How to diagnose why guests aren't joining or engaging with your program
Why a well-engaged program can still hurt your bottom line—and how to fix it
The guest experience mistakes that kill loyalty growth
On the Olo Professional Services team, I work with brands every day to improve results across their marketing efforts, and loyalty is a frequent topic. Loyalty programs are among the most powerful tools a restaurant has to drive frequency and AOV. The brands that get it right turn casual guests into evangelists. The ones that don't are usually repeating the same fixable mistakes.
So, here are my secrets to creating an effective loyalty program: one that increases AOV and frequency and creates superfans of your brand.
When a brand comes to me with a loyalty program that isn't performing, the first thing I do is look at the data to find the drop-off point.
Are guests registering but never redeeming their sign-up offer? Are they making one purchase and never coming back? Are they getting close to their first reward and losing interest before they get there? Each of those scenarios points to a different problem.
The three most common culprits I see are friction to join, not enough value, and rewards that don’t deliver results.
If guests are signing up, redeeming rewards, and engaging with the program—but you're still not seeing a return—the issue is likely how the program is built operationally.
Loyalty should always be pushing two things: frequency and average order value. If your rewards aren't designed to move those metrics, you're essentially just giving money away.
A few things to audit:
Even a well-designed program can fail at the execution layer. The issues I see most often:
Keep reading: 4 Ways Restaurants Can Use SMS Marketing to Drive Loyalty and Revenue
Loyalty programs should continue to evolve—the first version of your loyalty program is not your final version. Launch it, track where guests drop off, and optimize every 6 months. Observe how menu items become retention drivers and guest behavior shifts. The brands that treat loyalty as a living program—not a one-time build—are the ones that see results.
Create a framework based on the results you want to achieve and use your guest data to your advantage, and you’ll see a loyalty program that pays off—for you and your guests.
Macy Smith is a member of Olo's Professional Services team, where she consults restaurant brands on loyalty strategy, CRM, and guest engagement
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