Happy Crisma-Hanu-Quanza-NewYears
The year is wrapping up with alarming speed, and I figured that as I wish you a wonderful Christmas and New Years (or whatever you celebrate) I’d give you a little perspective on FiveStar’s first year! It’s been crazy. It’s been wild. It’s been busier than any other job I’ve had. But it’s been a LOT OF FUN, and I hope all the great rewards you’ve received from your awesome local businesses have helped brighten your day!
So what have we been up to?
1.) Growing like bamboo shoots in the grey valleys of China: This may be a bit of an exaggeration (those bamboo shoots grow fast), but from January first to January first a LOT has changed. Last January, FiveStars was a jumble of Python code being tested in two or three businesses with a handful of users. When I arrived in March, I was the fourth person in the company (including the founders). I was the first employee for heaven’s sake–in MARCH!
Now we’ve got right around thirty employees, four hundred business, and (yes you’ve heard it) one hundred thousand people with a FiveStars card in their pockets. WOW. I mean WOW (and not the MMORPG). Let me tell you, those thirty employees have poured some serious time and effort to get us this far. So if you see anyone from FiveStars on the street, just give them a high-five. They deserve it.
2.) You used funding stone: Housemon evolved into Officemon. Yes, I know I’m a nerd, but it’s a tech company. I guess I could have included this under growth, but for me it was a big enough turning point to get it’s own bullet. Working in the same place you eat, sleep, and live get’s a little wearying–trust me.
Now, I can come home from the office, and actually BE HOME! No more programmers hacking away until the wee hours of the morning in my living room. No more laminator potpourri of slightly burnt plastic fumigating my apartment. No more servers under my bed. Phew, I got a bit carried away. Long story short, it’s nice.
3.) Los Angeles, all your stars are belong to us: Ok, I promise no more nerd references, but it’s true. FiveStars has officially expanded to Los Angeles. If that’s not exciting, I don’t know what is. It may seem like a small step, but expanding is way more exciting, stressful, exhausting, and rewarding than I thought possible. We sent some of our best guys down there to start it up, and that’s what they did.
They are living out of a house again, but that’s all part of the process. As they set up computers, desks, and operations, they signed up a handful of businesses (including one of my personal favorite LA boba places–Volcano Tea) and are already getting cards are in people’s hands.
Overall, it’s been one heck of a year. I don’t know what kind of blog post I’ll be writing at the end of 2012, but I can’t imagine it not being a good one. People have loved and used FiveStars more than we could have hoped for in our wildest dreams. Thank all of you sooo much for grabbing our FiveStars cards when you stop in at your favorite restaurants all over the Bay and LA (hey that rhymes).
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas filled with honey backed hams and joy. I hope your New Years is filled with confetti and New Years Eve Kisses. And I hope we can keep giving you great rewards at the best spots in town from 2012 onward.
Because It’s the Holidays
Turkey is pretty amazing. Sweet Potato Casserole is awesome. And passing out in front of football games is even better. Admittedly, we did partake in a few of these niceties over the holidays, but a lot of our crew dropped more than a few hours working in the field and hacking together a shiny new version of FiveStars on their computers.
So the big question is, besides stuffing our face with Turkey on Thursday, what exactly have we been up to?
Let me break it down for you:
1.) Redesigning the GUI (that’s nerd for Graphical User Interface (which is further nerd for how the program looks to the cashier)). Ok, yes, you probably won’t directly experience the glory and easy of the new user interface, BUT you’ll notice a lot more restaurants will greet you by name, and be extra nice if you are a VIP. (you’re welcome) Just remember to register online and input all that fun info.
2.) Let me give you a demo of a tape that has been playing in my head after the holidays, “Wow, I remember when FiveStars was three guys in a living room, now we have 100,000 people who use us in San Francisco AND WE JUST OPENED OUR LOS ANGELES OFFICE!!!” It’s ok, catch your breath.
Behold my microsoft paint skills and the beautiful star falling right into the middle of LA–this symbolizes my excitement and emotions about the new office.
3.) Recruiting, troubleshooting, and enhancing! Big words indeed. But we’ve been doing all three this break. We’ve kept signing on new business right through the holidays so you’ll have more places to get sweet deals, and we’ve been signing up more people at the stores we already have! And, yes, I’ll admit we do troubleshooting too–no program is perfect–but we’ve fixed bugaboos and we are making FiveStars more efficient every day. So that means more cards, less hassles, and more places to use them.
I can see you now. You’re sitting by your computer with your hands folded, and you’re muttering something like, “Wow, if anyone has ever drank the FiveStars koolaid, it’s Jeff.”
You’re right, I love FiveStars, and I am SUPER excited we’re going to be in Los Angeles spreading deals and love. Come hang out with us or grab a FiveStars Card and you’ll understand. We’re now giving small businesses the best loyalty card platform in the world for pennies, because they deserve it. Because they help foster community and bring people together. And that’s what the holidays are all about.
So while you eat your leftovers from Thanksgiving and gear up for Christmas, grab a FiveStars Card, support local business, and know that we are spreading the good news from San Francisco to LOS ANGELES!!!!
