Overview
Running a Subscription Program enables a brand to lock in recurring revenue to their restaurants. Every period (typically monthly) the guest will be charged (typically 1st of the month) for their subscription.
Lunchbox Restaurant Partners can customize their subscription programs and offer choices on length of subscription, number of orders per month, and number of items per order. For example, Clean Juice's Cleanse Club offers the following options:
- Length of Subscription: month-to-month (1 month), 6 months, or 12 months
- Number of orders per month: 1, 2, or 3
- Number of juices per order: 4 or 6 juices
To encourage patrons to take advantage of subscriptions programs, Restaurant Partners have the option to offer discounts for subscriptions. The level of discounts can differ based on the length of subscriptions. For example, a restaurant may want to offer a 10% discount for a 6-month plan and a 20% discount for a 12-month plan to incentivize patrons to choose the longer plans.
Sample Subscription Program
Clean Juice: Cleanse Club Subscription
Feature Contents:
Program Design
The following components of subscriptions can be customized to fit each restaurant partner's needs. It is advised that Sales, Delivery, and/or Customer Success teams consult closely with the restaurant partner to craft a subscription program that is optimal for each restaurant partner's objectives.
Step 1: Length of Subscription, Orders per Month, Items per Order
Lunchbox Restaurant Partners can customize their subscription programs and offer choices on length of subscription, number of orders per month, and number of items per order. For example, Clean Juice's Cleanse Club offers the following options:
- Length of Subscription: month-to-month (1 month), 6 months, or 12 months
- Number of orders per month: 1, 2, or 3
- Number of juices per order: 4 or 6 juices
Step 2: Lock-Out period
For the definition of what lock-out period is, please refer to the Glossary section of this document. The lock-out period can be customized to fit each restaurant partner's needs.
Step 3: Lead Time
Restaurant partners can customize the minimum lead time required to fulfill a subscription order. Once within the lead time, the details of the order is sent to the POS and can no longer be modified without reaching out to the restaurant.
- For example, if the lead time is 48 hours, a patron will be able to cancel or change the pick-up date and time as well as order details until 48 hours before the fulfillment date & time
- Lunchbox currently does not support same-day subscription orders, and lead time settings should reflect that limitation
Step 4: Discounts
To encourage patrons to take advantage of subscriptions programs, Restaurant Partners have the option to offer discounts for subscriptions.
- Different discount amounts can be applied to subscription programs of different lengths. For example, a restaurant partner could offer a 10% monthly discount for a 6-month program and a 20% discount for a 12-month program
- Different discount amounts can be applied to each month of the subscription program. For example, for a 6-month program, a restaurant partner could apply no discount for the first 3 months, a 5% discount for the 4th month, a 10% discount for the 5th month, etc.
Benefits
- Fully customized design to match the brand's typography, iconography, and color scheme.
- Provides a 1st party ordering platform for the brand.
- Enables recurring revenue to the Restaurant Partner and its locations.
- Fully customized subscription programs that offer a choice on length of subscription, number of orders per month, and number of items per order.
- Allows for reoccurring and non-reoccurring plans.
- Guests can accrue loyalty points on subscription plans.
- Discounts can be applied to subscription plans.
Limitations
- Platform: iOS & Android Only
- Apple Pay only works on iOS devices for the mobile app and Google Pay only works on Android devices for the mobile app.
- Order Type: Pick-Up Only
- Modifications: Subscription plan details (e.g., length, orders per month, items per order, fulfillment location) cannot be changed once the plan is live. To make changes, a patron must cancel the existing plan and sign up for a new one.
- Scheduled Subscriptions Only: Currently, same-day redemptions are not supported. All subscription redemptions must be scheduled the day before at the latest.
- Webhook: Subscription orders being sent to the POS do not currently send to the Generic Webhook.
- Pick-Up Lead Time: The pick-up lead time is fixed to two (2) days for subscriptions.
- Delivery Subscription: There is no delivery subscription available.
Restaurant Experience
Setting Up & Configuration
Terms of Service & Privacy Policies
- The restaurant partner must create and maintain the terms of service and privacy policies for its subscription program.
