McDonald’s reaches out to customers via beacons

Columbus, Ga. - McDonald’s franchises in Columbus, Georgia are integrating Bluetooth beacon technology from beacon solution provider Piper to deliver coupon offers, timely alerts, employment opportunities and customer surveys right as customers enter the establishments.



Piper, a San-Diego based beacon solutions provider, partnered with McDonald’s to develop a custom mobile app for the franchises to deliver coupons directly to customers who opt in via their smartphones once they are in a close geographic proximity to the restaurant. Through Piper’s platform, customers can also personalize the types of messages they receive, to help discover deals that are most relevant to them, while blocking out messages that are outside of their interests.



During the initial four-week launch, customers who had the Piper app installed were prompted to save an Apple Passbook offer to their device. This offer is also visible and redeemable with Piper’s Android app. Participating stores are generating strong response for the advertised offers through both mobile and signage, showing more than 18,000 offer redemptions for the promoted items featured (McChicken sales increased 8% and McNuggets increased 7.5% from the previous month).



Employment inquiries and customer service issues are directed via automated text messaging to a responsible party who is able to respond before a customer leaves the restaurant.



“Everyone is looking at their phones, Millennials especially, and that’s where we’ve decided to engage,” said Jack Pezold, an owner and operator of McDonald’s franchises. “We know our customers and Piper’s beacon solution allows us to cater to their tastes, preferences and behaviors, making it easy for them to get more value and enjoyment out of their McDonald’s experience.”