Study Conducted by The Wise Marketer in Partnership with vLoyalty Highlights the Manual Nature of Many Loyalty Systems - "Quick to Serve, but Not All are Quick to Automate”
DALLAS, Tx. --(September 25, 2024)-- A recent study conducted by The Wise Marketer in collaboration with vLoyalty, a leading provider of loyalty automation solutions, has shed light on the current state of automation in quick-service restaurant (QSR) loyalty programs. Despite the sector’s rapid service model, many QSRs lag behind in automating essential loyalty program processes, including enrollment, tracking, reward redemption, and customer engagement.
The research utilized a secret shopper format, enlisting a team of field researchers with expertise in customer loyalty to visit 15 prominent QSR brands across five distinct geographic markets. This approach enabled the study to collect objective and actionable data, painting a clear picture of where QSRs excel—and where they fall short—in terms of loyalty program automation.
The study's findings underscore the need for improvement. While an ideal loyalty program should automatically prompt customers to join, track every transaction, seamlessly redeem rewards, and consistently engage customers, most current programs rely heavily on manual interactions. For example, only 6.1% of QSR counterpersons ask customers, “Are you in our loyalty program?” This manual process limits customer participation and engagement.
Additionally, the study reveals that 60.7% of QSR loyalty programs require a mobile app for enrollment, placing a barrier between customers and easy participation. Even more striking, only 8% of QSRs use payment terminals or point-of-sale systems to automatically prompt customers to join, missing a key opportunity to streamline enrollment.
According to the research, automating these interactions can significantly improve both the customer experience and loyalty program effectiveness. The study highlights that QSRs have much to gain from adopting automated loyalty solutions, especially in a fast-paced, high-volume environment.
Based on the findings of this research, The Wise Marketer and vLoyalty recommend that QSRs embrace a higher level of automation, improving not only loyalty program functionality but also customer satisfaction and engagement. For more information about the study or vLoyalty’s automation solutions, visit www.vLoyalty.com.
To download the study, please click here, "Quick to Serve, but Not All are Quick to Automate”
About vLoyalty:
vLoyalty’s patented technology combines the power of payments, card-linking loyalty and promotions, and text messaging to help companies easily enroll, engage, know, and reward customers, driving repeat visits and new sales. We believe in simple solutions that keep millions of consumers coming back over and over again.
Our patented cloud-based suite of vLoyalty solutions for large franchise enterprises, enables quick, easy and convenient loyalty program enrollment at the point-of-purchase, real-time access to historical purchasing data to optimize point-of-sale targeted offers, compliant SMS text messaging engagement to communicate with customers, all with seamless payments integration.
Founded in 2009, the company is privately held and headquartered in Dallas, Texas.
For more information about the study or vLoyalty’s automation solutions, visit www.vLoyalty.com.
Media Contacts:
Peter Vogel - peter@vloyalty.com
About the Wise Marketer Group
Wise Marketer Group (WMG) is an education, advisory, and media company serving as the trusted steward and advocate for the global customer loyalty marketing industry. WMG publishes TheWiseMarketer.com (TWM) as the global source of timely, authoritative, and well-informed content featuring news, research, and insights. TWM is known as the Global Voice of Customer Loyalty, having served the industry for over 15 years.
Loyalty Academy™ (loyaltyacademy.org) is owned and operated by WMG, providing a proprietary, practitioner-based, globally recognized loyalty marketing education curriculum through digital and in-person learning formats. The Loyalty Academy™ is the only source for earning the Certified Loyalty Marketing Professional™ (CLMP™) designation.
WMG Advisory & Research provides services to brands and providers in the loyalty industry through a trusted advisor approach, delivering executive and operational business consultation, market research and insights, partnership and vendor evaluation, employee recruitment, and M&A discovery.
For more information, visit:
The Wise Marketer
The Loyalty Academy
Media Contacts:
Aaron Dauphinee – aaron@thewisemarketer.com
Bill Hanifin – billh@thewisemarketer.com
