What is MeDine and how does it work?
How about getting rewarded for eating? 'MeDine' is a (free) mobile app that automatically gives rewards to people for just walking into restaurants/cafes.
We dish out tons of rewards for people who walk into restaurants/cafes and the rewards can be redeemed for watching free movies or recharging your mobile for free or buying stuff online or pampering yourself with shopping or spa treatments.
You have to remember to just keep the app! MeDine has been listed as a top check-in app in Google Playstore (around#32 globally).
One can also check interactive & searchable menu cards, check out what's good to eat where (dish recommendations) and also place orders through the app – all activities translate into real rewards!
How does the check-in and rewards concept work in the app? How do you redeem and for what items?
Earning rewards is extremely simple. All you need to do is to just keep the app (we do not even mandate you to do anything more) and rewards will start raining in.
Every time you walk into a MeDine partner restaurant/cafe, the app's 'intelligent assist' feature automatically recognizes that you are in a partner restaurant and alerts you to collect reward points. So, you do not have any hassle to check out which places its applicable, how many rewards etc. but simply tap when you get the alert.
Reward redemption is one click away and you can choose from a host of 22 brands that you can redeem the reward for. The rewards are essentially e-gift cards/vouchers of various brands online, offline stores, mobile recharges, shopping vouchers (with no conditions like you have to buy for X Rs. etc) that come straight into the app itself.
From a customer's standpoint, the reward points can be redeemed anytime against a host of shopping, lifestyle, ecommerce or utilitarian e-vouchers.
You can chose to watch a movie free and get bookmyshow egift voucher in your app or if you want to buy stuff online, you can redeem for e gift vouchers of Flipkart, Amazon, Lifestyle, Coffee day, Jabong, Shoppers Stop, Myntra etc.
You can chose to get a bit pampered through select spa treatments or if you chose to recharge your mobile free of cost or pay your bills. SO a customer gets a host of additional benefits and earns great rewards for just having the app.
What is this "intelligent assist" and how does this work?
In almost all the apps across the world, you open the app and then they show you all near-by places and you select a place to check-in and that's posted on your social network etc. In MeDine, you do not have to remember to check-in also.
The app tells you that you are in a partner restaurant/café and once it pops up, all you need to do is tap once.
This 'intelligent assist' is based on a multitude of factors and works even if you are NOT connected to the internet – Yes, even if you are not connected to the internet you can earn rewards. Its context-aware, hyper location-aware and will get personalized over time.
Apart from rewards for eating, what else can I do with the app ?
Yes, apart from the rewards, MeDine also helps you in choosing the right dish that you will love as well as in conveniently ordering through the app for everyone. You can also browse an interactive menu and chose to preorder through the app to get more rewards.
You can help other foodies by providing dish level reviews as well as get additional rewards or simply you can make that one tap when it asks you to do & move on without doing too much.
Each activity has specific points and each point's value equals Re.1 – so no need to calculate and figure out what you have but the rewards are shown in the app.
What were the initial challenges encountered in building this app?
The biggest challenge in building this app was to find technical people with high capabilities and a sense of ownership. We were lucky to find Anita Bhat who heads our Engineering and is also a founding team member who painstakingly worked through multiple pivots in making the app better everyday.
Getting 'MeDine intelligent assist' pop up in a restaurant without you doing anything and even when you are offline is a big challenge too. The app popping up with a context and intelligence is a tough task and we are continuously bettering it tweaking the algorithms.
How many restaurants have been tied up till now? How many consumers do you have?
We have more than 700+ restaurants in Bangalore and more than 10K+ users (all on mobile as it's a mobile only company)
How is the response and what are your future growth plans ?
The response has been great and the google listing of being a top check-in app is a testimony of the same. We see a steady growth in both app downloads and usage.
Our repeat rates from inception have been more than 50% on an average and this shows the tremendous faith that consumers have shown us. On expansion, we will soon be launching in the next city (City-2) where we are closer to 200 restaurant sign-ups already and plan to get to 500 very soon there too.
8. How do people know about the concept and the app?
At the moment, we are completely relying on word of mouth, referrals and an exceptional customer experience to whosoever makes use of our product. We shall spend some marketing efforts and brand building in the near future apart from focusing on the current channels.
Learn more about MeDine:
Press/News: http://blog.medine.in/news
Rewards for eating -Download now at www.medine.in or at http://goo.gl/1FV3Ps
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