By Matt Plapp
In the August 2025 print edition of PMQ Pizza, I wrote an article about restaurant loyalty programs—and, apparently, I struck a nerve. At the end of the article, I listed my cell number and asked for feedback. Well…my phone blew up.
Those responses made me realize something important. In that article, I talked about how to run a loyalty program. But I didn’t explain how to build one, and that’s the $1 million question restaurant owners should be asking.
Because owning a Ferrari is one thing; having the gas to keep it running is another.
The Problem: Loyalty Programs Without Growth
I’ve spent the past 10-plus years helping restaurants market their loyalty programs. From 2008 to 2015, my agency was part-consultant, part-hands-on marketing team. We ran Facebook ads, email and SMS campaigns to push traffic into our clients’ loyalty platforms.
But by 2015, I saw the cracks in the system.
Loyalty programs, by nature, apply to only about 10% to 15% of a restaurant’s customer base: the regulars. So when we blasted marketing to “build” those programs, it always fell flat after a few weeks. We’d get a quick spike from their loyal followers, but then it plateaued. Every time. Why? Because loyalty is part of the customer journey, not the start of it.
People join loyalty programs after they’ve had a great experience and many visits, not before. They need to fall in love with the food, the service, the vibe—and, ideally, they should be nudged by an irresistible offer.
So, in 2015, we launched our Restaurant Customer Acquisition program, a marketing system designed to capture contact info at scale and nurture those customers into loyalty members. It worked. Really well. And by 2019, we had 200-plus restaurants using the system. But a new problem popped up.
The New Problem: No Funnel for Long-Term Retention
By 2019, our Customer Acquisition program was humming along. We had hundreds of restaurants building big databases and driving new guests in the door. For many, it worked wonders. But for others, something strange happened: Sales weren’t increasing the way they should.
At first, I was puzzled. We were delivering exactly what they asked for: new customers raising their hands and opting into offers. But when we looked deeper, we saw the problem. Most of those restaurants didn’t have a loyalty program or any retention strategy to catch and keep the customers we were bringing them. They were filling a bucket riddled with holes.
And then 2020 hit. When COVID shut down dining rooms, we got on the phone with every single client and said, “Whatever we can do to help, we’ll do at no extra charge. Give us tasks to take off your plate.”
That’s when it became painfully clear. Almost none of our clients were using the databases we had been building for them for years. They were living off the front-end momentum we created, Facebook ads, offers and campaigns, but once those slowed down, there was no back-end engine to keep guests engaged. In other words, they had the Ferrari—but no gas to keep it running.
So, in 2020, we launched retention programs, email, text and social, to help them actually use their databases. Immediately, sales jumped. That’s when I realized: Loyalty without acquisition dies, and acquisition without loyalty fizzles. You need both.
But by 2021, another problem emerged. Restaurants had begun to think loyalty programs could solve all of their needs. And they were confused about our acquisition program; they couldn’t see how or why it was different from their loyalty program.
It was tough to explain how our program was the fuel that the loyalty program needed, and no loyalty company wanted to partner with us, because they thought their standalone product was enough. It wasn’t. So I told my team, “We’re either going to build our own loyalty platform, or buy one and merge it with acquisition into a system no restaurant has ever seen before.”
In 2023, that’s exactly what we did. We acquired Repeat Returns (now Dryver Loyalty). And in 2024, I set out to prove what I’d always believed:
- Acquisition brings in the crowd.
- Loyalty turns them into your regulars.
That’s when I met Andy Dell.
How Andy Dell Built a Summer-Proof Sales Machine in the Arizona Desert
At Pizza Expo 2024, I met Andy in the Arrow POS booth. He’s the owner of Papa Kelsey’s in Mesa, Arizona, a heritage pizzeria that’s been crushing it for 15 years. We started talking, and he hit me with this line: “Matt, if you can help me grow sales in the summer, I’ll love you forever.”
Challenge accepted—but not without some fear. We’d worked with plenty of clients in Arizona, and too many of them hired us heading into summer thinking we’d be their savior. What they didn’t realize, and what I didn’t warn them about early on, was that there is no short-term fix for blazing-hot Arizona summers.
