TGI Fridays Latest Chain Remaking Loyalty to Favor First-Party Ordering Over Aggregators

With recent research showing that consumers tend to order the same items from the same restaurants creating questions about the value of delivery aggregators, more restaurant chains are beefing up homegrown loyalty programs and creating direct relationships with diners.

In “Connected Dining: Third-Party Restaurant Aggregators Keep the Young and Affluent Engaged,” an exclusive PYMNTS report based on a survey of nearly 2,290 U.S. consumers conducted in March, we discovered that In the prior six months, 40% of all survey respondents used an aggregator at least once, meaning most U.S. consumers have not used a food aggregator in at least half a year.

That’s the result of several factors, from inflation to consumers leaving their homes to enjoy more experiences elsewhere as the pandemic lockdown mindset slowly fades and aggregator delivery fees made consumers think twice about eating via delivery or going out.

This trend has restaurant chains rethinking loyalty programs as they leverage a renewed ability to build first-party relationships with customers and cut out the aggregator middlemen.

A good example of this is the Monday (May 15) announcement by TGI Fridays that its new Fridays Rewards program, built with the Oracle CrowdTwist loyalty and engagement platform enabling more choice in how rewards are accrued and redeemed, can greatly enhance first-party data for hyper-personalization of rewards going forward.

“With Oracle CrowdTwist we have been able to streamline the rewards process, making it easier than ever for our guests to earn and claim everyday rewards,” TGI Fridays Loyalty and Media CRM Lindsay Eichten said in a press release about the new arrangement.

“Now, we can provide a simplified, yet higher-value experience to both our guests and staff. This has built the groundwork for future enhancements,” Eichten said. “It’s so nice to have a feature-rich platform where we can continue to build exciting new options into our rewards program that keep customers engaged and coming back for more.”

The Oracle CrowdTwist platform is built on the idea of gathering and leveraging first-party data through the use of a consumer self-service interface on the front end with advanced self-identification capabilities for loyalty program members, and various ways of customizing engagement to deeper the brand connection and make data more actionable.

TGI Fridays is offering loyalty members enough bonus points to earn a free entrée on their first purchase over $25 before June 12, 2023, it said, driving home the value of meal discounts.

That also aligns with PYMNTS research.

Delicious Discounts

According to “Connected Dining: Consumers Like the Taste of Discount Meals,” a PYMNTS report based on a survey of 1,825 U.S. consumers, consumer use of discounts for meals is 86% higher than it was last year. In February, 26% of consumers used a discount on their most recent purchase from a restaurant, compared to 14% who did so in March 2022.

While PYMNTS research found that 44% of aggregator users made more purchases via aggregators this year than last year — skewing toward Generation Z consumers (69%) and those annually earning more than $100,000 (48%) — there is a trend unfolding as more restaurants want to offer a new range of post-pandemic options and reduce their reliance on delivery aggregators to take more control of loyalty and accompanying data.

As PYMNTS reported, “Restaurant owners have a reason to pay attention to this development. As nearly three times as many consumers made their most recent food purchase through a first-party app than a third-party aggregator, at 13% and 5%, respectively, the details of why the most affluent and youngest consumers have kept engaged with aggregators and even increased their use could inform better first-party app design.”