Harvester 'digital wallet' scheme attracts new customers

That’s according to Paul Madden, M&B’s director of customer experience and digital innovation. He told the Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers Spring Conference that 690 people redeemed the promotion that offered £5 off their bill when they spent £30.

Half of the 29,500 people who visited the page for the promotion downloaded it, he said.

“We attracted a new guest into our business for about £3 a time, which considering the type of guest we were trying to attract wasn’t bad. If you add that to the cost of the voucher at sales, you’re looking at about a 25% discount.”

The wallet was made available via a new application on iPhones called Passbook.

“What that allowed us to do was to begin to build up an understanding of the activity and the value of the guest. It also added some excitement and interest with the guest. It was something new.

“What we got was a few guests we most probably wouldn’t have attracted that may not have had iPhones who don’t use Harvester regularly. They were keen to come through and try their voucher for the first time.”

He said there was more information available about the effectiveness of the scheme as a marketing tool.

“Often we might have had press ads that we think work. We’ve done quite a lot of advertising where we have banner where we have good pick up rates, we get very excited about it.

“But did the guests really come in, could we really track it, particularly if they were redeeming it through products sold through other channels?

“Sometimes there’s a disconnect between what’s spent in the till and what we’re doing in the marketing world.”