The Problem
There’s only three ways to move the needle on revenue for a QSR: find new customers, increase the visit frequency of your existing customers, or increase the amount your customers are spending per sale. It’s easier to keep an existing customer than it is to make a new one, so Smashburger, the national better burger restaurant known for its fresh, smashed to order burgers, sought a way to increase visit frequency and spend with proven, quantifiable ROI. In their initial launch with Mobivity, they found just that – a measurable way to bring their customers back more often, and to get them to spend more on each visit.
The Approach
Smashburger implemented Mobivity’s Unified Messaging platform, allowing them to capture basket-level POS data and transform the printed receipt into a dynamic communications medium with To-Go Bag Messaging, across 190 of its corporate-owned locations during the initial pilot. The initial roll out lasted 45 days and functioned as a test to demonstrate how Mobivity To-Go Bag Messaging could have a meaningful impact on the business.
The Results
The results speak for themselves as consumers who redeemed the printed coupons returned on average every 8 days, more than seven times more frequently than those that didn’t utilize the offers.
This increased customer visit frequency resulted in $200,000 in attributable revenue for Smashburger during the pilot. In just 45 days, participating Smashburger restaurants printed over 1.2 million coupon-enhanced messages which drove more than 15,000 redemptions. More importantly, the average ticket, or total purchase amount, for returning customers was $3.51 above average, an increase of roughly 21%; evidence that these consumers were actually spending more while being rewarded for their loyalty to Smashburger.
“Mobivity enables us to communicate and engage the modern customer in a relevant and effective way, and the data insights we get help inform a wide variety of business decisions; but the most important thing is getting results; and so far, we’re thrilled with the financial results for our business.”
The rise in frequency and engagement proved to be so remarkable that the chain moved to deploy Mobivity’s program post-pilot across the rest of their more than 330 locations in the US. Tom Ryan, Founder and CEO of Smashburger, had the following to say: “Smashburger started because we believe people want a better burger experience, and we can deliver. That experience doesn’t end with the taste of our burgers, it extends to the entire customer experience. Mobivity enables us to communicate and engage the modern customer in a relevant and effective way, and the data insights we get help inform a wide variety of business decisions; but the most important thing is getting results; and so far, we’re thrilled with customer response to the printed coupons and the financial results for our business.”