No industry understands the value of loyalty like the hospitality sector, particularly for beverage sellers. Consider this: bars depend on their customers’ use of them as a second home. But given that most customers place their orders online or through mobile device, how can this possible apply to the world of e-commerce? I’ll use Beer Tokens, Beer Hawk’s omnichannel loyalty programme, as an example to demonstrate the approach.

The Difficulty of Creating a Community

In the food and beverage sector, frequent transactions with a modest average basket value are common. Due to the fierce competition that has resulted, firms must do all possible to persuade consumers to become loyal customers.

Building a solid foundation for a long-term commitment requires making a memorable initial impression, but businesses must maintain members’ interest with a strategy that rewards all forms of brand engagement – not just purchases – or customers will eventually run for the hills.

I’ll use the Beer Hawk loyalty programme as an example to show how effective this strategy is. Along with smoothly integrating its online and offline businesses, the business has also included cutting-edge services to engage its audience.

An incentive scheme for fans of beer
To ensure that every consumer has the same enjoyable experience, Beer Hawk set out to close the gap between its online and physical locations. The plan was to expand on its current Beer Tokens programme and make it an all-encompassing omnichannel solution that could recognise loyal customers online and in their pubs.

The modular environment that allowed them to recognise client interactions in many ways was one of the craft beer retailer’s other aims. Finally, Beer Hawk wanted to create a programme that was adaptable enough to link with their marketing automation tool and e-commerce platform, Magento.

Therefore, the following was the Beer Hawk loyalty programme check list:

Put an end to transactions
Adopt an omnichannel approach.
Using loyalty data, improve email performance

Solution #1 for Beer Tokens: Loyalty Mechanisms Beyond Transactions

An introduction programme with a long range of features was launched by Beer Hawk. Beer Tokens, a unique point-based currency that appeals to the company’s target market, are used in the loyalty programme.

Customers were initially rewarded for both transactions and non-transactional actions:

One Beer Token can be obtained for each £1 spent (in person or online).
A certain number of Beer Tokens are awarded for purchases, friend recommendations, reviews, and empty draught keg returns.

For every Beer Token, a £0.05 discount is applied to the following purchase.
This strategy is distinctive because it doesn’t merely concentrate on rewarding sales transactions. Beer Hawk has been successful in motivating customers to interact in ways that are beneficial to their company by including cutting-edge components into the loyalty programme, such as friend referrals, submitting reviews, and paying customers for returning their empty kegs.

A loyalty programme with seamless omnichannel functionality is Beer Tokens Solution #2.

A loyalty programme was required by Beer Hawk so that customers could acquire Beer Tokens for both online and offline purchases.

The newly formed loyalty account is linked to the customer’s Epos Now profile thanks to Antavo’s integration with Beer Hawk’s POS system.
Participants receive a mobile pass, which can be downloaded and saved in Google Wallet or Apple Pay, or a digital loyalty card as a barcode in the loyalty section of their beerhawk.com profile. Members can now earn Beer Tokens with their orders at the bar by using their digital loyalty cards.

Digital loyalty cards, which work similarly to conventional cards but are always in your pocket or bag, are a way for businesses to identify their clients in the twenty-first century. You can stack several digital coupons together under one loyalty card, and these can be updated in real time (that is, whenever your account balance changes).

Building a Flexible Loyalty Platform that Supports Other Technologies is Beer Tokens Solution #3.

The marketing automation tool and e-commerce platform used by Beer Hawk needs to seamlessly interface with the loyalty platform:

Customers can access both programmes with a single sign-on because Beer Hawk’s Magento website incorporates the loyalty interface.
Antavo was linked with dotdigital, Beer Hawk’s marketing automation platform. Beer Hawk’s dotdigital account receives real-time pushes of all customer loyalty data, including loyalty status, transactions, and available Beer Tokens, enabling the company to power its email campaigns with relevant and targeted content.

Use Case: Using POS Integration to Reward In-Store Purchases

Customers can have the same experience regardless of where they purchase their beer thanks to the integration of online and offline channels, which stores in-store and online purchase history in one location.

Following registration, the new member of the loyalty programme is given a barcode that correlates to their Loyalty ID. On the Loyalty Page of Beer Hawk’s website, the barcode is visible.
On their smartphone, the customer downloads the mobile pass format of the digital loyalty card. The same technology is employed by airlines to offer smartphone boarding permits.
The patron opens the mobile loyalty pass, which the bartender scans when they enter a Beer Hawk establishment and place an order for a drink.

Epos Now searches for the matching member profile because the barcode contains the customer’s Loyalty ID. Customers now have the chance to use their tokens in exchange for a discount on their order.
Following the transaction, Epos Now provides Antavo the transaction information along with the customer’s loyalty ID. Beer Tokens are accurately calculated, applied to the customer’s balance in real-time, and shown right away on their account.