innovation led to consistently higher visit how customer...

A Balance Grille success story: how customer experience innovation led to consistently higher visit frequency and revenuegrowth

Balance Grille Case Study

About Balance Grille Case Study

The Balance Grille Case Study won the award in the “Technology & Trends” category at 2018 Loyalty360 Awards in Orlando, Florida

Loyalty360 is the unbiased, objective, and market-driven association for customer loyalty, which seeks to enable and encourage dialogue among industry leaders.

Prakash KaramchandaniCo-Founder of Balance Grille

About Balance Grille

Fast Casual Asian-Fusion Restaurant 5th in Fast Casual TOP 100 Movers & Shakers list 2018

Balance Grille key focuses:

● Fresh, customizable, and clean dining

● Bringing a modern view to Asian cuisine

● Constantly innovating around customer

experience

Main challenge

How do we meet the demands of an evolving customer landscape and sustain strong growth in our business, all while staying true to our passion for high-quality, natural, and authentic cuisine?

How did we face the challenge?

72% of businesses say improving customer experience is their top priority

We started by developing a deep understanding of industry trends and our key customer demographic...

Insights gathered led to our main thesis

Launch a powerful mobile app with a full-scale customer experience that meets millennial demand in order to drive an increase in visit frequency, sales, and average check size

63% of marketers prioritize implementing technology investments that will help them reach this goal

Millennials, the smartphone generation, drive the market. By the year 2020, Millennials are predicted

to spend an incredible $1.4 trillion annually

How did we face the challenge? Our past experience: the 1st attempt

Starting point: the templated digital ordering app

Disadvantages: ● Only digital ordering ● Lacking in content and thus customer

connection (no social or viral mechanics = low penetration)

● Limited design customization● Limited functionality● No POS-integration, low speed of service

The result: We realized that digital ordering itself is just one piece of the puzzle and doesn’t provide real customer engagement

Starting point: the white-label app offered by our point-of-sale provider

Disadvantages:● No expertise in app development;

no proven track record → high risks● Major upfront investment, and

unpredictable ongoing costs

The result: high-cost project without tangible results; poorly organized execution; we never launched

How did we face the challenge? Our past experience: the 2nd attempt

Not much to show here because we never ended up launching it...

All-in-one mobile loyalty & ordering solution with constantly evolving features & modules and seamless POS integration

The idea of the perfect mobile solutionconsidering past mistakes

Partnership with a company that:

● provides expert guidance, marketing, and technical support

● is focused on business KPI improvement and has proven results

An app focused on emotional engagement, with an outstanding UX and personalization options

The all-in-one mobile app solution 3rd time's a charm!

White-labeled mobile appand CRM-system

1. Customer Success Manager2.

Technical Support 24/73.

Plenty of progressive features:4.

● Mobile bonus loyalty program

● Mobile ordering

● Customer behavioral analytics

● Referral program and social media promotion

● Mobile automation tools

● Targeted marketing campaigns

● Quality control system

The Balance Grille mobile app

steps to success9

Results achieved in the first 18 months

Less than 3%

Pickup orders

Pickup sales67%

Launching a cost-efficient sales channel through the mobile app

as % of all sales through the mobile app

32%

as % of all orders

Loyalty program expenseas % of total revenue

1

Creating high customer engagement with a bonus loyalty program2

Every 3rd customeruses the app

Active users

Sales penetration45%

share of sales connected to the mobile app

62%

% of app users who use the app every month

and receives personalizes app communication

~70

755

Increasing brand awarenesssocial media buzz about the app3

views

App recommendationsby loyal customers on social media over 18 months

of each recommendation post on social media

50,000+ Impressions from personalized recommendations

Converting social media marketing to in-store traffic

Susan HollandMarch 20

Have you been to Balance yet? Try a Bubble Tea for free by downloading their app!

