Take a Bite Out of the Competition with Restaurant Gamification

You have delicious food, great atmosphere, and friendly service—all the right pieces for a successful restaurant. Yet, your customer growth has stagnated. How can you get over this growth hump?

Make going to your restaurant fun through gamification.

Many restaurants and quick-service brands face challenges like:

Customers enjoy a meal but don’t feel a strong reason to return anytime soon

Your restaurant struggles to stay top of mind when diners choose where to eat

Customers stick to the same menu items and rarely try something new

Loyalty programs feel routine and fail to create excitement or engagement

Great dining experiences happen, but they don’t always translate into lasting brand loyalty

With gamification for restaurants and quick service restaurants (QSRs), you use game mechanics to make various tasks, such as buying food or leaving reviews, entertaining. It can subconsciously improve your brand image and stay in your customers’ minds when they’re ready for a bite to eat.

Learn how gamification can transform your restaurant in customers’ minds.

How You’ll Stand Out from the Crowd with Gamification in Restaurants

There are many benefits of using gamification marketing in quick-service restaurants. Here’s how you can best use them to get ahead of competitors.

Reward Customers with Each Meal

For any restaurant to survive, it needs loyal customers. To build loyalty, you have to offer more than just delicious food—every restaurant has that. You need to provide a reason to come back.

This is where the classic QSR gamification mechanic comes in—loyalty programs.

Whether it’s a point-based or money-spent system, loyalty programs can keep your customers coming back for more. Use physical or digital progress bars so your customers see how close they are to their reward.

Rewards can include discounted food or even a free meal.

Ensure You’re Always on Their Mind

Not only do you want hungry customers to think of you first, but you also want them to associate you with good food and positive experiences.

That’s called brand awareness. It ensures you stand out from the crowd and is the first idea they think of for a meal.

By using gamification for restaurants, you’ll always be at the back of their minds. Whether you are offering daily login rewards or limited-time events, customers are constantly seeing your brand, and they won’t even realize it.

Plus, you can use gamification strategies to highlight your best-selling food to create a brand like “the best burger in [city]!”

Encourage Customers to Try New Food

Most restaurants just take customers’ orders—stand out by emboldening them to try new food. Not only does this ensure customers never tire of your food, but it also piques their curiosity.

Make trying new food fun instead of intimidating through gamification. You could offer a limited-time deal for specific meals or create a quiz so your customers learn more about certain types of meals.

Celebrate Customers Who Refer Your Restaurant to Friends

Spread your influence wider by encouraging customers to refer your restaurant to friends and family. Through gamification, you can reward them for referring a specific number of customers.

You can also offer those referred people special discounts when they share who referred them.

Not only will you gain more customers, but you also save money on acquisition.

Increase Average Spending without Being Pushy

All of the above benefits will increase your customers’ spending. With loyalty rewards, they may add a dessert to their meal just to reach a certain goal. With referrals, more people will try your food and pay for it.

You will gain many upselling opportunities without having to oversell to diners. In fact, they may not even realize that you’re doing it!

Slowly but surely, you’ll see your profits consistently increase over time.

Turn Shoppers Into Loyal Customers →

Real World Examples of Successful Gamification for Restaurants

Carl’s Jr

LOYALTY AMPLIFICATION & INSTANT WIN

Carl’s Jr.’s Catch & Avoid game encouraged app downloads and loyalty program signups. The game has players drive to a virtual restaurant, gathering burgers and avoiding obstacles along the way.

To win your prize (free food and discounts), you need to download the Carl’s Jr. app and join their loyalty program.

The results?

2x increase in website traffic during the campaign period

25% of prize redeemers were lapsed members reengaged

25% of prize redeemers were new members

Read the Case Study →

Chipotle

instant win & loyalty

This restaurant used CataBoom’s game engine to create a quiz to test its reward members’ Chipotle knowledge. People could win BOGO burritos, rewards, or the grand prize of free burritos for a year.

The results:

24% increase in quiz completion YoY

Millions of forms completed

Millions of landing page visits

Read the Case Study →

Whataburger

instant win & lPromotion & Salesoyalty

For Whataburger, a collect-and-win game, “Score More,” had its loyalty members playing daily. They were interacting with their scratch-offs whenever they could for the chance to win free burgers for a month, year, or decade.

The results:

11% increase in digital transactions

Thousands of new active loyalty members acquired

Millions of additional plays through product purchases and completions of challenges

Read the Case Study →

Create a Unique Dining Experience Customers Can’t Get Elsewhere

You are in complete creative control. Choose from over 200 mechanisms, use your brand's colors and logo, and decide what prizes to offer. Ensure a seamless experience for your customers, from playtime to prize-winning, with CataBoom’s Catapult platform.

You’ll also receive access to the backend and see positive ROI in real time. Give Catapult X, our starter subscription, a try to get started.

Have a game running in less than four weeks!

Try a free demo now! →

You Can Never Go Wrong with Food and Fun

Elevate your dining experience with QSR gamification. You’ll build better relationships with your customers and stay on their minds more often.

With gamification by your side, you’ll become the go-to spot.