Busaba Eathai: Mobile technology is a powerful competitive advantage
The Thai restaurant group enlisted mobile payment and loyalty platform provider MyCheck to develop its mobile application, and revealed the impact of mobile technology on its business.
According the Busaba Eathai, MyCheck’s technology allowed customers to check-in, pay securely, split the bill and leave without waiting for the bill – as well as receive relevant offers and information – all from their smart device. Customers are able to choose from a wide range of payment options including PayPal.
The loyalty programme developed is called ‘The Path to Enlightenment’. The scheme uses gamification to engage customers with the brand and incentivise loyalty based on customer intelligence. Each visit is another step on the path, with increasingly valuable awards.
With visibility of customer transactions, preferences and return rates, Busaba said that it was able to trial campaigns and track results. It implemented a variety of different campaigns designed to gauge how best to boost customer engagement and loyalty.
A particularly successful campaign was centred on personalisation. After months of use Busaba had built up rich customer data based on earlier engagements. At one restaurant it identified the favorite menu item for each individual application user and informed customers that the next time they dined this dish would be complimentary.
The response rate had the redemption rate at 22.5%; four times the industry benchmark.
Six months from launch Busaba now has over 60,000 application registrations, with new registrations growing at an average of 230% per month. In January, Busaba was adding 1,000 new app users every day. Critically, these are highly active and engaged users, rather than customers who have simply downloaded the application and not transacted, which is a common issue. To date, 72% of registered users have used the application to check-in and pay for a meal.
Daily transactions from repeat users have been steadily increasing from launch. Initially repeat customers accounted for 19% of application users. This grew to 39% in January, and jumping to a staggering 68% in February.
According to the company, this growth is as a result of a sustained programme of innovative campaigns based on rich customer data designed to deliver genuine value.
