La Catrina's Successful Transition to Online Sales and Customer Loyalty Program with ManyChat

La Catrina is a restaurant established in March 2019 by Francisco Valencia. Located in St. Augustine, Florida, it quickly became a local hotspot, serving delicious tacos and tequila to residents and tourists. The restaurant had a growing customer base and a successful loyalty program. However, the COVID-19 pandemic forced the restaurant to rethink its business model and shift towards online sales. La Catrina's customer base is diverse, including both locals and tourists, and the restaurant wanted to continue rewarding its loyal customers while attracting new ones through an online platform.

La Catrina, a popular local restaurant in St. Augustine, Florida, faced a significant challenge when the COVID-19 pandemic hit and forced the closure of dine-in services. Prior to the pandemic, the restaurant had been successfully promoting its dine-in services and loyalty program using ManyChat, a chat marketing platform. However, with the sudden shift in circumstances, La Catrina found itself unprepared for online sales. The restaurant needed a strategic approach to stimulate interest, implement online ordering, and drive sales. The primary goal was to increase the number of online sales and attract new customers to its loyalty program, which offered rewards to high-value diners.

La Catrina partnered with DM Digital to carry out a mobile ordering and customer loyalty campaign. The restaurant included a QR code in their print ad in a local magazine. When readers scanned the barcode, they entered into a Messenger conversation with the business, where they could view the menu, place an order, or join the restaurant’s loyalty program. Danny Monzon of DM Digital added menu viewing and online ordering flows to La Catrina's existing ManyChat platform, enabling customers to make online purchases. The restaurant also created a tiered loyalty program that offered different membership benefits, including special promotions and deals. All members received a digital loyalty card for their mobile wallet, allowing La Catrina to send push notifications directly to a member’s phone. Using ManyChat and the mobile wallet, La Catrina was able to unlock their customer data and track campaigns, showing them which strategies generated revenue for the business.

• The transition to online sales and the implementation of a mobile loyalty program had significant operational benefits for La Catrina. The restaurant was able to optimize their order-to-fulfillment process, as they could now see when an order was placed and when the customer would arrive for pick-up. This allowed employees to schedule appropriate prep time, maintain quality standards, reduce wait times, and avoid congestion that interfered with social distancing. The loyalty program also provided a channel for La Catrina to contact customers, collect data, and send personalized loyalty cards and deals. This resulted in an entertaining and more human experience for customers, while generating optimal results for the restaurant at a low cost.

• 245 new members joined the loyalty program

• $27,000+ in additional online sales

• 1,034% increase in return on ad spend