Loyalty Reimagined: Turning Trends Into Local Growth — Highlights from ReImagine with PAR | Punchh

Why Loyalty Needs a Rethink (Now)

Punchh powers loyalty for hundreds of leading restaurant brands across tens of thousands of locations, from Taco Bell and Wendy’s to Papa John’s and Denny’s, touching billions of transactions annually. With that scale comes a clear signal: consumer expectations have shifted.

• App fatigue is real. Gen Z (and frankly most of us) won’t jump through hoops to join.

• Transactions must feel emotional. Discounts help, but connection keeps people coming back.

• Data in motion wins. AI only matters when it turns signals into timely, human moments.

• Omnichannel isn’t optional. Your customers move fluidly across social, search, inbox, text, and in-store; your brand needs to move with them.

Five Loyalty Trends You Should Act On

1) Frictionless Loyalty: Join Anywhere, Engage Everywhere

What’s changing: “App-less” and wallet-pass experiences let guests join with a phone number or QR. No downloads, no friction.
Why it matters: Lower friction → higher participation → faster remarketing.
Proof: In a recent app-less launch, Punchh saw +111% new member growth, 2.4× lift in participation, and 48% repeat purchases within seven months.
Local play: Put QR and “text-to-join” everywhere, drive-thru, tables, receipts, social bios, and Google Business Profiles.

2) Messaging Is the New Loyalty Channel (SMS → RCS)

What’s changing: Brands are evolving from basic SMS to RCS for richer, tappable offers and interactive flows.
Why it matters: Text remains the fastest path to action. Many brands see very high open rates and double-digit offer redemptions when messages are timely and personal.
Local play: Start simple: 1–2 geo-aware texts/month tied to local inventory, weather, or events. Pilot RCS where carrier/device support is strong.

3) AI-Driven Personalization (Beyond Segments)

What’s changing: AI predicts what each guest wants next, not just who they belong to.
Why it matters: Brands using predictive offers see meaningful lifts in average check and repeat visits, while reducing churn with smarter nudges (not just bigger discounts).
Local play: Feed the model with clean store-level data (hours, inventory, dayparts) and customer signals (visit recency, product affinities) to tailor messages by market.

4) Own Your Audience (First-Party Data or Bust)

What’s changing: Third-party marketplaces make ordering convenient, but they own the customer.
Why it matters: First-party loyalty data powers better targeting, cheaper reacquisition, and compounding ROI over time.
What winning brands do: Unify first-party data, prioritize direct ordering, and use loyalty to enrich profiles with preferences and behaviors.
Local play: Make first-party the best experience (perks, speed, exclusives), then promote the switch at the store level and across social.

5) Build Advocacy with Status, Badges, and Belonging

What’s changing: The next wave of loyalty taps status cues (tiers, badges, experiences), not just points.
Why it matters: The top 20% of customers often drive ~80% of revenue. Programs that recognize top fans see higher retention and ~3× business versus no-tier baselines.
Local play: Add city-specific badges, neighborhood challenges, or VIP pick-up lanes. Celebrate milestones (join date, lifetime visit #10, first family order) with personal notes—not only offers.

SOCi x Punchh: Make Every Local Moment Work Harder

Loyalty, social, and local should amplify one another:

• Listings & hours in SOCi feed consistent, store-level context into loyalty messages (e.g., weather closures, early openings).

• Reviews captured at check-in via Punchh can route back to SOCi for a single respond-anywhere workflow.

• Local social + loyalty: promote geo-specific perks, QR “join” moments, and member-only events—all from a unified calendar.

This is how you turn identity → intent → action → advocacy, across channels and at scale.

A Quick Playbook for Multi-Location Teams

1. Remove Join Friction
   • Enable text-to-join and wallet passes.

   • Place QR codes at every high-traffic touchpoint.

2. Send Two Great Texts Before Ten OK Ones
   • Start with one “come now” offer and one milestone message per month.

   • Add simple geo/wx triggers (e.g., “rainy-day bowls, ready in 10”).

3. Feed the AI, Don’t Fight It
   • Pipe in clean store data and guest behaviors.

   • Let the model suppress discounts when a thank-you note will do.

4. Shift to First-Party
   • Incentivize direct ordering with member-only access and speed.

   • Use onsite modals and receipts to capture phone numbers in the moment.

5. Design for Advocacy
   • Launch tiers or badges and celebrate micro-wins (no offer required).

   • Give top fans local-first drops or VIP lines to make status visible.

Final Thoughts

Loyalty is graduating from a discount engine to a relationship engine. The brands winning 2026 will wire loyalty intelligence into every local moment personalization that feels human, automation that feels timely, and creativity that makes members proud to belong.

Want help operationalizing this across locations? SOCi and PAR | Punchh can plug loyalty, social, and local into one practical motion so every store can act like your best store.