Menulog has a variety of approaches to deliver value to members and thereby engender loyalty.

And according to their market research, their formal loyalty program is the least effective of all their methods.

As a result, they’ve this week announced they’ll be throwing their loyalty program out with the potato peels and left-over vege lasagne.

Menulog offers three types of specials to reward customers:

• The Restaurant Loyalty Program, which offers a free meal after a designated number of purchases at the same participating restaurant.
• The First Time Customer Discount, which offers a ‘percentage off’ whenever a customer tries a new participating restaurant on Menulog.
• Restaurant Meal Deals & Free Items, which are special offers on individual restaurant menus.

Their research identified customers value First Time Customer Discounts and Meal Deals & Free Items over the Restaurant Loyalty Program. Their analytics indicated 15 times as many Menuloggers have used a First Time Customer Discount than those who have redeemed a loyalty offer.

What’s the key loyalty lesson here? Menuloggers appear to value instant gratification over the opportunity to accumulate credit towards a longer-term, higher-value reward by being loyal to a particular restaurant. This isn’t surprising, considering Menulog prides itself on access to over 8,000 restaurants. Why stick with one?

Menulog will phase out the Restaurant Loyalty Program by October 2017.

Philip Shelper is a specialist loyalty consultant based in Sydney, Australia who obsesses about everything to do with loyalty and rewards. His company Loyalty & Reward Co are a leading loyalty consulting firm.

Let’s connect! https://au.linkedin.com/in/philipshelper