System is pitched as way of building better relationships with customers
An EPOS and marketing firm claims it can help to improve the relationship between licensed trade businesses and their most loyal customers.
Markadis, which has already worked with Scottish venues that include cocktail bar and venue The Voodoo Rooms and Edinburgh restaurant Calistoga, claims its Mii-Promo system is able to identify and interact with an outlet’s biggest-spending and most frequent customers.
The software works by linking to the Markadis chip and pin system, which processes customer card payments. If the customer agrees to sign up to the outlet’s loyalty programme – either by filling out a paper form or scanning a QR code with their smartphone – their details are stored in the Mii-Promo software, which is then able to build a database of the business’s customers, including their contact details, the times of their most recent visits and how much they spent.
The system then allows the operator to send rewards, such as money-off vouchers, to regular customers, as well as re-connecting with those that may not have visited the premises for a period of time.
Mike McCabe, head of business development at Markadis, argued that Mii-Promo allows operators to use their card payment system as a tool for building customer loyalty.
“People pay for their chip and pin facilities,” he said.
“That’s just a running cost. What we want to do is make that payment an investment.
“What we can do is we can nurture and grow this database from what we have here.”
He added that customer retention is becoming increasingly important in an industry where customers are still cautious about their spending.
“The licensed trade venues we’re working with have embraced it, because they have realised there’s a big problem there, because people aren’t spending as much as they once did,” he said.