24

4

+2.4%

New customers

App installations9+

from each recommendation

5+

from each recommendation

Average monthly revenuefrom referral program

Average monthly revenue

37%

share of customers who made an order thanks to campaign

Building personalized communicationwith targeted marketing campaigns

The Buy-one, Get-one campaign targeted at regular customers to increase their visit frequency

5

Conversion rate

Open rate79%

share of customers who opened the app to find out more

+2.1%

generated through the campaign focused on foot traffic increase

Conversion rate

Average monthly revenue

21%

share of customers who made an order thanks to campaign

Right time & place communicationwith marketing automation tools

Automated Birthday Greetings campaign

6

Open rate62%

share of customers who opened the app to find out more

+2.8%

generated through birthday greetings campaign

x 1.5 An average check increaseduring birthday greeting campaign

Conversion rate

Average monthly revenue

35%

returned customers who came back and made an order thanks to campaign

Retaining lapsed customer with Win-Back campaigns

Win-Back lost customers campaign targeted to lapsed customers to bring them back:

7

Open rate53%

share of customers who opened the app to find out more

+3.7%

generated through the campaign

Promoting new Balance Grille location:

Location open date: Thursday, May 10App users receive an official invite withQR code to access to an Early Invite Poll before the opening day.

New location and app promotion at the same time:

> 300 requests via the app during the promotion

28% conversion share of app users who showed up to the event into all users invited

8 Creating exclusive customer experiences with in-app news & offers

4+Detailed reviews per location a day +0.9% Monthly revenue

from retained customers

I’m angry! Want to speak up!

Standard flow

Unsatisfied customer left negative review on public web site

Will never go there again!

Balance Grille flow

Balance Grille manager got customer’s review in CRM-system

and sent push-message with compliment points

Wow, they actually care about me and made

some improvements! So cool!

9 Building a dialog with customers through a quality control system

Business results

Business results: users love us and our app

85%The balance grille mobile app NPS*

*NPS — key customer loyalty metric that reflects willing of customers to recommend the brand to their friends

According to an online survey of 750 guests

33%

Business results: converting occasional guests to regular guests

Heavy users (regular guests)3+ visits per month

Light users (occasional guests)1 visit per month75%

50%

25%

We were analyzing changing visit frequency by dividing all app users into 3 groups: Heavy users (3+ visits/month), Medium users (2 visits/month), Light users (1 visit/month). The chart below shows that the number of Heavy users is increasing while the number of Light users is decreasing. This is an excellent demonstration of the app’s effectiveness in creating true loyalty.

1st month

2nd 3rd 4th 5th1st month

2nd 3rd 4th 5th

75%

50%

25%

Share of customers who said they visit Balance Grille more because of the appAccording to an online survey of 750 guests

15% Heavy users share increaseThe share of guests who visit the restaurant 3+ times a month

Business results:average visit frequency increaseand average check growth

Year-over-Year average visit frequency increase per user

+43%Average visit frequency dynamics for app users (April 2017 - April 2018)

Average check growth

+17%

The average app user spends on average 17% more than a non-user

Business results: revenue growth

Comparison of revenue before and after mobile app launch

Revenue dynamics during 2017 (after mobile app launch)

Revenue dynamics during 2016 (before mobile app launch)

$

7%+Average YoYrevenue growth

Mobile project ROI per locationROI for Mobile app pilot project for was calculated after first 18 months after pilot launch using this formula:

Profit:Incremental marginal profit:

Investment:License fees and rewards (total):

ROI: 133.5%

$30,834 + $143,983

For 1 Balance Grille location:

ROI = ((Incremental marginal profit) - (License fees and COGS)) / (License fees and rewards)

Our happy customers and their feedback

Get in touch

Prakash Karamchandanico-Founder of Balance Grille

Email: prakash@balancegrille.com

Mobile apps that mean business

tel: +1 (347) 943-6134Email: sales@loyaltyplant.com

106 West 32nd St, 2nd Fl, office 113, New York, NY 10001

loyaltyplant.com

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