Those in the hotel, restaurant and professional service industry already know that it’s important to take care of your best customers. After all, these are repeat customers who are loyal to your brand. They not only frequent your business, but also help spread the word to family and friends about how amazing your business is. It’s important to provide these special customers with rewards, which is why you should think about investing in a loyalty program. In order to drive repeat purchases from your very best customers, a loyalty rewards program will help make them feel special, while retaining customers who love your brand. Studies have shown that a business will have a better ROI if they create loyalty programs for repeat customers than trying to acquire new customers.

Why Repeat Customers Matters

It turns out that trying to acquire new customers is costly. It’s about seven times more expensive to go out and attract new customers than trying to satisfy existing ones. You have to think about your outbound and traditional marketing, sales and development salaries, event marketing and so much more. But those costs decrease when your aim is repeat customers. Plus, existing customers are more likely to try new products or offers you provide them than new customers. If you focus on customer retention, you can increase your profits by 75%!

You already know what your customers want from you and like. In turn, they trust you and are more willing to spend their hard-earned money coming back to your restaurant, hotel and the like. The best way to do this is by investing in a multi-tiered rewards loyalty program using chatbots.

Why Rewards and Loyalty Programs Work

If you’re on the fence about loyalty programs, don’t be. They work! Just look at the many successful companies that use them. Starbucks has a hugely successful program that provides a lot of value for their customers, who keep coming back for more. They’re aware of how valuable repeat business is and want to make sure that revenue keeps coming in. They have more than 20 million members and that number just continues to grow and grow. In fact, it’s estimated that Starbucks earns about $5 billion just in their rewards card transactions every year! And that’s just from repeat customers.

To make their loyalty program work, they use a rewards card, where members must qualify for “Gold Status” to be able to get discounts on their repeat purchases. But they went the extra mile by creating a convenient program, allowing the rewards program to be accessed on smartphones 24/7. You can do the exact thing by utilizing new technology for your own loyalty and rewards program.

A huge trend right now for numerous industries is using Facebook Messenger. Everyone is on Facebook, so it only makes sense to use something that you’re already using in your marketing efforts!

What To Do To Create A Loyalty Program Using Facebook Messaging

The first thing you’ll want to do is sign up for Facebook Messenger. The app makes it easy to onboard customers into your loyalty and rewards program. You can have your customers sign-up for the program in various ways. One can be to have people send your Facebook business page a message on messenger using the word “rewards.” When they do that, the first message will segment them as either an Android or iPhone user. This is important since this will help you figure out what program to use –Zapier for either Android Wallet or Apple Wallet.

From there, you’ll want to get the user’s contact, which is really easy now that Facebook gives you those things based on their account info. So all the user needs to do is tap on their email address or phone number to provide them with bonus reward points for each step they undertake on Facebook Messenger.

This provides more incentive to give their information since many can be hesitant to give out things like their phone number.

Once you have all that info, you’ll be able to create their new rewards card! The Facebook chatbot will send a quick message alerting them that their card is being created and will be sent to them soon.

Using Zapier and ManyChat, both will handle all communications between your Facebook chatbot and Mobile Wallet. When done, the user will get a message alerting them that the rewards card has been created. They’ll just need to click on the link to transfer the rewards card to their Android or Apple Wallet and that’s it! All their information will automatically be transferred over and all they’ll need to do is install it to their phone by tapping on “Add.” They’ll now be able to access their rewards card inside their Mobile Wallet for added convenience!

So when they visit your restaurant or hotel, they’ll have their rewards card conveniently saved on their smartphone. But there’s more since they’ll be able to get push notifications when you publish new offers directly from their Mobile Wallet. Repeat customers are now more willing to visit your establishment whenever they see an offer that catches their eye. Plus, there are also features that allow them to share the offer with friends to earn more rewards points, benefiting them and you in the end.

But don’t just assume that your customers will know how to use their rewards card since some might not know how to properly use their Android or Apple Wallet. It’s important to send a message asking if they were able to successfully download the offer. If they reply they weren’t, you can then provide specific instructions on how to do so.

The best thing about this kind of rewards program for those in the restaurant, hotel or hospitality industry is how easy it is to use for all involved. You’ll also be able to utilize ManyChat to also send reminders, answer questions and communicate with customers. Using three tools – ManyChat, Mobile Wallet and Zapier – you’re be able to increase your ROI thanks to repeat customers using your innovative rewards program!

