Overview
Loyalty programs consist of rewards, discounts, and incentives that a restaurant brand offers to attract or retain customers. They are designed to encourage repeat business and offer store or brand loyalty rewards to registered customers. Typically, the more customers spend at a store or order online via Lunchbox ordering platforms, the greater the rewards. This feature allows the restaurant to enable various campaigns encouraging customers to spend more by increasing ticket averages, visit frequency, or engagement.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Do not attempt to update your loyalty program without the assistance of Lunchbox Support. To make updates to your program, reach out to your CSM or email [email protected].
Supported POS
Lunchbox facilitates the transfer of information to multiple loyalty providers, allowing the customer's loyalty profile to be found in the POS via API. Once the customer account has been found, the system will allow the redemption of the rewards or points based on the parameters the loyalty provider sets.
Here's the list of the currently supported POS's:
Toast: General Availability for in-store and online reward redemption
Revel: General Availability for in-store and online reward redemption
Brink: General Availability for online reward redemption only. Not available in-store.
Aloha: General Availability for online reward redemption only. Not available in-store.
Current Limitations
Only one sign-up bonus can be added to a customer account.
A sign-up reward cannot be based solely on an app download.
Sign-up rewards cannot be awarded automatically to imported customers. If a sign-up gift is needed for imported accounts, the value must be added to the import sheet and escalated to Engineering.
Item-based offers cannot be combined unless they are created as a single combo reward that includes both items in one transaction.
e.g., A sign-up reward that includes both a free coffee and a free muffin must be built as one combo reward.
A tier reach one-off can be placed just above the sign-up points threshold if an additional reward is desired early in the customer’s journey.
e.g., A customer receives the sign-up bonus, then reaches a 10-point tier threshold on their first transaction and earns the tier reach one-off reward.
Renaming a bonus in the Loyalty Database does not update the name shown in the customer’s wallet.
Lunchbox Loyalty Breakdown
Lunchbox Loyalty allows for:
Accrued Point Conversion
Allows a restaurant partner to set the points-to-dollar ratio and define how many points the customers will earn per dollar spent. The default is $1 = 1 Point.
e.g., Spend $1 and earn 1 point towards your next reward.
e.g., Spend $1 and earn 5 points towards your next reward.
The point accrual is based on the subtotal amount.
IMPORTANT NOTE: The only value that can be updated is the Points earned. Editing the dollar amount is not currently supported in Lunchbox; however, with international expansion and support of other currencies, we expect the update of this feature soon.
Points Required Threshold
The points threshold a customer must earn before they are allotted their reward. Points required apply to all Lunchbox loyalty programs: Conversion-based, Tier-based, and Bank Loyalty.
e.g., Earn 100 points and receive your reward
e.g., Earn 50 points to unlock a new redeemable reward
Loyalty Programs
Here's a list of current loyalty programs:
Spend X, Get Y
A credit or coupon-based, single-tier program Spend X get Y allows registered customers to gain and accumulate points with a preset conversion rate. After reaching the threshold, customers receive a reward. After reaching the threshold, the reward will be added to the customer's wallet, the current points balance will reset, while the lifetime points balance will continue to grow.
With this type of program, the most common reward is credit-based (e.g. $5 for gaining 100 points), and it's usually set to be applied automatically upon the next order via our platform. Rewards can also be item-based or discount-based.
Here are a few examples of this program, which gives a preset reward credit, item, or a discount reward to customers for an accumulated point:
Credit-Based Program:
Spend $100 to earn 100 points and get a $5 credit to spend over time.
e.g., Spend $100 to earn 100 points and get a $5 coupon to spend on your next order
Coupon-Based Program:
Gives an item-based, or % off-based, or $ based coupon code reward to customers when they reach a set points threshold, and the reward can be redeemed on a single order. The current points will be spent, and the customer's points journey will start over again.
e.g., Spend $100 to earn 100 points and get a Free Coffee to spend on a single transaction.
Tiered Loyalty Programs
Customers can unlock exclusive benefits and rewards as they progress through different tier levels, based on their lifetime spending. A tiered loyalty system encourages customers to spend more by giving them thresholds to reach. Each point threshold unlocks access to a higher tier with better rewards. This type of program works for one big reason - exclusivity, which leads to a boost in spending.
Points conversion can vary by tier, but cannot vary within a single tier.
Tier | Lifetime Points | Spend $1 | Get Points |
Bronze Tier | 0 - 199 Lifetime Points | Spend $1 | 5 points |
Silver Tier | 200 - 399 Lifetime Points | Spend $1 | 7 points |
Gold Tier | 400+ Lifetime Points | Spend $1 | 10 points |
Credit Programs can vary by tier but cannot vary within a single tier.
