Coffee Shop Loyalty Programs that Customers actually want
No, I don't want another app...
Before we start with what I think customers want, let’s see if we agree on what customers don’t want.
They don’t want another app...
We have too many apps. We really, really, really don’t need another app. I once ran out of data, working in a coffee shop. Vodacom’s app was down, so I had no other choice but to leech off the coffee shop wifi. But the wifi password wasn’t displayed anywhere. I went and ordered another Flat White and sheepishly asked the cashier for the wifi password. “Oh, yeah, you need to download our app, it is in there…” Bit hard to download an app, when you don’t have data, but ok, not to worry. Finished my coffee, packed up and went to the office. When I got to the office, I did download the app, and it required me to register. It not only wanted my name, date of birth, and email; it also wanted me to fill in a little questionnaire. By now, I was in too deep, after what felt like typing in War and Peace into a mobile, I eventually got inside the app. The app just showed me where the shop was, how I can email them, and that if I want the wifi password, I should just show this app to the cashier, who will then give me the password. The mental health institution, where I spent the next six months, had the worst coffee.
They don’t want to scan your QR code...
Just stop it with this stuff. Nobody likes them. I am here to get a coffee, not spend five minutes trying to zoom into your badly printed QR code that will inevitably lead me to a website that was designed primarily for someone using a 40-inch Ultra-Wide monitor. Just stop.
They don’t want another card in their wallet...
I already have my SmartShopper, my Sixty60, my Woolies and Spar cards. I keep the BP card in my car, but you have to take your SmartShopper card out, to use the BP one (No, I don’t know why), and when I forget to put it back in my wallet, the PnP cashier hits me with a wooden bat. I just don’t have the mental capacity to have another card in my wallet.
They don’t want to register for things...
I know all my baristas by their first name. I know at least one non-coffee hobby they have. They know I drink a Flat White. There is a nice equilibrium there, we know each other, but they don’t know that because I started using the internet at age 18, (when it started), that my email is hotshot75@hotmail.com. It isn’t that, but it is still embarrassing. And as an adult, I spend too much time registering for things. You can be registered at a bank, they have your money, and they will still make you register again, just because you have the audacity to ask for a secondary card. The other thing is privacy. Why must I give you my email, and tell you where I like to buy soap, just so I can buy coffee from you. I don’t want to share more than I want to. And there are people who don’t mind, but they also don’t want to spend the time doing it. My surname is Van Loggerenbergenheisenstein, I have already spent half my life just filling in forms. Make it stop.
They don’t want to be on an email chain....
Recent studies show that the average human, get approximately 275 million emails every single hour. There is no study, I made that up; but it does feel like that, doesn’t it? I don’t get to the emails that I have to, there is an almost zero percent chance that I will get get to your weekly coffee shop email, and give it the time and attention, that you feel it deserves. Stick to Instagram. We will find you there, when I am doom-scrolling on my phone, while watching The Night Manager.
Ok, that is more ranting than usual. So let’s look at what I think customers actually want. Spoiler alert, yes, we have built it already. We call it 10Cups. It based on the following concepts:
We almost always drink the same coffee.
The way we pay for things, depends on what we are buying.
We like skipping the queue.
So here is how 10Cups work. You ask your cashier for a 10Cups sticker. It is a NFC sticker that you stick on any non-metal part of your travel mug. The cashier links that sticker to your first name, or if you want, a cool Coffee Hero name. I go by: Night Grinder. They also say that you like a Flat White, with dairy milk. Then I recharge my 10Cups by paying ahead, for 10 Flat Whites. That is it.
So next time, I can walk in all smug and all-knowing. I walk up to the barista, not stand in the queue like a peasant, and hand them my mug. They tap it on a reader, and it says: “Night Grinder would like a Flat White.” It will show them that I have 10 coffees left, they simply tap to redeem one, and make the coffee.
No paying, no standing in queues, no apps, no QR codes, no extra card in my wallet, didn’t have to register for anything, and I won’t be getting any emails.
You see, we have been brainwashed into thinking that loyalty are these horrible forms of torture, called “Programs”. They are not. Loyalty is making your customer buy from you again. What we did with 10Cups, is to make it easier for your customers to buy from you. When you are late but you still need a coffee first, using 10Cups will seem like a life-saver.
10Cups is more “How are you?” and less “Flat White, please”
Fuck Generic!
Will