In the chain restaurant service industry, serving delicious food is the most basic element requiring constant improvement, while service is the key to victory beyond the product. The methods of finding customers, understanding their preferences, satisfying their needs, and increasing brand stickiness and return rates are all indispensable aspects of the service element.
In the past, customer preferences for products or promotional activities usually depended on turnover rates or service case studies. Turnover rates generally cannot be described accurately due to its wide scope of coverage, while service case studies may be fallible due to its subjective nature, so neither are the best ways to provide an accurate assessment of services.
The membership mechanism adopted in the physical point collection card“ Mercuries Card”issued in 2012 is one of the methods through which Mercuries F&B hopes to communicate with customers and accurately grasp their needs and preferences. Through point collection and redemption using Mercuries Card and the rollout of occasional exclusive member promotions, the card became a method of maintaining positive interactions with customers and better understanding their consumption profile and behavior.
Mercuries F&B has multiple brands under its name, which is a company advantage in covering a wide scope in the chain restaurant industry and a way of answering and satisfying the different dining needs of customers. However, although Mercuries Card can be used across different brands, each brand runs its own member promotions independently, so it is not possible to build a Mercuries F&B life circle and it is difficult for members to develop a habit of using it.
Furthermore, in response to the changes in consumption patterns and the trend of digitalization, Mercuries F&B officially launched the Mercuries Card app in January 2019, moving member services to the mobile app, which resolved the hassle of forgetting to bring the card out and became an exclusive shared platform on which various brands could communicate with members. It better aligned with the heavy mobile use of the modern generation, drew physical card members to activate and link their cards to the app, and attracted new members from the digital generation to join.
From the physical card era to the app era, the point collection for cash rebate system has been an unchanging commitment of Mercuries F&B to its members. Along with the expansion of its brands, brands offering member services have also grown from the original Sanshang Qiaofu,Napoli Pizza and Fried Chicken, Tonkatsu and Sanshang Don Mono to include Pin Chuan Lan and Napoli Fried Chicken, a total of six major brands. The Mercuries Card mobile app, a platform established to bring together customers from different brands, has enhanced member identification with Mercuries F&B brands, perceiving them as publicfriendly restaurants serving meals that are safe,affordable and reliable.
Users may simply access the app to find out the recent promotions of each brand, so there is no need to search or visit the store to learn about them. A single touch of a button to place an order online on the app will satisfy a craving for Napoli pizza or fried chicken while collecting points at the same time. Promotions are rolled out and changed from time to time, and members can redeem or claim meal coupons using points collected from their transactions. It is a kind of exclusive differential treatment offered by Mercuries F&B to its members and also a way of getting members to cultivate a habit of using their card to stimulate a free flow of consumption opportunities across different brands.
The member services in the spirit of“ enjoy all you can eat on a single mobile app” have all corners covered, from finding potential members and bringing members into stores, to learning the consumption behaviors of customers, designing products and promotion formats, selling products preferred by customers and providing a satisfactory service experience for customers.
While leveraging on the trend of digitalization, Mercuries F&B remains committed to its original intention of altruism: Satisfying consumer needs and benefiting consumers to meet the ultimate aim of F&B services. In future, Mercuries Card will utilize big data to step up on cross-field collaboration with external resources
and further leverage on the effects of real–virtual integrating.