Which is the most kedekut restaurant chain? We test their loyalty programs

Since time immemorial, one question has always plagued Malaysians: How do I get free stuff? Well, we know that there’s a thing such as reward programs where, if you spend enough of your hard-earned cash at an establishment, they reward you back in some way.

But not all reward/loyalty programs are made equal, and we wanted to know which restaurant chains actually has the most berbaloi rewards program.

With a budget of RM1,000, we set out to treat our selves objectively test the rewards programs offered by the following chains:

• KFC
• Nando’s
• McDonald’s
• Tealive
• The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf (CBTL)
• Starbucks
• Pizza Hut

Many many packs of Chi Kit Teck Aun pills later, we compiled our findings and ranked these franchises based on:

1. How easy their reward programs are to understand,
2. The chances of effing up the process of getting those rewards
3. The ratio of reward value to spending cost

Starting with our top pick….

 

1. Nando’s – best reward-to-money-spent ratio

• Loyalty program name: Generously Generous Rewards Programme
• Loyalty points: Chillies
• Conversion rate: RM30 = 1 Chilli
• Percentage you get back as reward: 24% – 25% (RM21.90-22.90/RM90)*

*We calculated the percentage by dividing the price of the reward with the minimum amount of money we have to spend IRL. In Nando’s case, the chicken meal reward is RM22.90, and you need 3 Chillies (min. RM30 spend each) to get it. 

How it works:

Nando’s Generously Generous Rewards Programme is pretty straightforward: spend RM30 in a single receipt to collect a Chilli. Collect 3 Chillies, and you get a free meal.

To start collecting Chillies, just register as a member online by scanning the QR codes found on the tables at their outlets and you’re set. Once you’re logged in, you can make your order to start collecting Chillies. To make keeping track of our rewards easier, though, we registered through their app.

Once you’ve collected 3 Chillies, you can redeem your reward through their website. Unlike many other outlets, you don’t need to make another purchase to claim: simply walk in and get your bounties. If all this online stuff scares you, just do what we did and talk to the staff, and they’ll walk you through the procedure. Anyway, you choose from four free meals:

As an added bonus, if you keep collecting Chillies and redeeming them long enough, you’ll get an extra reward when you reach 50 Chillies: a Full Platter. Also, there’s a birthday month bonus, but neither of our birthdays are near enough to test this out.

Our actual experience:

We got 1 Chilli upon signing up using the app and filling in some details, and another Chilli with our purchase – so that’s 2 Chillies in one day. We tried to cheat by making two separate orders, and found out there’s a limit of only one Chilli a day per customer. We came back the next day and collected our third Chilli, redeeming our 1/4 chicken meal reward on the spot.

As a side note, with all the fuss about redeeming Chillies, the kindhearted manager must have thought we were students trying to save money because she gave us free drinks when Jake ate his free meal at the restaurant. Bonus points for great staff! The drink was bottomless, so we took a few refills. Apparently they also have bottomless froyo, but Jake was too full to try that out. Maybe next time.

All things considered, we found that you will confirm get a Chilli with every visit since the basic 1/4 chicken meal with drink will already hit the RM30 minimum. There’s also no purchase requirement to claim the reward, so you can walk in like a boss and eat for free every 4th visit without paying for anything. We also liked that Nando’s will give you a free full chicken platter for just being a regular customer.

Overall we spent RM101.70 to redeem the reward, which works out to be a 23% return on spending. 

Pros:

• Highest reward value vs money spent of all franchises we’ve tested (by a huge margin)
• Chillies never expire. Ever.
• Not hard to earn 1 Chilli with 1 meal, since their standard meals are around RM30-ish.
• No need to buy anything to claim reward. Just walk in and get a free meal.

Cons:

• Can only redeem 1 Chilli a day.
• To get the most value from dining with large groups, have to get separate checks and make sure everyone is a member.

 

2. Pizza Hut – best for large groups

• Loyalty program name: Hut Rewards
• Loyalty points: Slices
• Conversion rate: RM30 = 1 Slice
• Percentage you get back as reward: from 6% (RM16.50/RM270) to 9% (RM7.90/RM90)

How it works:

You have to register for a Hut Rewards membership to start earning Slices (because pizza has slices geddit?). Every RM30 spent in one bill gives you 1 Slice, which you can exchange for free stuff. Rewards get better in increments of three Slices – 3 Slices gets a free side dish, 6 Slices gets you wings, etc.

