Amex: Perks Boost Diner Frequency

Multinational financial services company American Express held its Member Week event, which ended Friday (Oct. 14). The promotions offered $25 statement credits for purchases of $75 or more from a list of more than 200 restaurants through the company’s restaurant reservation subsidiary Resy.

In recent years, the financial services company has been rolling out a range of dining-centric initiatives, with perks and limited time offers (LTOs) to drive restaurant sales. It would appear these moves have been successful, with American Express cardholders proving markedly more likely to dine out than the overall population. Through this particular offering, the company can both boost the loyalty of Resy’s restaurant customers and incentivize consumers to boost their dining spending.

“The Member Week campaign is serving a curated list of Resy restaurants to American Express card members — who we know dine out more and spend more than non-card members — across so many marketing touchpoints,” Alex Lee, CEO of Resy and vice president of American Express Dining, told PYMNTS in an interview. “It’s great visibility for the participating restaurants and likely to drive new customers into their dining rooms.”

The move follows years of dining promotions since American Express acquired Resy back in August 2019. At the time, Lee noted that they initially got consumers to engage with their loyalty offerings by providing 500 membership rewards points to cardholders when they dined out at restaurants. Lee noted that cardholders “loved it” and that the initiative offered them a “first example” of how they could engage with the company’s restaurant loyalty rewards.

Thereafter, American Express and Resy debuted their “Global Dining Access” perk for premium cardholders, including exclusive booking options, table notifications, events and more.

Indeed, diners want to be rewarded for their restaurant purchases. According to research from PYMNTS’ January study, “Digital Divide: Minding the Loyalty Gap,” created in collaboration with Paytronix, 30% of consumers identified rewards programs as being among the technologies that most encourage them to purchase from a given restaurant.

Read more: Restaurants Compete to Make Loyalty Programs Stand out as Consumers Join Multiple Programs

Additionally, rewards can be key to driving cardholder spending. PYMNTS’ study “The Convenience Catalyst: How Customer Experience Features Drive Credit Card Usage,” which drew from a survey of more than 2,000 United States card users, found that 57% of consumers cited rewards programs as a factor that would increase the likelihood of them choosing to use credit cards. Plus, 25% cited these as the most important factor.

Looking ahead, Lee said he expects restaurant spending to increase throughout the rest of the year. He noted that Resy restaurant seatings grew 75% from January to July, attributing this trend to ongoing effects of pent-up demand related to the pandemic.

“Everyone missed restaurants,” he said. “Historically, the end of the year and holiday season is restaurants’ busiest time. We hope that is the case this year and that the strong numbers we saw all summer and are seeing this fall continue through the end of 2022.”