- Clean Juice example: Cleanse Club Terms & Conditions, Privacy Policy
Menu Configuration
- The items that are pulled are coming in directly from the POS system. A menu with two menu groups needs to be created on the POS system.
- The first menu group can have all the items inside and these items can support location-specific pricing. This is the menu that will be used to show items available for selection on the app platform.
- The second menu group will need to store the price of each plan: e.g month to month, 3-month, 6-month. You must create an item for each plan and give it a price.
- You can also apply a discount to these plans if you like by creating an item-based discount in your POS that has all the items from both the menu groups listed. One discount can be applied to a plan. While discounts are not necessary they are an optional feature if the client chooses to opt-in.
Order Flow
- A patron signs up for a subscription by choosing the length of subscription and number of item(s) per month.
- A guest schedules when they want to pick up an order. The order can be changed up to 48 hours before the fulfillment date and time.
- Tickets will arrive 48 hours in advance to the restaurant's POS system.
Subscription Fulfillment Statuses
- Locked: This order is within 48hours of the fulfillment date and currently inside the lockout period.
- Scheduled: This subscription order has been scheduled for a fulfillment date already.
- Not Scheduled: Guest has been charged for this subscription but hasn't scheduled a pick up date for their plan.
- Completed: This subscription was charged for the fulfillment date has passed.
- Canceled: This subscription was canceled, you can use it to identify when a guest canceled to possibly re-engage them.
Processing Payments
- If a patron's credit card payment is declined, an email is sent to the patron to inform them.
- Lunchbox will try to process the payment two (2) more times (once a day, for two days):
- If the payment is declined after the third attempt, the subscription will be automatically canceled.
- An email is sent to the patron each time a payment is declined to keep them informed.
- If there is a declined payment for subscription orders scheduled for pick-up on the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd of each month, an email is sent to the location to inform them of the issue:
- It is at the restaurant's (or the location's) discretion whether the patron is able to leave with the items before the issue is resolved.
Awarding Subscriptions
- Restaurant Partners have the option to award subscription months or items to patrons.
- Sample use cases of awarding subscriptions include:
- Unused subscription "credit": If a patron forgot to claim their previous order and didn't take advantage of a month, the restaurant partner can award a subscription credit for future use.
- Switching to a Different Subscription Plan: If a patron cancels an existing subscription and signs up for a different subscription plan, the cancellation of the original subscription may result in unused subscription credits. Restaurant Partners have the ability to award those unused credits for future use.
- Sample use cases of awarding subscriptions include:
- Subscription months or items can be awarded in the Guests section of the Admin Dashboard:
- Search for the guest using their First Name, Last Name, and/or Contact Information.
-
- Click on the Patron's Profile.
-
- Scroll to the Subscriptions section at the bottom and click on the relevant subscription program.
-
- Click the Award Subscription button.
-
- Select which Type of Credit should be awarded.
-
- Click the Award button.
Payout Distribution
- Since each subscription is tied to a single location, funds from each subscription payment will be disbursed to the bank account of the associated location.
Subscription Reporting
- Subscriptions can be accessed by logging into your Lunchbox Admin Dashboard and locating the Subscription tab from the menu pane.
-
- Roles that are Franchisees, Manager, and Owner will be able to see and manage subscriptions.
- Restaurant Partners can switch views in the subscriptions section of the Lunchbox dashboard to a calendar view and observe all active subscriptions by month.
- Schedule section: In the Schedule section, the Restaurant Partner can see all upcoming scheduled subscription orders.
- Restaurant Partners can switch between Calendar View and Table View by clicking on the Table or Calendar button.
- Calendar View example:
- Restaurant Partners can switch between Calendar View and Table View by clicking on the Table or Calendar button.
-
-
- Table View example:
-
- Subscribers section: In the Subscribers section, the Restaurant Partner can see the details of each patron's subscription program, as well as the history of orders that were placed in use of the subscription:
- Clicking on a Patron's Name will bring up a pop-up drawer with a Month-by-Month Summary of their subscription.
- Then, clicking on a specific month will bring up a pop-up drawer with Order-Level Summary of that month's subscription order activities.
- Reports section: The Reports section shows a high-level summary of subscriptions activity by location, type of program, and length of program.