Why Messenger Marketing Works

Messenger marketing is becoming increasingly popular mainly because it uses Facebook, which is what everyone is already using daily. This means you’re connecting with customers on a platform that they’re already going to use regardless if they sign up for your program or not. Plus, messaging is how many communicate these days. People hardly pick up the phone for calls (especially for numbers they don’t recognize) and many just trash emails before opening them. Messenger is convenient because communication is private, instant and one-on-one.

Then combining Messenger with a custom rewards program will only incentivize customers to return to your business again and again. But the best part is that it doesn’t cost much and any business can use it – big or small. A huge chain restaurant or a small local one can easily create a rewards program using Messenger and the aforementioned apps!

Tips For Creating A Successful Messenger Marketing Loyalty Rewards Program

Now that you know how to create a messenger marketing loyalty rewards program, you’ll want to utilize it to its fullest in order to be successful. Here are some tips on how to make the rewards program enticing so that users will want to take advantage of the offers you post:

1. Have a few offers that are available immediately

In order to get people in the door of your hotel or restaurant, create a few offers that are available immediately. They don’t have to be huge discounts. Things like a free appetizer or even a small discount on certain days for a hotel will suffice. The goal here is to get people interested in the offer so that they’ll want to use it in the near future. Don’t forget to put an end date so that users know it’s only available for a limited time.

2. Create A Wide Range Of Offers

It’s recommended that you create a wide range of offers that will appeal to different types of customers. This way, you’ll get users with different interests claiming your offers. So if you’re a restaurant you might provide offers on drinks, kids meals and vegetarian entrees in addition to your popular meat-based entrees. Or if you’re a hotel, you can offer discounts for summer break for families or provide holiday offers for those looking for something special when celebrating holidays like Valentine’s Day and the like.

3. Have One Premium Offer

Besides all kinds of smaller offers, it’s wise to have one premium offer that will require a lot of reward points. This is especially helpful for hotels looking to book rooms in the off-season. This will convince people to continue to come back numerous times to be able to cash in on that one premium offer. These premium offers will provide more repeat business, allowing you to satisfy the needs of customers while also increasing your bottom line!

4. Always Keep The Holidays In Mind

Always do fun things and create offers around the holidays. People love festive things so making special holiday-themed dishes or offering discounted stays during the holidays will get users excited to use offers you provide them in the loyalty program.

5. Rewards For Feedback

Offer rewards for feedback on Yelp, Facebook or other sites that they can review your venue on. This will help build a positive reputation surrounding your business while also bringing in repeat customers.

A huge reason why loyalty rewards programs are so popular is the gamification aspect to it. Once users start to collect more and more points, they’ll feel more inclined to reach the ultimate prize in order to feel as if they won! If you continue offering big rewards, they’ll continue “playing” and frequenting your business to earn more points. Besides having them come back to your business, they’ll also have fun doing it, making it a win-win for all!

Other Things You Can Do With A Loyalty Program Through Messenger

There’s much more that you can do with a loyalty program that utilizes Messenger. For starters, you’ll be able to collect their email addresses and then send other offers and info via email. Although people don’t always open emails, it’s still an easy marketing strategy to utilize. You’ll also be able to send users broadcast messages with the latest promotions and offerings. Besides messages, you’ll also be able to send images, audio and videos, providing a more enriched experience for users!

Restaurants and hotels will also be able to take bookings and connect them to any third-party apps used for reservations. This saves the customer time and allows you to sync reservations between the platforms.

But a loyalty program is only as good as the awareness surrounding it. You’ll want to drive users to the program and make sure they know that it’s there. You can easily create both offline and online promotions to promote. Create signs around the venue, especially at registers or the front desk where people frequent. Create special notices on menus and signage around the venue.

Don’t forget to use your social media channels to announce the reward program, with constant updates on various offers so that followers are always in the know of how they’ll benefit when they sign up. You’ll also want to publish the information on your website. To make it more exciting for users, create videos showing how the program works or create videos that show how to correctly sign up for the program. Also, use a link that will go directly to the messenger bot when clicked.

Messenger’s built-in audience makes it an ideal way to engage loyal customers with new offers that’ll keep them going back to your hotel or restaurant. Today’s customer loyalty rewards programs are nothing like those of the past. Long gone are punch card offers or mailers. Instead, they’re completely digital and easier than ever to use!