LUCKIEES? WHAT'S THAT?
luckiee (noun, pl. luckiees) /lʌkii/ : a rolled fortune slip usually served with a hot beverage
Luckiees are a nice and simple compliment businesses offer to their customers. The wishes on the fortune slips are always positive, sometimes funny and other times very profound. While they may seem as a cute little gesture, luckiees are actually a powerful tool, which boosts customer satisfaction, retention rate, sales and brand awareness.
RETENTION RATE AND LOYALTY
+25% returning clients
SALES AND SATISFACTION
+15%
BRAND AWARENESS
+30% increase
One in seven customers will buy another cup of coffee just so that they can get another luckiee. Three in four customers will keep their luckiee and literally carry your brand in their pocket, wallet or bag for months, post it on socials and show it to their friends.
WHO ARE LUCKIEES FOR?
Luckiees originated some 20 years ago in a coffee shop in Eastern Europe. Since then they have been mostly associated with a cup of hot beverage, however, any business that sells products or services to customers directly can benefit from the power of luckiees.
COFFEE SHOPS
Whether they take their coffee to go or enjoy it at the premises, customers always take a few seconds to find out what fortune holds for them that day. In some countries luckiees exist in every single coffee shop.
RESTAURANTS, BARS, CAFES, BAKERIES
Luckiees can be served with a beverage or a desert. The last impression a customer gets from a venue will often determine whether they would visit again - luckiees are a great way to make sure they do come back.
LOCAL BUSINESSES
Shops, delis, beauty salons, even shared offices would offer luckiees to people who visit them - they can be great conversation starters and a subtle way to put the customer at ease.
THE UNUSUAL STORY OF LUCKIEES
From o-mikuji through fortune cookies to luckiees:
a time-transcendant tale spanning from the far east to the far west
Omikuji (御御籤/御神籤/おみくじ) are fortunes written on strips of paper at Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples in Japan. Literally "sacred lot", these are usually received by making a small offering and randomly choosing one from a box, hoping for the resulting fortune to be good. Said to originate in the practice of drawing lots and used in ancient times to gain divine guidance for decisions like choosing an heir or deciding on government policy, these fortune slips became part of everyday religion in the early days of the Kamakura period (1185-1333).
Fast forward to 1870s, some confectionary shops near Kyoto, Japan started selling a cracker with a folded shape and a fortune tucked into the bend, instead of its hollow inside. It’s called the “tsujiura senbei,” or “fortune cracker”.
There are many theories, and much speculation surrounding the invention of the fortune cookie as we know it today. In 1983, there was even a mock trial held in San Francisco's pseudo-legal Court of Historical Review to determine the origins of the fortune cookie. The most prevailing theories are that it was a Chinese or Japanese immigrant who introduced the concept in California, USA, in the beginning of the 20th century.
Since fortune knows no boundaries, in 2001 at a small coffee shop in Eastern Europe, a young entrepreneur stumbled upon the power of fortune. He started writing fortunes on pieces of paper and left them at the coffee shop for other customers to enjoy. A couple of days later the owners, thrilled by the effect these paper slips had on their customers, tracked him down and asked for more. He went on to supply thousands of local businesses with what he referred to as "coffee tickets".
20 years later in the midst of the Covid pandemic two couples coined the term "luckiee" and embarked on a quest to bring more smiles in a world that definitely needed some good luck!
PEOPLE WHO GOT LUCKIEE
Fortune favors our clients
Oh they sure get hooked on it! I have this client who is into cryptocurrencies and he would buy and sell these currencies according to what his luckiee says every morning. This lady once got 6 coffees just to get a luckiee about love...love makes you do crazy things, doesn't it?
Marissa Johnson
Coffee shop owner
We started serving luckiees with coffee or tea orders after lunch - now most of our regulars care more about their luckiee than our lunch menu! Oh, and the staff never forgets to bring over luckiees - they say it's for good luck, but I can see they are getting more tips than ever!
Sean Stevens
Restaurant owner
Luckiees help a lot, especially when a customer has to wait a bit before I can start working with them. They grab a luckiee and 90% of the time that sparks a conversation and time passes by quickly. I did have a few walk-ins who came to the salon just because they heard we have luckiees.