- Restaurant partners can toggle between different views using the slider in the middle section of the page. Each of these reports can be exported as a CSV file.
- By Location: number of subscribers, number of cancellations, average number of items (avg quantity), total items, redeemed items, unredeemed items, subtotal, discount, tax, and revenue.
-
- By Program (Type of Program): number of subscribers, average number of times (avg quantity), total items, redeemed items, unredeemed items, subtotal, discounts, tax, and revenue.
-
- By Billing (Length of Program): number of subscribers, average number of items (avg quantity), subtotal, discount, tax, and revenue.
-
- All guest information will be available through the dashboard for guests that have Active Subscriptions (e.g., email, phone number, first name, last name, etc.).
Patron Experience
Signing Up for Subscriptions
- Currently, subscription sign-up is available only on the app (iOS & Android) platform.
- Patrons can select the details of their subscriptions and provide payment directly on the app.
- Subscription sign-ups are for a single specific location. The same location will fulfill all orders within a given subscription plan. If a patron wants to change the fulfillment location, they must cancel the existing subscription and sign up for a new one at the desired location.
- Clean Juice Example
- Select the location where you want to pick up from.
-
- Select and confirm subscription program details.
-
- Enter Payment Details, agree to Terms & Conditions and check out.
-
- Once payment has been accepted, patrons can schedule their subscription orders for pick-up.
Fulfillment
- Patrons can make changes to their order details until 48 hours before the fulfillment date directly on the app.
- Example: If a guest chooses to pick up their cleanse on Friday, they would have until 11:59 pm on Tuesday to make any changes to their cleanse pickup scheduling. Starting Wednesday, their choice would be locked in and they cannot make any changes via the app.
- After that time, a patron must call the location to which they are subscribed to inquire if they can change the pick-up date.
- In any given month, if a patron has scheduled and picked up all orders for that month and has an active subscription during the following month, the patron can begin scheduling pick-up dates and times for the following month.
- For example, in August, a patron who has scheduled and picked up all August subscription orders can begin scheduling their September orders (if their subscription is active in September).
- Clean Juice Example
Billing
- If the patron signs up for a subscription within the lock-out period:
- The subscription will begin immediately.
- The patron will be charged for the first payment immediately.
- All subsequent payments will be charged on the first of every month until the end of the subscription program.
- If the patron signs up for a subscription after the lock-out period:
- The subscription will begin on the first of the following month.
- The patron will be charged on the first of every month, beginning the following month until the end of the subscription program.
Making Changes to Subscriptions
- In order to make any changes to existing subscriptions (e.g., length, number of items per order), guest would need to cancel their existing subscription and re-subscribe.
- Guests can change the location they are subscribed for by canceling their subscription and re-subscribing for the new location.
Canceling Subscriptions
- Patrons can cancel their subscriptions directly on the iOS or Android app.
- There are no early termination fees for patrons canceling their subscriptions.
Loyalty
- Guests earn Loyalty for their subscriptions equal to the fee they pay monthly towards the subscription.
- Guests cannot apply Loyalty rewards or credits to a subscription payment.
Glossary
- Lock-out Period: The date of each month by which a patron must sign up for a subscription in order to start redeeming that month. It can be customized for each client to fit their needs.
- For example, if the lock-out period is 10 days, a patron must sign up on or before the 10th of each month to begin using the subscription in the same month. If a patron signs up after the 10th, their subscription program will start on the 1st of the following month.
- Scheduled vs. Unscheduled Subscriptions: In general, there are two different types of subscription programs: scheduled and unscheduled. Lunchbox only supports scheduled subscriptions.
- Scheduled Subscriptions require subscribers to place an order in advance before a pre-defined lead time to redeem a subscription item.
- For example, Clean Juice requires patrons to schedule a subscription pick-up at least 2 days before the desired date
- Unscheduled Subscriptions allow subscribers to redeem a subscription item just-in-time
- For example, Panera's coffee subscription program allows patrons to walk into a store and use their subscriptions
- Scheduled Subscriptions require subscribers to place an order in advance before a pre-defined lead time to redeem a subscription item.
Comments
0 comments