Costa Coffee is the second  largest coffee shop business in the world. It owns more than 3 000 coffee shops in over 30 countries, with over 2 000 in the UK.

The company already had a consumer loyalty program in place, but wanted to eliminate the need for plastic cards and increase the attractiveness of the program for customers.

"Who today still wants to carry plastic cards? People want everything on the phone with the ability to check it in a few clicks. That's why we decided to give up the traditional card with stamps." - explains Karol Dragan, digital & loyalty project manager at Costa Coffee Polska.

The best loyalty program

Loyalty Awards is an annual plebiscite that awards the best solutions on the market. It takes place as part of the Poland & CEE Customer Loyalty Summit. In this contest jury is a group of professionals in relationship management and building loyalty. They award prizes and distinctions in 6 categories. The "Coffee Club" program, launched by us for Costa Coffee Poland, got a distinction in two of them.

• "The best loyalty program/activities in services (B2C)",
• "The best new loyalty program/activities of the year".

An effective platform to support loyalty

We created a bespoke loyalty platform from scratch. It manages the loyalty program which is available for customers via the mobile app and the website. The project also included the migration of hundreds of thousands of users and their accumulated points from the old loyalty program.

The system supporting the loyalty program is integrated with cash registers. This ensures the correct calculation of points and discounts for program participants.

 Custom loyalty program platform handles thousands of transactions per day.

“In the project, .NET Core platform was applied to support devising new applications whereas Vue.js libraries were to assist in designing the new interactive website elements. The application of Continuous Delivery ensures that the platform is efficiently published and updated. This specific programming practice significantly shortens the whole process and makes our work easier. We provide technical support for the application at all times.” Krzysztof Kawalec, IT Director at Ideo Software House.

The intuitive loyalty program allows to collect virtual “coffee beans” that can be later exchanged for drink vouchers. The buyer will receive one coffee bean for each product included in the promotion. Later, users can select prizes by giving baristas the QR code generated in their mobile app.

Administrators of the system have the opportunity to create their own promotions, discount coupons from the partners, vouchers for seasonal products as well as set the happy hour or give the customers special prizes, i.e. for their birthday. The program also provides special promotions for Costa Coffee employees.

Based on gathered data and parameters regarding users’ activity, administrators can create individual / personalized promotions. They can i.e. segment customers who often visit the coffee shop in a given period of time and reward them with a special promotion. They can also send out a discount coupon to people who haven’t visited the coffee shop in a while.

Platform gives an opportunity to target promotion in any chosen way and engage customers that belong to specific age groups, i.e. students.
 

Benefits of implementing a loyalty program

Trust between customer and brand is extremely valuable merit in the business world. Motivational programs attract and engage users, building brand loyalty. Such activities are appreciated by clients and willingly take part in them.

The benefits of the programs are mutual. Participants have access to attractive prizes or discounts, and the seller has long-term sales profits.

The biggest benefits of implementing a loyalty program:

• Building a positive image.
• Increased trust in the brand.
• Increased brand awareness.
• Increase sales.
• Stimulating the renewed buying or purchase of specific products.