Specialty Coffee Retailer is a publication for owners, managers and employees of retail outlets that sell specialty coffee. Its scope includes best sales practices, supplies, business trends and anything else to assist the small coffee retailer.
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/85691
THE GIFT supplying the merchant with data while they provide customers with deals. Gift/loyalty programs can be a two-way street, BY BRENDA G. RUSSELL credit and debit cards. Behind the stack of punch cards and loyalty dollars (and a A t one time a fat wallet came with a large wad of cash. Now loyalty and giſt cards bulk up billfolds already stiff with growing number of smartphone apps) are merchants finding new ways to make new friends but keep the old. In "The Loyalty Effect" (Harvard Business Press Books, $17.95 paperback), Fred Reichheld of Bain & Co. holds that in a typical company, customers are defecting at 10 percent to 30 percent a year—a rate worth the effort to reduce. "Loyalty programs generate long-term, loyal customers and maintain the value and revenue of products or services," contends Marc Edmondson, director of loyalty for Heartland Payment Systems. "Merchants are able to provide customers a reason to return over and over again by rewarding rather than discounting. buy-10-get-1-free punch cards. Now low-cost electronic loyalty programs provide the basic system to replace the punch card, lighten a customer' s wallet and provide more enticements to buy. 18 Coffee shops have long cluttered purses and pockets with " that keeps on giving on them, there's very little redemption on them," says Ryan Jeffery, vice president of business development of the Chicago- based Belly Card loyalty program. "Customers oſten throw them out. What we're doing is providing a digital solution that provides insight and data as to who their customers are but also providing a very easy, simple way for a business to set up an engaging and rewarding loyalty program." "When you think about those punch cards, there's no data BELLY UP The Belly Card that launched in Chicago in August 2011 is not tied to a point-of-sale system. It requires Wi-Fi access, which makes coffee shops a Belly hotspot. "The business owner gets to see how oſten customers are coming back in, the time they're coming in, day of the week that they have the most traffic and then the ability to kind of segment them out and promote to them, reach back out to them and bring them back in when they want to, "The information allows them to market to their users in a more effective way to bring them back in at optimal times." For $50 the merchant gets an iPad, marketing materials " Jeffery says. and the chance to e-mail promotional messages four times a year. "We understand each shop is unique and has a personal connection with their customers," Jeffery says. "We suggest rewards to help them get their creative juices running. In the end, they know their customers best." About 2,500 stores are enrolled in Belly and about 150 are added every week, Jeffery says. The company can ship out the iPad and walk the business owner through setup over the phone. Barriques, a coffee and wine shop with six locations in Madison, Wis., added the Belly Card in April. Owner Matt Weygandt liked that customers could register their purchases via smartphone app, card or key fob.