Also, there’s some spin the wheel thing on their app that rewards you with free soup and stuff. We have no idea how to get the spins, but it doesn’t deduct Slices so that’s good.

Our actual experience:

Because pizza is for sharing, we threw a mini pizza party in the office and got 3 Slices with that single order. This turned out to be a good call because you don’t get Slices when dining in. For lunch the next day, we ate alone and redeemed a free Tasty Chicken Bites side with our single pasta combo meal.

We spent RM101.50 to redeem a RM7.90 reward, which works out to be a 8% return on spending. Although it isn’t as high as Nando’s, we appreciated how easy it was to collect Slices.

Pros:

• Can get Slices pretty easily – especially in large groups
• No stated limit to the number of Slices you can collect in a day
• According to their FAQ, you can claim up to 4 rewards in a single order.

Cons:

• Slices expire in three months, so better not forget about them.

3. McD – most flexible in getting points

• Loyalty program name: MyMcdonald’s Rewards
• Loyalty points: Just… ‘points’
• Conversion rate: RM1 = 10 points
• Percentage you get back as reward: from 3% (RM1.42/RM50) to 6% (RM12.17/RM200)

How it works:

MyMcdonald’s Rewards points collection are done through the McDonald’s app, whether through McDelivery or scanning the QR code at their physical outlets.  Every RM1 spent will get you 10 points, which can be redeemed for menu items. However you cannot redeem through McDelivery because you need to scan a QR code, and these points expire after a year. 

Our actual experience:

We were aiming for the 500-point sundae cone, which requires a RM50 spend. However, we got a one-off 500 points for free after our first order, and managed to claim the reward on the following day.

We spent RM20.50 to redeem a RM1.42 reward, but we got the points for free. Otherwise, it should be around the 3% return on spending mark.

Pros:

• Free 500 points for first purchase (new sign-up, one time only).
• Points are given for all purchase options (delivery, dine in, takeout, drive thru, etc).

Cons:

• Maximum cap of 25,000 points.
• You can only get points for your first ten purchases of the day.

4. KFC – most straightforward but boring reward program

• Loyalty program name: Finger Lickin’ Good Rewards
• Loyalty points: KFC reward points
• Conversion rate: RM1 = 1 KFC reward point
• Percentage you get back as reward: 4% (RM7/RM175)

How it works:

You get 1 KFC Reward Point per RM1 spent through their website or app. Every 25 KFC Reward Points gets you a RM1 discount off your next order. That’s it. Can’t get more cookie-cutter than that.

As a side note, the KFC Rewards site says something about getting RM10 off instantly upon joining the KFC family, but we didn’t get it. Guess we’re not family 🙁

Our actual experience:

It might sound like nitpicking, but we found KFC’s Finger Lickin’ Good Rewards to be uninspiring. They could have called the points Colonel Coins, Coleslaw Cash, MashPotatoPoints, or just not bother giving it a name and call them “points”.

You can only get points by ordering for delivery or self-collect through the app/website, but we discovered that not every outlet offers self-collect. Other than that, the process is pretty straightforward. Nine dinner plates later, we scraped up enough points to get a RM7 discount for another dinner plate.

We spent RM209.40 to redeem a RM7 discount, which is a 3% return on spending. We could have actually gotten an RM8 discount but the points from our last purchase took a hot n spicy minute to show up, so we settled for RM7 instead.

Pros:

• So simple it’s almost impossible to eff up.

Cons:

• Not all outlets offer self-collection.
• Points will expire

 

5. Starbucks – most T20 reward program

• Loyalty program name: Starbucks® Rewards
• Loyalty points: STARs
• Conversion rate: RM1 = 1 STAR
• Percentage you get back as reward: 1% – 7% (RM4.46-RM19.61/RM300)

How it works:

Pay using either the Starbucks Card (like a top-up card you can get at the counter) or their app, and you’ll get 1 STAR for every ringgit spent. Collect 300 STARs and you can choose to get a grande handcrafted beverage, a food from their list, or selected merchandise.

That’s it. Very straightforward and you can clearly see your reward options.

Our actual experience:

On the first day, we bought a Starbucks Card at the counter and started ordering. All went well at first, but we quickly realized that pursuing a grande caramel macchiato frappe (RM19.61) reward would eat up a third of our budget – The minimum 300 STARs translates to RM300. Yikes.

