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The Greene Turtle, a 37-unit sports bar and grille chain with locations in Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and New York wants to spark greater customer engagement and brand loyalty through new loyalty and game apps available on Android and iOS platforms.
Paytronix Systems, Inc., a leading provider of reward program solutions to restaurants and retailers, has integrated the GAMESCAPE mobile games platform with the Paytronix Rewards platform to deliver a comprehensive mobile loyalty and game app solution to The Greene Turtle.
Nick Kegg, Marketing Director, The Greene Turtle, participated in an interview with Loyalty360 to discuss the new program.
What factors prompted your company to implement this combined and comprehensive mobile loyalty and game app solution?
Originally, we were looking at using parlay cards, but we felt that was too suggestive of gambling, which is not what we’re doing. Also, there is so much technology out there that we wanted to incorporate it into our loyalty program to be more with the times and in sync with our customer demographic. While we were attending the National Restaurant Association conference, we came across GAMESCAPE and it was easy to connect the dots to see how their product could be integrated into our plan so we began that process. Technology is changing and growing so much and we felt this would give us a way to create something now that would be sustainable, since we will be able to update our offerings as time and technology preferences and capabilities demand. We have succeeded in creating a way to have more interaction with our regular guests whether they’re at the beach, in their 
basements watching a game, in their office, or in our restaurants. That extends our brand and our connection to our guests far beyond the walls of our restaurants, while simultaneously encouraging them to come visit us often.
basements watching a game, in their office, or in our restaurants. That extends our brand and our connection to our guests far beyond the walls of our restaurants, while simultaneously encouraging them to come visit us often.
How does it work and how do you hope this will impact the customer experience?
It’s very simple. Just download The Greene Turtle Rewards App, register for a Rewards account and hit “Play Games.” Right now we have three different games to play for any sports that are on. The idea is that this engages our guests and motivates them to take an interest in sports they wouldn’t normally care about and games they wouldn’t normally watch. It gets them tied more to teams and cheering in the restaurants more than they normally would. It also elevates our sports theme, making us the ultimate sports destination. On one hand, it reaches out to a segment of our overall customer base - the die-hard sports fans - but it also could be an enticement for others who aren’t as actively engaged in following sports to get more engaged and consider us a part of that engagement.
How will this spark greater customer engagement?
It gets our guests using our app for more than checking their rewards and finding the nearest Greene Turtle. It gets our brand exposed to their everyday lives and extends the duration of the time they’re engaging with our brand.
Michelle Tempesta, Director of Marketing for Paytronix, offered some enlightening comments to Loyalty360 about this partnership.
How does the integration of the GAMESCAPE mobile games platform with the Paytronix Rewards platform enhance the customer experience?
Customers gravitate toward brand personas that mirror their own. In this case, The Greene Turtle has found a way to extend the in-restaurant sports fanatic brand persona to the mobile device. In essence, its guests can now enjoy sports experiences in a new and exciting way, while earning rewards in real time that will compel them to visit The Greene Turtle repeatedly. Guests are performing their natural behavior of being avid sports fans, but are now being rewarded for their engagement.
How do you define Customer Loyalty and has that definition evolved in recent years?
The definition of customer loyalty has not changed. Brands will always need to build an emotional connection with their customers. What has changed are the tools in which marketers use to develop those relationships. POS-integrated loyalty systems that minimize the effort the guest has to put forth to participate in a program and the amount of real-time behavior data available today have sparked a fire within marketing communities that enables them to deliver more relevant, timely content to their guests. In fact, the mobile device has introduced the use of location to deliver relevance in that loyalty-building endeavor. For example, marketers now have the ability to deliver geofenced messages that capitalize on the guest’s proximity to a location–modifying behavior while the guest is on-the-go and likely in the midst of a buying decision. They can also deliver real-time behavior triggered messages either from a gaming situation like The Greene Turtle’s or from POS behavior. Messages can congratulate guests on the spot for winning a game and earning a reward or trying a new menu item, and more.
Should marketers target new customers or retain and engage even more highly with their most loyal customers?
Marketers need to balance both acquisition and retention efforts. If they’re too heavily focused on acquisition, they’ll lose high-value guests and never know until sales figures drop. However, if they focus too much on retention, attrition will inevitably occur. Building membership and then working to move engaged members through the customer lifecycle while improving their LTV is ideal.
To do both effectively, marketers need lots of data and a clear understanding of that data. The roles of the data analyst and data strategist have never been more important or valuable to an organization.
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