If they wanted to solve their summer slump, they needed a long-term strategy. Instead, most would pull the plug 60 to 90 days in, thinking our program failed, when in reality it was exposing a much bigger marketing problem.
With Andy, I was more hopeful. He wasn’t starting from scratch—he’d been running a loyalty program for years, he’s a strong operator inside his four walls, and he’s active in his community. I knew that if we could ramp up his customer acquisition program, we could fuel his loyalty funnel and finally crack his summer sales problem.
So in July 2024, we launched the Dryver Acquisition program for Papa Kelsey’s. Andy already had a loyal customer base and years of experience with Dryver Loyalty. But this time, he was ready for more, and now we had the full marketing machine in place.
I recently asked Andy some questions about his journey.
Matt Plapp: What made you want to try the acquisition program?
Andy Dell: I’ve always loved the loyalty side, and it’s always worked, going back to 2010. Honestly, it’s how we’ve survived. But, in our area, the summers are so hot, and many customers head north, so we needed to find a way to acquire new customers. I figured adding new customers into our already successful loyalty program could be the way to unlock growing our summer sales.
Plapp: It also looks like you made some changes in 2023 to grow the program on your own.
Dell: Yes. We weren’t bringing in enough new people, and our loyalty program only grew by about 30 to 50 members a month. We knew the loyalty program was our most powerful tool, so we doubled down on our in-store efforts and made sure to capture everyone we could through the POS opt-ins. That doubled our enrollment: We went from a great month of new members being 50 to close to 100. But we wanted to take it to a new level, and I’d heard about your acquisition program and thought I had nothing to lose.
Plapp: Well, you were right. Last July, when we kicked off the program, we added 300 in the first month, and ever since you’ve added around 200 new members monthly. On top of that, your ordering members have reached new heights as well. And this was during the Arizona summer, your slow season, right?
Dell: Yeah. Historically, May to August are tough. But this summer, June was up over $8,000 and July was up $7,600 compared to last year. And we didn’t change anything else. Same menu. Same operations. The only thing different was you guys running the acquisition program.
Plapp: How has the loyalty program performed now that it’s fed by acquisition?
Dell: In June 2022, we had about $15,000 in sales associated with loyalty customers. In June 2025, that number was $36,700. Active users doubled. It’s not just more people; it’s the right people.
Plapp: What’s your marketing mix look like now?
Dell: I still do direct mail and some local outreach. But direct mail is expensive, and you can’t exclude people or track usage. With this system, I know who came in, what they ordered, and how they’re responding. It’s data-driven. And it works.
Plapp: Final thoughts for other operators reading this?
Dell: You need the full funnel. You need new customers coming in, a way to keep them coming back, and a consistent brand message across all platforms. We’re on pace to be $100,000 up, year over year, and I’ve done nothing different except let your system work. It’s been the most cost-effective marketing we’ve ever done.
The Takeaway
Andy had a proven, successful loyalty program. But like so many restaurants, he was falling short on new customer acquisition. He was only adding 30 to 50 new members a month, and once you factor in churn, his ordering members never really grew.
Then he put a separate acquisition program in place, and it supercharged his results. Within one year, he was adding nearly 200 new members a month and grew his ordering members from 600 to over 900. And you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to see what happens next: When you increase your ordering members by 30%, your sales climb. For Andy, that’s meant two to three times growth over the past three years.
The lesson is simple: No single marketing tactic thrives alone. Andy’s story isn’t about a flashy tech product or a one-off campaign; it’s about building on the right foundation. Remember:
- Acquisition brings people in.
- Loyalty keeps them coming back.
- Branding makes you unforgettable.
If you’re leaning on just one leg of that stool—whether it’s loyalty, social or ads—you’re eventually going to fall over. Build the full stool. Give it 100 legs. And then sit back and watch your restaurant become the powerhouse it was meant to be.
My name is Matt Plapp. I’m the CEO (chief energy officer) of America’s Best Restaurants. I’ve worked with thousands of restaurants since 2008 when I started this company, and over the next 12 months, we will help 2,500-plus restaurants with their marketing. This is the latest article in an ongoing series of columns for PMQ Pizza to help restaurant owners understand the gold mine we have to market in 2025—and beyond.
