Dairy Queen Serves Up Personal Discounts With RFID

When a participating customer receives a text message indicating a discount for milk shakes, for example, and waves the sticker near the restaurant's ViVOtech contactless payment device, the ID number on the tag is captured and transmitted to Tetherball's online Mobiquitous system. The discount is then approved and automatically applied to the purchase price during the sales transaction.

The Mobiquitous system can store data regarding each transaction. Corporate employees can access the information nationally, or by region, while restaurant managers can access data about their own businesses. That information can be used not only to determine when a promotion is successful, but also to track the spending history of a specific ID number, so that the corresponding customer can receive promotions best matching his or her spending habits.

The RFID portion of the trial has been underway for approximately two weeks, Guse says. Thus far, the system has been working successfully, though he says it is still too early to mine the data related to purchases made during that span of time.

"This allows us to do real-time tracking on redemptions, and closes the gap as to how well the text-messaging system is working," Guse states. "Our goal is to get a better understanding of customer behavior, and build customer loyalty based on that information."

If all goes well, Guse adds, "This is something we want to push ahead nationwide."

In addition, Tetherball has provided the mobile text-messaging service to HotBox Pizza, and has also worked with McDonalds. However, Highley says, the Dairy Queen application is the first to incorporate RFID technology.