Is the new PizzaExpress Club loyalty scheme worth joining? (Yes – free dough balls!)

PizzaExpress is about to announce the launch of new loyalty scheme, PizzaExpress Club.

Whilst this clearly has nothing to do with travel loyalty, the ubiquity of PizzaExpress in the UK and the fact that you are likely to spend large parts of your life in them if you have small children means that it is worth a quick look.

You get some free dough balls just for signing up too ….

PizzaExpress Club has an interesting structure, because it lets you earn rewards in three ways:

• via restaurant purchases
• via takeaway or delivery orders
• via the purchase of PizzaExpress products in the supermarket

You earn ‘Pizza Stamps’

The currency is ‘Pizza Stamps’.

• you earn one Pizza Stamp if you dine in and your party spends an average of £10 per person (you only earn one stamp per table, however large)

• tou earn half a Stamp if you do a takeaway or delivery order (only 0.5 stamps per order, irrespective of its size)

• you earn one slice (1/12th of a Stamp) for every PizzaExpress pizza you purchase in a supermarket

This is a smart way of rewarding people however they interract with the brand. The aim of the scheme, however, is to get you into a restaurant – there don’t seem to be any rewards which can be redeemed for delivery or supermarket purchases.

You need to have the PizzaExpress app to earn and redeem rewards.

Importantly, you need to log in via the app when in a restaurant in order to claim your rewards. It also appears that you need to pay via the app. This allows the app to automatically deduct your freebies from the bill and makes life a lot easier for waiting staff.

What rewards do you get?

The scheme is well designed to give you a quick hit after you sign up.

Once registered, you will receive a free portion of dough balls on your next visit.

You then move through three tiers. You only need one Pizza Stamp to get to the first tier, which gives you freebies on every subsequent visit for a year.

Bronze Rewards – requires one Pizza Stamp to be earned

• any free side dish with every visit; and
• a free dessert on your birthday month

Silver Rewards – requires you to earn five Pizza Stamps within 12 months

• ·one free portion of Dough Balls ‘PizzaExpress’ with every visit; and
• ·one free soft drink with every visit; and
• ·one free coffee or tea with every visit; and
• ·one free Classic or Leggera pizza on your birthday month

Gold Rewards – requires you to earn 12 Pizza Stamps within 12 months

• ·one free portion of Dough Balls ‘PizzaExpress’ with every visit; and
• ·one free soft drink with every visit; and
• ·one large bottle of water (sparkling or still) with every visit; and
• ·one choice of a free coffee or tea or Dolcetti with every visit; and
• ·one free upgrade to a Romana base with every visit; and
• ·one free Piccolo meal (Monday to Thursday only) with every visit; and
• ·one choice of a free Classic or Romana pizza or a free bottle of wine or prosecco on your birthday month; and
• ·one free PizzaExpress cook-book (‘PizzaExpress: From Italy With Love’), to be collected from your local pizzeria (subject to availability)

As you can see, even someone who only visits Pizza Express once per month will, after a year, find themselves Gold and picking up free dough balls, a free soft drink, a free bottle of water and a free coffee on every visit. This is at least £10 of goodies.

Conclusion

If you’re a regular Pizza Express visitor (and by regular I mean ‘once every two months’, which is all that Silver Rewards status requires), you will want to join PizzaExpress Club. The extra benefits make it a no-brainer.

Even if you only visit 2-3 times per year, you’d still be picking up free dough balls for joining and then a free side dish on every subsequent visit, plus a free dessert in your birthday month.

My only concern is that the requirement for app log-ins and payment will be a bit of a faff, but I’m sure when you’ve done it once it will become second nature.

In terms of the structure of the programme, I think that giving a tiny 1/12th of a Stamp for a supermarket pizza purchase is more bother than its worth. Pizza Express could afford to be more generous, given that customers will need to ‘upgrade’ to a restaurant visit to redeem their rewards. The rest of the scheme looks good.

You can learn more about PizzaExpress Club on its website here.