Bakery-cafe chain revolutionizes loyalty program with ZS cloud-based solution
A leading American chain of bakery-cafe quick-service restaurants faced significant challenges with its loyalty program rewards engine. The proprietary system sat outside of its cloud environment and limited the marketing team’s visibility and control. Program management was ineffective and often led to irrelevant or unappealing customer rewards.
The challenge
The restaurant chain’s loyalty program was hindered by a lack of transparency and control due to its external proprietary execution. This setup severely restricted the marketing team’s ability to monitor program performance, make timely adjustments and ensure rewards resonated with customers. As a result, the loyalty program failed to effectively engage customers and drive desired behaviors.
The solution
ZS collaborated with the client to develop a custom loyalty program engine deployed within the client’s Google Cloud platform. This strategic move eliminated the legacy proprietary execution, providing full visibility and control. The new solution allowed ZS to enhance the algorithmic engine, focusing on key aspects such as:
- Predictive behavioral insights
- Budget optimization
- Customer experience enhancement
By leveraging Google Cloud’s robust infrastructure and advanced analytics, the new engine could process vast amounts of customer data in real-time, leading to more personalized and effective reward offerings.
The impact
Implementing the in-house loyalty program engine within the Google Cloud platform yielded significant benefits for the bakery-cafe chain:
- Increased control: The marketing team gained more control over impact levers, allowing for timely enhancements and optimizations.
- Data-driven decision making: The marketing team’s ability to conduct discount rate experiments informed their future strategic decisions.
- Financial impact: The optimized algorithm generated an estimated $11 million annual run-rate of incremental revenue and cost savings.
- Improved customer experience: More relevant and appealing rewards led to increased customer engagement and satisfaction.
A company representative said, “Our goal is to keep up with always-changing consumer behavior and to provide the most personalized guest experience possible. The work we’ve done with ZS has helped us accomplish this goal. Plus, it’s enabled us to move quicker and be more sophisticated with our data.” By partnering with ZS and leveraging Google Cloud, the bakery-cafe chain transformed its loyalty program from a proprietary system to a powerful, data-driven engine that drives both customer satisfaction and business growth.