Blackbird is reshaping the hospitality landscape, fostering authentic loyalty and engagement between restaurants and their best customers. Discover how their exclusive Onchain Summer passes unlock real-world excitement and sweet rewards for diners.
The restaurant industry has always been dynamic and ever-evolving. With countless restaurants vying for attention, owners face the challenge of not only attracting new customers but also fostering loyalty among their existing patrons. In this fast-paced environment, technology can be a powerful ally — the trouble is, restaurants and their customers aren’t particularly well connected today, even as point-of-sale machines have grown more advanced.
Blackbird wants to change all that, and is using onchain technology to give restaurant owners around the country the ability to unlock new levels of value for customers. Ben Leventhal, Blackbird’s founder and CEO, envisions a future where taking restaurants onchain enables new levels of connection between these restaurants and their most loyal patrons.
“We've built a small bit of hardware with our NFC chips that really allows for a very easy and direct digital connection between restaurants and customers,” says Leventhal, “and that digital handshake is something that restaurants haven't previously had at their disposal.” By using Blackbird’s technology, business owners can learn a lot about customers, such as when they last came in, what they like to eat, and even where they last sat. The goal is to make the customers feel at home in the establishments they frequent.
Of course, Blackbird has to provide something to keep those customers coming back, and that’s where $FLY tokens come in. A token that guests earn with every ‘tap-in’, $FLY will soon be redeemable for items and rewards, making getting dinner at your favorite restaurant more enticing than ever. Tap in enough times to become a regular and unlock ‘friends and family’ style perks like off-the-menu dishes sent from the kitchen to your table and the ability to text a concierge for a more spontaneous RSVP system than a traditional reservation-based system would allow. Blackbird works with each restaurant partner to create these bespoke rewards programs and loyalty tiers. As Leventhal says, “We've seen that when businesses show their customers what tapping in with Blackbird can get you, they see increased activity at their restaurant.”
If all this talk has made you hungry, you’ll be happy to know that Blackbird is introducing two exclusive summer passes for Onchain Summer, designed in partnership with the artist Lucian Smith. The first, the Supercharge Summer pass, gives holders a bonus in $FLY tokens for their next tap-in. The second, the Summertime Sweet Pass, gives holders not only $FLY tokens, but a little something more. “To me,” says Ben, “Summer time is about ice cream, sweets, desserts. So with the Summertime Sweet Pass, you earn complimentary sweets at a handful of Blackbird restaurants.” The complimentary ‘sweet surprise’ can be redeemed at eight Blackbird restaurants between August 15th and the 22nd.
Though Blackbird is focused on providing a great summer for participants in Onchain Summer, their impact goes way beyond the passes available today. By incentivizing customers to tap-in and engage with the restaurant onchain, Blackbird hopes those users will become longtime repeat customers at these restaurants. In a competitive landscape where major players like Starbucks continually invest in loyalty programs, Blackbird recognizes the need for independent restaurants to create loyal customers even more diligently. By offering easy and direct digital connections between restaurants and their customers, Blackbird enables these establishments to leverage the power of onchain technology to strengthen customer relationships.
Blackbird is excited for Base to join them in their ambitious goal of removing roadblocks that hinder the adoption of going onchain, bringing the technology to people on a massive scale. As Ben puts it, "The best news of all is that you don't need to know anything about 'crypto' to unlock the magic of Blackbird. So I would say: Grab yourself a pass and go have some ice cream."