How Three Los Angeles Restaurants Use Vintage Keys to Reward Customer Loyalty
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Quick Answers
- IB Hospitality uses vintage keys to reward loyal diners at Norah, Margot, and Juliet with a 15% discount across all three restaurants.
- The program gives regulars a tangible, brand-aligned alternative to a standard paper or digital loyalty card.
- Guests may receive a key based on qualitative factors, including how often they dine, how they engage with the restaurant, and how they treat the staff.
- Resy helps the team track keyholders with customized guest tags, so diners can still receive their discount if they forget their key.
IB Hospitality in Los Angeles, the group behind Norah, Margot, and Juliet, has unlocked a fresh approach to drive guest allegiance while also maintaining their brand identity: distributing vintage keys to loyal diners.
Structured loyalty programs aren’t a new concept: cafés and fast casual spots have long used paper and digital loyalty cards for stamping, with every eleventh coffee or salad being on-the-house. Full-service restaurants are more likely to regularly offer a complimentary glass of wine or appetizer as a way to engender goodwill and return visits. glass of wine or appetizer as a way to engender goodwill and return visits.
But this strategy means the restaurant is missing out on the valuable benefits of a more structured program, including having a list of regulars to market to, and providing more predictable rewards for loyal diners. IB Hospitality shared how they rolled out a program that adds value for loyal guests and doesn’t compromise on an elevated guest experience.
Find a Method That Matches Your Brand’s Identity
“The thing that gives a restaurant group longevity is having a core group of regulars,” notes Rohan Talwar, IB Hospitality’s president and CEO. And so, a few years after Norah opened in 2016, IB Hospitality launched its singular loyalty program.
The intent was to provide regulars and would-be regulars with a discount when they dined, but the standard paper discount card didn’t fit the restaurant’s brand. Says Talwar, “When you’re in this category of upscale restaurants, marketing needs to have a light touch.”
To complement the group’s higher-end aesthetic, the marketing team, after some brainstorming, landed on the idea of putting vintage keys in red envelopes. “It just worked,” recalls Talwar.
Define Your Loyalty Criteria
The group uses a more qualitative analysis to determine who gets a key. Instead of giving keys to guests who’ve dined more than, say, 15 times at a property, a key might be bestowed on a regular who:
- Dines weekly at one of the group’s restaurants
- Engages with the wine list
- Is kind to the staff
Sometimes a key is gifted to a couple who are newish diners to the group’s restaurant portfolio but seem eager to dine at IB Hospitality’s other properties.
No matter the reason for handing out a key, the value remains the same. The guests receive a 15% discount on their check across the board, meaning all items on the bill before tax and tip are included. Plus, the key’sapplicability is broad: The 15% discount can be used during every hour of each property’s hours of operation.
Use Technology to Enhance the Experience
The group encourages diners to bring their keys with them when dining. But if a guest forgets their key, the team uses information from Resy OS as a backup. By creating a customized tag and adding it to the guest’s user profile,the staff can check who has been bestowed a coveted key.
“The key program makes people feel like they’re part of the inner circle,” says Talwar.
Building guest loyalty is all about making guests feel at home. And what’s more homey than having a physical key to unlock exclusive rewards?
This article has been updated from its original posting, and staff members’ roles or locations may have changed.