Upscale pizza chain Patxi’s Pizza’s began leveraging a new mobile loyalty program earlier this year, resulting in a 30 percent increase in check orders from the brand’s active loyalty members.

Patxi’s Pizza has amassed 3,000 sign-ups since beginning to build up its mobile and loyalty efforts in February with roughly half of the members qualifying as active users, meaning that they come into a Patxi’s Pizza restaurant once every three months. Paxti’s Pizza is working with Thanx on its mobile loyalty efforts.

“What we’ve seen with those active members is they’re coming in more frequently, about 30 percent more quickly than they were in the past,” said Jordana Heinke, marketing manager at Patxi’s Pizza, San Francisco. “We’ve also seen their average check go up, as well, by about 30 percent.

“Frequency of visits and spending are higher, and I think that goes back to the whole idea of loyalty for a brand is not about a discount, it’s not attracting the type of customer that says, ‘Oh I really want a discount,’” she said. “It’s attracting a customer who loves and wants to engage with our brand and simply feels validated when they do so.”

Building loyalty
Thanx is a mobile app that links with a debit or credit card to let consumers pay for goods and services at merchants. In exchange, consumers receive rewards and points that are specific to the stores.

The app tracks a consumer’s progress and how many rewards they can earn. Additionally, there is a feedback section that lets consumers provide feedback to merchants.

Before beginning the roll-out of Thanx earlier this year, Patxi’s Pizza did not have a loyalty program.

The chain promotes Thanx in-store with calls-to-actions in billfolds, so consumers see it right before they pay their bill. Additionally, it is promoted on on the company’s Web site.

Patxi’s Pizza has also experimented with changing up the rewards that it offers to hone in on specific groups of consumers.

For example, the brand launched the loyalty program with an offer for $1 off of a beer or a free fountain drink to incentivize consumers to sign-up.

After four to five months, the restaurant decided to up the initial reward with an offer for half off of an appetizer, which caused a spike in sign-ups because it was a higher-value offer.

Additionally, consumers unlock a $10 kickback when they spend $170 at Patxi’s Pizza. This amount shows up automatically in a consumer’s bank statement.

Organic casual restaurant Mixt Greens is also using Thanx with the brand citing data as one of the primary reasons in using mobile loyalty to get a better understanding on how consumers are visiting the locations.

“For the first time, I get to use loyalty for CRM systems,” said David Silverglide, CEO of Mixt Greens, San Francisco. “Now we can learn a lot more about our customers and provide a better experience for them, and they don’t have to carry a card with them.”

Another screenshot of the Thanx app

Driving check-ins?
Besides Thanx, Patxi’s Pizza also rewards check-ins on Yelp, Facebook and Twitter and is hoping to launch a branded app in 2014.

To target a smaller group of loyalty members, Patxi’s Pizza rolled out a very important person program in October. The program targets approximately 50 loyal customers.

These VIP members receive buy one get one free offers on beer, resulting in a 22 percent increase in check orders.

“We tailor the reward around the idea of, ‘Let’s get our best customers to bring their friends into Patxi’s,’” Ms. Heinke said. “Let’s have them recommend their friends who have never tried Paxti’s, so we’ve already got these guys [the loyalty members] – they love us, let’s get some more.”

Final Take
Lauren Johnson is associate reporter on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York