Faced with two distinct but loyal sets of customers, modern Rio street food group, Cabana, teamed up with Europe’s leading CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and loyalty provider, Coniq, to launch the Cabana Club, a new loyalty programme that enhances the customer experience and increases brand engagement.
One year on, and the programme has attracted more than 16,000 Cabana Club members and seen the company’s database grow to 56,000, allowing the restaurant group to better communicate with its customers with tailored communications based on how they interact with the brand. As a result, more than 13,000 offers have been redeemed and repeat visits to its 11 restaurants across the UK have increased, with 30% of Club members scanning their card more than once.
Cabana launched in 2011 with the concurrent opening of two restaurants in London’s Westfield Stratford and Central Saint Giles developments, and quickly developed a reputation for its relaxed South American dining concept.
Now, with 11 restaurants, Cabana has enjoyed rapid growth and developed two loyal target audience groups. One audience that is physically loyal, frequently dining in the restaurants but not interacting digitally with the brand; the other who is emotionally loyal and highly engaged on Cabana’s digital channels, yet proved difficult to convert into diners.
“One of our key objectives,” explains Lizzy Barber, Head of Marketing at Cabana, “was to bring the two groups together and bridge the challenges of communication and conversion in a way that complimented our ethos of surprising and delighting our customers. A loyalty programme seemed the perfect way to develop the insight we needed while remaining true to the Cabana philosophy.”
Cabana had already used Coniq’s CRM system since 2012 to regularly communicate with customers via email, providing real-time visibility of the results and performance for each of its promotions. Cabana Club, the data-driven loyalty programme delivered by Coniq, was designed to utilise Cabana’s CRM system to provide even more invaluable insights into its customers and better personalise the marketing and customer experience for Cabana’s varied customer groups.
By rewarding Cabana’s most loyal customers, the scheme incentivises existing customers and recruits new members to the Cabana Club Card, whether they are regular diners or those who engage regularly on social media. The scheme uses a built-in automated communication programme, which sends a monthly changing reward to members, reflecting seasonal and cultural events. Rewards are redeemable all month long, meaning every time a Cabana Club member visits one of its restaurants they are rewarded. This has enabled Cabana to better understand the customers visiting its restaurants by tracking their journey – from online and mobile channels – using unique tracking codes.
Lizzy adds: “The success of the Cabana Club is thanks to its appeal to our customers, as well as how easy it is to use by both customers and staff. To be able to track our patrons, from when they first connect with the Club through their journey to becoming our most loyal ambassadors, is hugely valuable and will support the Cabana Group brand’s ongoing growth strategy.”
The loyalty programme has been so successful that Coniq has now reinvigorated the Cabana Club, with the launch of a digital card, the migration of Cabana’s entire database to the Club and introduction of a tiered rewards programme that segments the restaurant’s most loyal customers across its channels. This means that rather than a ‘one size fits all approach’, which sees one monthly offer available to all Club members, rewards are tiered, so the more customers spend, the more incentives they unlock, further encouraging repeat visits.
Ben Chesser, founder and CEO of Coniq, said: “We are delighted with the results of the Cabana Club so far – it has measurably increased engagement with the brand, resulting in 6,000 ‘welcome offer’ redemptions and 30% of members becoming repeat visitors.
“However, to keep engagement levels high, it is important to evolve the scheme. With many brands and retailers operating a ‘digital first’ loyalty scheme, going digital will mean programme members can connect to the club at any time. And, by moving away from fixed month-long offers to a tiered reward system, customers are encouraged to climb up the loyalty ladder as they seek to unlock more rewards. This, in turn, will give us actionable data to help Cabana enhance its marketing and customer engagement across all relevant channels.”