How to Make Loyalty Work for You
Delloite Research came out with a research study on customer loyalty called Serving the Networked Customer and uncovered a few interesting statistics. Stats like retailers who take meaningful steps to drive customer loyalty are 88% more profitable than competitors that don’t. 88% jump in profitability just for loyalty? Sign me up! Another consulting firm, Parago, found a 2x jump in visits and 4x jump in customer spend for the same reason. Could there be a trend?
Here at FiveStars we are serious about customer loyalty. And for good reason: it is a tried and true way to get customers in your store more often and spending more money when they visit. But just having a loyalty program isn’t enough — we aren’t magicians after all. Loyalty programs are the tool that when used properly can yield amazing results to its wielders, but when left unused, doesn’t have the potential to drive the 88% jump in profitability that Delloite found.
So how do you get the most out of your loyalty program? Uniformly we have seen the greatest successes among the FiveStars businesses who:
- Get their customers excited about coming in the store (have a great reward!)
- Get their employees excited about getting customers involved
To elaborate a little more, customers love loyalty because it is a tangible connection between them and the places they frequent. Quality of the food and the physical store fronts are a small piece of the customer experience equation, and loyalty helps to complete this equation. Imagine coming into a store where all the servers know your name and you are treated differently because this is your 27th time here. Imagine rewarding your customers in something not on the normal menu: maybe a dessert that you can only get if you have been to the store 10 times. And think about how excited your employees would be knowing that customers this happy will always tip more! The more customers you get excited about your loyalty program, the more loyalty will be able to do for you.
New Month – New Horizons
It’s day three, and October is already impressing me. We have officially given out over 5,000 cards through a partnership with the magazine Made Local. The beautiful insert is pictured below, but please don’t hesitate to grab one!
Also–yes, I said also–last week we signed up fifty new businesses! Insane, I know. So now you can use your card at new spots from all the way down at the Beard Papa’s in Milpitas up to AK Subs in San Fransisco.
Long story short there are more cards out there in the big wide world and more places to use them to get deals. I think we are amazing too. Enjoy!
The FiveStars Dishcrawl
This is what happens when two of the Bay Area’s hottest start-ups join forces to give their customers something great. The unique fusion of FiveStars and Dishcrawl gave everyone involved great rewards just for coming out to eat on the Dishcrawl and amazing food from accomplished chefs every step of the way.
The FiveStars Dishcrawl launched in Mountain View last week and had some yummy stops lined up! Everyone came out received a FiveStars card and some points to each stop along the way! At Zucca, they got points toward a free Sunday brunch, at Moroccos they got points toward a free wine tasting, and at Hangen they received points toward a free weekday dinner. Everyone gathered on the lawn in front of Chez TJ to register for their FiveStars card and get their team pins for the Dishcrawl. The Mayor of Mountain View and some representatives from the Chamber of Commerce came out to support the event and initiated the ribbon cutting ceremony out in front of Chez TJ.
After splitting into groups, we headed around to each location for some of their speciality dishes like the hummus and pita at Zucca, the egg rolls at Hangen, and the burnt corn and kiwi soup at Chez TJ, and the delicious sangria and marinated oranges at Moroccos for dessert.
All-in-all a successful night!
Get to know us: Jingsong & Michael
I don’t know any other Jingsongs so I can safely say that I don’t know anyone like him. And obviously there is no one quite like Michael Su. They were our original two developers – Jingsong, the lead dev and Michael, the intern. Past are Michael’s intern days were he helped build the fivestars site up to what it is today and past are his pre-21 days. Also, past are his days finishing his degree at Berkeley! (ok, so he’s going back next semester, but for right now we have him full-time!)
Jingsong - The Fisherman
Jingsong is a fisherman first, and a developer second. (Or so he wishes). His tendency to rush down to the ocean whenever the salmon or halibut are running or when the bass are spawning is innate. He also is a pretty rockstar dev leading the fivestars charge in the ways of truth and enlightenment as he builds new features for the platform. So if you like the fact that you can share your favorite restaurants on facebook, track your points online or that you get free points toward your favorite restaurants when you register, thank him.
Michael on a roadtrip
This is Michael. He is happy. And smiling. He also works pretty hard. Actually really hard: he started to go blind because he was looking at the computer screen too long. (Now we make him take more breaks). He has built the entire business dashboard (owners thank him!) and he dropped out of Berkeley for the semester to launch fivestars’ platform to a whole new level. Friend him on facebook!!!!
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Get to know us: The Founders
There is a time in every young entrepreneur’s life when they see a need and decide to fill it. About a year ago, two budding entrepreneur’s did just that. Working long hours at McKinsey and traveling all over the world consulting for Fortune 500 companies taught them how to creatively solve whatever need they came across. But you don’t want to just hear the story of how FiveStars was launched again (although our children’s book adaptation will make great bed-time reading for young parents everywhere), you come to the FiveStars blog for the juice.
