07/30/22

Sweetgreen’s loyalty program is all personalization and preferences

The popular salad chain is boosting its app experience with loyalty rewards and challenges in order to understand how better playing to customer preferences can impact frequency and strengthen affinity.

Developing a deeper understanding of customers and segmentation, as well as improving data integration between online and offline channels, are two of the most important opportunities that exist for brands and retailers to build greater customer loyalty and improve their omnichannel shopping experience. Gamified activations that take place in-app offer an attractive mechanism for gleaning this information and at the same time provide brands and retailers with a framework and platform to act upon it. These initiatives, which generally feature games, challenges, rewards, and more, double as both a tool for consumers by providing them with the ability to meet personal goals or complete projects, and simultaneously serve as a way for brands and retailers to gather key first-party data and insights to power greater customer experiences.

Mission-driven healthy restaurant brand Sweetgreen has developed a “Summer of Rewards and Challenges” to unlock insights from its own customer base and support them in the achievement of their personal health and wellness goals. The four-week-long digital activation is offered exclusively through Sweetgreen’s app and website, and will test the restaurant chain’s customers’ appetite for personalization as part of Sweetgreen’s ongoing strategy to evolve its loyalty program and build community by inspiring deeper, more dynamic connections.

Total digital sales represent a majority of Sweetgreen’s revenue, and the company wants to use its Rewards and Challenges pilot to double-down on its owned digital relationships with loyal customers. By creating additional customer value and engagement for the app-user base, Sweetgreen plans to reward customers for their healthy habits and gain richer data about those same habits in order to drive more dining occasions. The Summer of Rewards will feature weekly challenges, and in order to promote the loyalty-focused program, Sweetgreen has also partnered with TikTok creator Emmanuel Duverneau.

Sweetgeen plans to launch a full-blown loyalty program in 2023 that will likely have elements of a subscription and promotional offers, built around the insights inspired by this pilot.

+++

Learn more about how to inspire loyalty with the PSFK iQ report, Growing the Value of Customer Communities.