Soul Club

Company: AND DIGITAL - UX Principle
Client: Wagamama - Soul Club Loyalty Program
Role: UX Lead / Researcher
Project timeline: 3-months consultancy contract
Team: Product Owner, UX Lead, UX Researcher, Developers 4-6, QA Team

Increasing engagement and frequency of visitors

Wagamama wanted a way to reward and connect with their customers outside of their restaurants.

Unlike their competitors, wagamama did not have a loyalty scheme, but knew building a best-in-class loyalty and strategy proposition was the best way forward to grow their customer database and create a more personalised experience.

Wagamama had a clear problem to solve, but needed assistance to approach and execute turning their loyalty vision into a digital experience.

Core Objective

Validate past research and assumptions as well as document journey map against technical constraints.

Engagement

Dual track agile methodology helped embedded teams to work successfully side by side (workshops, journey mapping, research).

Key Outcomes

Build a brand-new loyalty app to take wagamama to the next level, by building stronger engagement to drive revenue.

Success

The nationwide launch saw three times the projected sign-ups and was rated number one on the iOS app store for Food&Drink.

The process

1

Past research

Review for background knowledge and understand user perceptions

2

User research

Scoped personas with client to conducted qualitative user research 20 sessions, 45m, over 2 weeks

Journey mapping

Discovery sessions with key stakeholders, map journeys, scope ideas, and understand current technical constraints.

3

Benchmarking

Several competitors, understand loyalty offering and ease of use

Workshops

Understanding userbase and their perceptions on loyalty, including past attempts on a loyalty product + brand

Prototype + ideation

Created a simple prototype for the research: rewards scheme, expectations, and how to use the app

Competitor analysis

Early ideation: assumptions on best user journey

Research kick-off

Collecting Rewards

Top 5 insights

Customer testing & validation

Hypothesis to prove / disprove

We believe that giving guests the control over their redemption journey via the loyalty product
(vs a reliance on server interaction) will improve customer satisfaction and thus drive higher frequency

Assumptions

Guests will understand the loyalty scheme & how it works
Guests will understand the reward journey
Guests will be able to identify where they are inside their reward journey
Guests will locate how to redeem with no major issues when instructed to do so
Guests will be able navigate through their redemption journey with no major issues
Guests will navigate form the redemption journey to pay on phone, and complete checkout (POP) with no major issues

Focus area

Transactional:
Earning & Redeeming

Pre conditions

Customer is an existing loyalty member with the app downloaded
Has visited 2 times in the last 12 months
Has at least one redemption available

Research objectives

Concepts:
Understand general understanding of our app concepts around earn journey & redemption
Experience:
Understand customers preference with making a redemption to determine direction
Exploratory:
Understand if customers are expecting anything else from the transactional loyalty journeys (what is missing)

Qualitative research outcomes

She mentioned that the condition for unlocking a reward could be that £10 is spent. That is reasonable amount. 'It wouldn't be fair to pay more than the price of a main meal to receive a free gyoza or side'

She appreciate the short journey to the main but would prefer that the main arrives on the 5th visit instead of receiving no reward on the 5th or have different incentives on the stars, '2nd visit you get a free drink'.

With each participant
we were looking for the TOP 5 insights
to see if any common threads

Abbies main motivation for downloading the Tortilla app was due to receiving a free stamp as well as a freebie on her birthday

Non-food related rewards on second tier could be free drinks, third tier would be members only events such as tasting events, discounted cooking experiences, free drinks, free cookbooks (referenced pizza express)

She did presume that the rewards were the same on each tier, mentioning 'even if you are on the 3rd level, it's still kind of the same as the 1st'

Common research themes - SHOULD HAVE vs NICE TO HAVE (red)

prize draws

early access

bottomless drinks

early announcements

merchandise

skip tiers

secret menus

content vdeos

mystery box

sharing functionality

personalisation

exclusive content

written content

filter content

Journey mapping

Optimal user journey for testing

Iterating on the fly during user sessions.

How soul club loyalty app works

Join:
Users download and presumably register for the Soul Club loyalty app.
Visit & Spend:
Every time a member visits Wagamama and spends £12 or more, they collect a stamp.
Collect Stamps:
These stamps are collected digitally within the app, in a format inspired by Japanese hanko stamps.
Level Up:
As users collect more stamps, they "level up" within the program.

User benefits

Free Menu Items:
Members can earn free dishes as they collect stamps and level up.
Exclusive Content:
Access to a constantly evolving stream of recipe and foodie videos featuring Wagamama chefs, influencers (like GK Barry), bloggers (like Alfie Steiner), and food entrepreneurs (like Rahel Stephanie). This allows users to engage with the brand and enjoy its food style even at home.
Exclusive Brand Experiences:
Higher levels unlock access to unique Wagamama experiences.
Merchandise:
Opportunity to win premium monthly merchandise drops.
Connection:
Provides a way for fans to connect more personally with the Wagamama brand ("invites Wagamama into the pockets of members").