With that in mind, we stopped at 100.7 points and deemed this one a failure on our part. Should have asked editor for a higher budget.

Pros:

• STARs don’t expire.
• You can earn fractions of a STAR, so spending RM1.50 gets you 1.5 points instead of 1 point.

Cons:

• This has the highest minimum spending threshold (RM300) for claiming a reward, by a wide margin.

 

6. Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf (CBTL) – most suited for extroverts

• Loyalty program name: The Coffee Bean Card… we guess?
• Loyalty points: BEANS
• Conversion rate: RM1 = 5 BEANs
• Percentage you get back as reward: 5% (RM5/RM100)

How it works:

These last two franchises are a tale of woe for us, and we don’t feel like writing much about them. For CBTL, suffice to say that information about their rewards program is relatively lacking online, and miscommunication with the staff at the store didn’t help much. The gist of how it works is you get a CBTL card at their outlet, buy credits for it, and pay for your purchases with the card to get CBTL points, which they call BEANs.

These BEANs can later be used to buy stuff or offset your purchases, just like money, at a rate of 100 BEANs/RM1. Redemption can start once you collect 500 BEANs.

Our actual experience:

As we said earlier, the lack of information caused some hiccups, and we ended up spending more than we need to reach 500 points. On the final day, a different guy manned the counter and helpfully explained how it works. We finally managed to get our 500 points, and used it as a RM5 discount on our last purchase.

In total, we spent RM195.90 to redeem a RM5 discount, which is a 3% return on spending, which tbh isn’t so far from the theoretical 5%. Had the instructions been clearer and more readily available, it’s not that bad of a rewards program.

Pros:

• To be fair, it’s a pretty straightforward system. We’d have no complaints had they been written down clearly (or if we’re psychics).

Cons:

• Have to topup the card every time if you want points, which wouldn’t be so mafan if you actually go there frequently.
• Website buggy and unclear, and no Malaysia-specific app found.
• BEANS will expire in 2 years… after last card use? After last earning BEANs? We’re not sure. We can’t understand the FAQ very well.

 

7. Tealive – WHAT REWARDS??!!

• Loyalty program name: Tealive Club
• Loyalty points: Tpoints
• Conversion rate: RM1 = 1 Tpoint
• Percentage you get back as reward: 5% (RM6.23/RM130)

How it works:

If CBTL’s instructions are lacking, the Tealive Club is the opposite: too much information, much of which are hidden in enough fine print to trip up a cat. The complexity of the reward system itself made things a lot more painful than it needs to be. Like, there are tiers with different rewards, guys. And they can even downgrade you for not buying enough bubble teas!

Explaining how to navigate all these would take up an article on its own, so suffice to say we ditched the insulting Tpoints system with its insulting rewards…

…and tried to go for the Buy 10 Free 1 reward, which is available at the Elite Tier. Can’t understand that sentence? Neither could we at first. Don’t worry about it. Just skip to the end of the article now, you won’t miss anything.

Our actual experience:

The game plan is to get enough points to advance to Elite Tier, then buy 10 drinks, get stamps, and claim a free drink. But it’s a bit more complicated than that. We wrestled with using their buggy app (which has a nasty habit of restarting whenever minimized), actually getting Tpoints (there are several payment options, not all give Tpoints), and getting tripped up by the teeny tiny T&Cs that you only realize once you view the voucher.

After many rounds of trying and RM118.90 later, we successfully collected ZERO stamps. Yep, not even 1! So we were nowhere close to claiming their “amazing” reward – a basic boba-less tea (worth a maximum of RM6.60, which excludes most of the menu).

Pros:

• Technically free drink upon joining, through the Buy 1 Free 1 voucher given at sign-up.
• People who like abuse might find this enjoyable.

Cons:

• T&Cs so complicated, even an entire law firm wouldn’t be able to decipher it.
• App is very buggy and unpleasant to use.
• Overall too much effort for not much of a payout.

Different chains punya rewards bagaikan langit dan bumi

Overall, our favourite was definitely Nando’s because we got an entire free meal with very little spending, followed by Pizza Hut as a close second. These 2 chains also made claiming the rewards super easy, with simple mechanics and fabulous user interface on their apps, which made us feel like they actually cared about the customers.

Can’t say the same for the bottom 2 chains though. Those killed our faith in humanity.

What do you guys think? Are there any other chains you’d like us to test out? Let us know in the comments and we’ll try to ask our boss for more budget.