How Restaurants Can Win the Loyalty of High Tech Consumers

Loyalty programs and restaurant subscription services are effective ways restaurants can incentivize return customers. Loyalty programs often offer returning guests rewards such as free access to the restaurant’s Wi-Fi or discounted entrees. Restaurant subscription services have also been getting a lot of press recently as well-known restaurants join the fray with unique offers such as taco subscriptions or unlimited coffee.

PYMNTS’ research found that consumers who value technology are much more likely to participate and find value in loyalty programs, with 60% of consumers participating in quick-service restaurant (QSR) loyalty programs and 75% doing so at table-service restaurants.

This is just one of the key findings we uncovered in Digital Divide: How High-Tech Consumers Connect To Subscription And Loyalty Offerings, a PYMNTS and Paytronix collaboration. We surveyed 2,207 United States consumers to examine relationships between technology and both QSR and table-service restaurant loyalty programs and subscription services.

Additional key findings from the report include:

• High-tech consumers — the cohort that owns the most connected devices — are the most motivated to increase their spending when granted access to convenience-focused digital features: 56% cited mobile app availability as key to their willingness to spend more. These consumers are motivated to increase their spending by more digital features than the average consumer. More than half of these consumers say mobile apps and the ability to pay online would lead them to increase their spending.

• These consumers are more likely to use multiple channels to interact with their favorite restaurants’ loyalty programs, but mobile technologies are king: 79% use mobile apps to connect with table-service restaurants’ reward offerings. Mobile apps are the most popular way all consumers connect with loyalty programs, and a sizable portion of high-tech consumers use mobile apps to connect with their favorite eateries.

• These tech-friendly consumers are the most likely to be drawn to ongoing restaurant subscriptions. Millennials and bridge millennials exhibit some of the highest interest levels among consumers. These consumers show the highest level of familiarity with subscription services, with 40% saying they are “very” or “extremely” familiar with restaurant subscription services.

To learn more about how restaurants use loyalty programs and subscriptions to engage consumers, download the report.