Loyalty
How Restaurant Loyalty and Guest Data Work Together
Loyalty and guest data are two sides of one exchange: the guest joins to be recognised and rewarded, and every visit they record tells the restaurant who comes back, how often and what they order. Used well, that record lets you reward the right guests, notice who has stopped coming and send fewer, better messages. Used badly, it turns a thank-you into surveillance.
What a loyalty programme records
| Data | Question it answers |
|---|---|
| Join date | How long has this guest been with you? |
| Visits and orders | How often do they come, and has that changed? |
| Spend | Who are your most valuable regulars? |
| Points and redemptions | Are the rewards attractive, or ignored? |
| Favourite dishes | What should you tell them about — and never take off the menu without warning? |
Turning records into decisions
- Notice absence: a regular who has not visited for a month is worth a personal invitation more than a new guest is worth an advert.
- Reward frequency, not only spend, if your venue lives on daily regulars.
- Check redemptions: if few members ever redeem, the rewards are too far away or not wanted.
- Look at members' favourite dishes before changing a recipe or removing a dish.
- Compare members with non-members carefully: members may visit more because they already liked you, not because of the points.
Segments that are worth having
- New members — to welcome, once.
- Frequent guests — to thank, and to ask for honest feedback.
- Guests away for a while — to invite back.
- Guests with a clear favourite — to tell when that dish changes or returns.
Keep the list short. Four segments you actually use beat twenty you never look at.
Consent and restraint
- Joining the loyalty programme and agreeing to receive marketing are separate choices; ask for each.
- Collect only what the programme needs.
- Tell members what you record and why, and let them leave easily.
- Do not message a guest because the data says you can; message them because it helps them.
The rules on collecting and using guest data: first-party guest data for restaurants.
Loyalty and guest data in Thmenu
In Thmenu, guests join the loyalty programme from the menu and earn points automatically when they order through it; staff can also adjust points. Members move up tiers as their lifetime points grow, redeem the rewards you define, and unused points expire after a year. Loyalty members appear in the Customer Profiles list with their visits, spend and points, and segments such as loyalty member, frequent, away for 30 days or more and has a favourite dish are worked out from your own orders, reservations and loyalty records. Email campaigns can go to one segment, and only to addresses that subscribed.