Tier | Lifetime Points | Spend X | Get Y |
Bronze Tier | 0 - 199 Lifetime Points | Spend $100 | $5 credit |
Silver Tier | 200 - 399 Lifetime Points | Spend $100 | $6 credit |
Gold Tier | 400+ Lifetime Points | Spend $100 | $7 credit |
IMPORTANT NOTE: Currently, for customers who spend beyond a tier into a later tier, customers will not receive the reward from the skipped tier.
Bank Loyalty Programs
Bank Loyalty enables customers to claim rewards in exchange for their loyalty points, directly from the Cart page on web and mobile platforms. Unlike traditional rewards that are automatically earned and redeemed at the Cart page or auto-applied, bank rewards require the user to claim them in exchange for their current points balance.
e.g., if the customer's current points balance is 100 points, they will be able to claim one of the available bankable rewards that are valued at 100 points or less. The points are used as a currency for reward claiming.
e.g., Earn points to redeem your favorite rewards. Redeem your favorites:
25 points → Fountain Drink
50 points → Side Item
75 points → Dessert
200 points → Entree
Loyalty Program Comparison Matrix
Program Type
| How It Works
| What Triggers the Reward
| How the Reward Is Delivered
| Point Behavior
| Notes / Limitations
|
Spend X, Get Y
| Customers earn and accumulate points using a preset conversion rate. When they reach the threshold, they receive a reward.
| Reaching the current points balance threshold.
| Reward is added to the customer’s wallet.
| Current points reset after the reward is issued. Lifetime points continue to grow.
| Rewards can be credit-based, item-based, or discount-based.
|
Tiered Loyalty Programs
| Customers progress through tier levels based on lifetime points. Each tier can offer different earning rates or different credit values.
| Reaching the lifetime points threshold for a tier, or hitting configured earning thresholds within a tier.
| Rewards vary by tier. They can be added dirctly into the wallet to be redeemed online or can be set as exclusive rewards (e.g. experience, special products that are not deliverable, etc.)
| Points do not reset. Lifetime points determine tier progression.
| Points or credit conversions can vary by tier but cannot vary within a tier. Customers who skip a tier do not receive the reward from the skipped tier.
|
Bank Loyalty Programs
| Customers use their current points balance to claim rewards directly from the Cart page. Points act as a currency.
| Customer chooses a reward that costs an amount of points they have available.
| Reward is claimed manually and points are deducted.
| Points decrease when a reward is claimed.
| Customers can only claim rewards priced at or below their current points balance. Only one reward can claimed per order.
|
Additional Loyalty features
Deals and rewards
Tier Reach One-Offs are rewards that can be used to incentivize a customer based on lifetime spend and will only be received once upon reaching a Tier. This feature is a great way to add extra incentive to a simpler Spend X Get Y program.
e.g., Earn a lifetime spend of 1000 points and win a free hat!
e.g., Earn a lifetime spend of 10,000 points and win a free sandwich!
Wallet Drop is a special campaign that increases customer engagement. If a restaurant partner wants to gift all customers or a specific customer group with a particular reward on a specific day or time, they should submit a Wallet Drop request.
Sign-Up Bonus: an additional incentive that can be created to encourage customers to sign up. This bonus deposits a chosen reward into a customer’s loyalty wallet when they complete the account creation, including account text verification.
Birthday Reward: Allows you to reward customers on the day of, week of, or month of their birthday as long as they have their birthday added to their profile.
💡How does Birthday Reward work?
There are three options when a registered customer receives a birthday reward:
Option 1: Customer receives a birthday reward on their birthday. Reward is gifted on the date of a customer's birthday at 4 AM EST. This time is not customizable. If a customer signs up after 4 AM on the Date of their birthday, they will not be gifted the reward until the following year.
Option 2: Customer receives birthday reward during the birthday week. Birthday Reward is gifted on Monday at 4 AM EST. This date and time are not customizable. If a customer signs up after the Monday of the Week of their birthday, they will not be gifted the reward until the following year.
Option 3: Customer receives birthday reward during the birthday month. Reward is gifted on the morning of the 1st of the month at 4 AM EST. This date and time are not customizable. If a customer signs up after the first of the month of their birthday, they will not be gifted the reward until the following year.
Pro Tip: Rewards can be manually assigned to the customer using the Lunchbox Admin.
Reward Expiration
This feature allows us to set any number of days that a reward will be active in the customer's wallet. We recommend setting these just below the average visit frequency to encourage more frequent visits:
e.g., If your average customer orders once a month, consider having the reward expire in a shorter time frame.
Double Points Day Promotions
This feature works by enabling users to configure specific days when they can earn loyalty points at an adjusted ratio based on the dollars spent.