoughts

As customer expectations continue to skyrocket, loyalty programmes are fast becoming a critical tool for restaurants. Recurring guests are like gold dust in today’s brutal business climate. So building lasting relationships has never been so important.

Syrve’s loyalty suite is designed specifically for this purpose. From targeted promotions and referral campaigns to progressive discounts and re-engagement gifts, the platform includes a comprehensive set of tools that can drive repeat visits and strengthen engagement.