Victor Ho – CEO and world-class super smash brothers player. Also, apparently a ninja because you can’t find him on google. Or you can, because he is frequently confused for his namesake actor extraordinaire. Victor is a voracious, tenacious, and all around badass CEO. To give you a better idea of his talents, he once fixed my boat’s engine when no one else had any idea what was going on (wait… our CEO is a mechanic too?) and rarely sleeps as he plans the future of FiveStars. He is frequently found pacing the warehouse in the early morning hours with his hands behind his back.
Matt Doka – CTO and world-class wrestler. Ok, I’ve never seen him wrestle but I would be scared to be his opponent. In fact, in the virtual office “who would dominate in a fight” Matt got everyone’s vote. Other than Victor, who voted for himself. Matt is found at 37.418723, -122.094502 commanding the “devstar” our rockstar team of developers that have intimidatingly started calling themselves the devstar after the Starwars DeathStar. Talents: board games, getting ripped and dominating the competition. He is frequently found under the florescent glow of multiple 23″ monitors muttering to himself “FiveStars FiveStars FiveStars”. He is also a really good person (see what he was doing before FiveStars!)
Get to Know Us: ERIC
Eric is our account manager. Eric is the man. Not the man as in the evil guy wearing a five thousand dollar suit and sitting in a glass encrusted office, but the man as in, “Wow, did that guy just work an eighteen hour day so the good people of this town can get sweet rewards? He’s the man!”
However, in your attempt to get to know the man, Eric, you may ask me, “What composes his eighteen hour day of awesomeness?” Don’t worry, grasshopper, that’s what I’m here to answer.
1.) Eric manages accounts: Unfortunately, Five Stars cards don’t rain down from the glorious heavens (yet…). So in the mean time, it’s Eric who keeps business well supplied, happy, and handing out cards.
The workflow of cards from Eric to you. As you'll see later his graphic design skills are better than mine. (not done in paint)
2.) Eric designs marketing: And he designs it well. I mean, have you seen our awesome Five Stars posters he set up on Castro St. in Mountain View–so sweet.
The ad of awesomeness
3.) Eric designs store materials: Whenever you walk into a five stars card store, you’re instantly greeted by another of Eric’s creations. One that looks a little something like this:
A typical store ad
4.) Eric hires interns: Managing hundreds of accounts–yes, those are all places you can use your five stars card–is too much for one man. Unless… that man clones himself into unpaid duplicates… interns… perfect.
(Here’s the list of all the places you can use your five stars card in case you were wondering –> the list)
5.) Eric does social media: Twitter, blog (they know better than to let me write all of them), facebook–Eric is the man behind a LOT of it. He was professionally social media trained during his Kiva Fellowship. I really don’t know what professional social media means, but I bet it’s awesome.
6.) Eric does other things I don’t remember: Yes, I’m not perfect, and I didn’t give this THAT much thought (probably why they don’t let me write all the blogs). But if you ever wonder, “I wonder who get’s all the chairs for five stars…” or any other random questions, the answer is probably Eric.
Overall, we’re lucky to have Eric on the team. He was our fourth employee (now we’re pushing 20), and he has been kicking butt ever since. If you’re a loyal customer to one of the five stars stores, there’s a good chance you’ll see him around. This is him:
Eric on an epic snowy mountain
If you see him in one of our stores (or on an epic snowy mountain), give him a high five or something because he is the rockstar of rewards and no matter what, he’ll always be out there helping you get free stuff.
“FiveStars Rewards Program Lightens Wallets, Eventually Saves Money”
Between eateries and gift shops, it’s easy to carry so many frequent shopper cards that your wallet has lost its original shape. Silicon Valley start-upFiveStars has come up with a consolidating solution, a rewards program that replaces individual businesses’ punch cards with one digital version that adds its own extra incentives for visiting. The growing list of participants includes a selection of restaurants, bakeries, coffee/tea houses, and dessert eateries mainly located from San Francisco to the South Bay; the latter, being home to FiveStars, is particularly well represented at the moment.
Some of the best deals to be had right now include checking in ten times at S.F.’s Pho Garden for a free bowl of pho, or five times at Berkeley’sC.R.E.A.M. to receive one free ice cream sandwich. We know that every week seems to bring another hustling discount service, but since this one appears to differ in its model from the glut of coupon sites out there, we’re not ready to count it out just yet. [The Feast]
Happenings at HQ
Everyone I know asks me if working at a start-up is like the Social Network. And no, it’s not. Well, our devs do get “plugged in” when they are pushing out an update to the site, or rolling out a feature. And we DO work around the clock. But it’s fun! and even more fun when you get to run ad campaigns like these on our FB page.
And it feels epic here at headquarters. It feels like a storm is building when you close 40+ businesses in a week (mad shout-outs to our sales team), and you start rolling out all the cool features that you’ll see soon on our website: Five Stars Card. Or you can just check out our map.
All in all we are rolling forward! We have around 150 businesses and are adding more everyday and working hard to bring Five Stars closer to you and the places that you love in the Bay Area! As for our team we are now 20 people strong and growing 
If you have any questions or comments or are just a curious business owner, we are here for you, and here to help! info@fivestarscard.com
