This article will cover everything you need to know about the Guest Journey feature. The purpose of Guest Journey is to show Restaurant Brands high-level data on where their customers fit into segments based on average check size, order frequency, and a variety of other data points.
The other key benefit that Guest Journey provides is that it's a powerful, machine learning-powered Churn Management Tool that helps restaurant brands get insights about guests that are going to churn. Not only can restaurants see this information, but they can then target these segments of guests with special Offers, Messages, Loyalty Offers, and Surveys to prevent them from ultimately churning and/or to win them back. Our platform will tag customers based on what segment they fall into on the spectrum so they can be targeted with Offers catered to their stage in the journey!
This article contains the following sections:
- Feature Overview: Guest Journey
- Guest Journey Segments
- Guest Journey Segments Graphs
- Guest Journey Exports
- Targeting Communications with Guest Journey
- FAQ
Feature Overview: Guest Journey
The Guest Journey feature aims to add insights about your customer base, and also add the ability to target each segment of the Guest Journey to prevent churn, retain customers, or push your customers to become regulars/loyalists. Guest Journey also adds two new types of targeting rules that can be used in any Message, Offer, Loyalty Offer, or Survey. They are called "Journey Stage" and "Attrition Risk".
The Guest Journey report shows a high level overview of each segment so restaurant brands can easily see which segment their customers falls on the Guest Journey. This view shows: Total Amount of Guests in each segment, Projected Annual Spend, Average Check, and Percentage of Revenue.
Guest Journey also can show a more detailed view by each segment that shows: Percentage of Revenue and User Count by location and by date range. This part of Guest Journey allows restaurant brands to compare locations to one another which can help them identify which locations are more effective at acquiring and/or retaining valuable customers.
Guest Journey Segments
The Guest Journey is broken into 7 different segments to show the difference between your customer base. Each Guest Journey segment is explained below:
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Strangers
- Guests that order without identifying themselves. Strangers become "Known" once they sign-up/create an account with your restaurant brand.
- Guests that order without identifying themselves. Strangers become "Known" once they sign-up/create an account with your restaurant brand.
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Rookies
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Rookies have created an account but haven’t yet established an ordering pattern. These guests have under 3 orders from your restaurant brand.
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Regulars
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Regulars have completed at least 3 orders and have a lower average order frequency. These guests order less than 1x a month.
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Loyalists
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Have completed at least 3 orders and have a higher average order frequency. These guests order more than 1x a month.
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Whales
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Whales are the guests that fall under the segment of "Regular" or "Loyalist" that spends 3x the average check value
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Sliders
- This segment uses a sophisticated algorithm that determines the guests that are likely to churn, before they churn. This means that the guest has ordered in the last 90 days but is on the path to eventually stop dining all together with your restaurant(s). Targeting this group with special promotions or "too good to pass up on promotions" is a good idea to stop them from completely churning and convert them back to being a Regular or a Loyalist.
- The way our algorithm works is by using 30 significant data points per customer in order to determine who is going to churn. This algorithm has proven to be 97% accurate in predicting who will churn.
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Note: This component leverages AI and Machine Learning
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Churned
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Churned guests have created an account, but haven’t returned in 90+ days. You should try to win them back, but your success rate will be lower than if you target and try to win back your Sliders.
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Guest Journey Segment Graphs
Each segment of the Guest Journey can be broken down to see a more detailed view. Every Guest Journey segment section will show a User Count graph and Percentage of Revenue graph. Both of these graphs will show changes in these segments over time.
Graph Functionality
The graphs on the detailed view of Guest Journey stages have the ability to:
- Filter Locations - Simply click on the locations above the graph to simply turn them on or off. This will either display the location's line on the graph or remove it from the graph
- Data Points - Hover over the data points on the graph to see the specific data for a specific date. Which ever data line you are hovering on will be highlighted in the data pop-up
- Filter Dates - Filter the date range you want the Guest Journey data displayed for to review trends over a certain period of time.
Guest Journey Exports
Historical Guest Joureny data can also be exported directly through the Guest Journey page in the admin portal.
After entering the timeframe that you would like to view data for, click Export. A CSV file will be generated for the specified timeframe and will automatically begin downloading.
This CSV contains a ton of information for operators to measure the efficacy of their marketing efforts over time. One of the most valuable insights that this report provides is the movement of guests across Journey Stages and Attrition Risks.
For example, using this report to identify the total number of Loyalist who became Sliders this week provides a great opportunity to target this segment of previously loyal guests with an offer and attempt to win back their business. This also provides insight into the efficacy of these marketing campaigns by providing the total number of recovered Sliders and Churned guests, and adjusting marketing efforts accordingly.
Targeting Communications with Guest Journey
Targeting is a big part of Guest Journey since the purpose of this tool is to prevent churn and increase revenue. Guest Journey automatically adds two new tag types that can be used to target certain customers. The two new tag types are: Attrition Risk & Journey Stage.
- Attrition Risk - Customers that fall in the Sliders or Churned segment
- Journey Stage - Customers that fall under the Rookies, Regulars, Loyalists, and Whales
Keep in mind, it is possible that some customers have both a Journey Stage AND an Attrition Risk associated with their account. For example, you can have a "Sliding Regular", which would be a Regular that is also a Slider****
We wanted to give Restaurant Brands the ability to send Offers, Messages, Loyalty Offers, and Surveys, and any other communication to their customers based off what stage they fall under. The ability to target customers based off their segment now means that you can send compelling Offers to Sliders to get them back in the door and prevent them from churning. You can send special promotions to Loyalists to thank them for their loyalty, Offers to rookies to help convert them into regulars, and much more. Keep in mind, you can stack these targeting rules with any of the other targeting rules available. For example, you can target regulars but then use the "Average Basket Value" rule as well to only target Regulars with an Average Basket Value over $10.
How to Send Communications Based on Guest Journey Segment
- Log in to the Incentivio Admin Portal
- Under the Marketing section, select the type of communication you want to send
- Create a new communication and fill out all of the required fields
- Under the "Who" section > "Targeting Rules," click on the "Rule" drop-down field
- On the drop-down list under the "Other" section, you will see two new tag types: Attrition Risk & Journey Stage
- If you want to target your Sliders and Churned customers, select Attrition Risk
- If you want to target your Rookies, Regulars, Loyalists, or Whales, select Journey Stage
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Keep in mind that you can target both of these groups. For example, if you want to limit the amount of discounts you give out, you can target customers who are "Loyalists" or "Whales" with an Attrition Risk of "Slider". This is a good way to make sure you continue to engage with and retain your most important customers!
- Once you select either Attrition Risk and/or Journey Stage, finish the conditional statement by selecting which segment you want to target.