Chipotle Creates A New Type of Customer Loyalty Program

1/25/2020 Chipotle creates a new type of customer loyalty program
 
Case Study
Trends Industry Insights
How Chipotle created a recipe for
enhanced customer loyalty
 Jon Glick  22 Jan 2020  8 minutes
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Hoping to gain an in-depth understanding of its customers, the fast casual

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I U N D E R S TA N D
restaurant chain Chipotle completely revamped its loyalty program.
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https://www.digitalpulse.pwc.com.au/chipotle-enhanced-customer-loyalty/ 1/8
Wanting to be a leader in customer loyalty, Chipotle asked PwC to help it

determine the best way to develop and implement an exceptional customer
loyalty program.
Chipotle’s new rewards program garnered 1 million enrolments in the first
week and 7 million within seven months.
Who would have thought combining buttery avocado, a dash of cilantro, and a hearty scoop
of rice and beans would result in taste-bud heaven? According to folk history, taco vendor
Juan Méndez created the modern burrito accidentally: He just wanted to keep his ingredients
warm, so he wrapped them in a flour tortilla.
Méndez’s impromptu idea has since become a gustatory favourite. Fast casual restaurant
chain Chipotle alone sells hundreds of burritos per location every day.
But inventing the perfect rice-to-beans ratio is a lot less complicated than creating a recipe
that brings together everything you need to know about your customers, including the ability
to identify and communicate with them individually, reward the most loyal ones and keep
customers coming back for repeat business.
The desire to gain an in-depth understanding of its customers led Chipotle to undertake a
holistic rethinking of its loyalty program, including the functions, businesses and partnerships.
The goal: To connect digital and mobile tech with its app to create an extraordinary customer
experience on the front end, and to use data and insights on the back end to drive
continuous knowledge and improvement in every part of the business. Achieving this goal
required linking disparate technologies, digital and mobile ordering, a reinvented app, and
changes in the way the chain’s more than 2,500 restaurants serve customers.
As one executive declared, “We didn’t just want to be the best fast casual loyalty program;
we want to be known among the leaders in loyalty.”
Cooking up an
18-month program
Chipotle brought in PwC US to collaborate with its executives on the best way to implement
its new loyalty program and to quarterback the 18-month effort. The approach centred on a
We use cookies to personalize content and to provide you with an improved user I U N D E R S TA N D
new way ofBy
experience. working that
continuing PwC calls
to browse BXT
this site you (Business,
consent to theExperience,
use of cookies. Technology), which brings
Pleasestrategy,
together business visit our cookie policy for
customer andfurther details. experience, and technology experts in
employee
order to get multiple perspectives with which to transform a company. This way of working1
— constantly collaborating, being open to new ideas and giving individuals the leeway to test
out those ideas — can bring people to consensus and yield faster results.
In Chipotle’s case, a loyalty program was the number-one request of customers, and that
meant assessing what loyalty actually encompassed — beyond a tired ‘buy nine, get one
free’ punch card. The program had to support an enhanced vision of what loyalty would look
like, and getting to that vision involved multiple teams based in diverse locations.
The first play involved tossing all the restaurant’s pain points on the table and drawing up a
customised change management playbook. The winning touchdown: capturing new sets of
data (who is purchasing what, when, where, etc.) that could be tied to clusters of individuals
with similar attributes that Chipotle could communicate with on a personal level as well as
strategically. For example, it was helpful to know that mobile and online orders were
increasing, but to significantly improve customer experiences and drive investments, the
company needed to understand the patterns around when and where those increases
occurred.
That kind of data helped Chipotle make key decisions, such as creating a ‘digital make line’.
The company learned that when customers get to the front of the line at a restaurant, they
don’t want their order delayed by an incoming digital order. That insight into the burrito-
pipeline backup helped Chipotle determine the importance of creating a secondary food
assembly make line that’s dedicated to digital orders.
Getting buy-in
for big changes
As Chipotle began introducing new ways of working via sweeping system and process
changes, it needed to get buy-in. Recognising that it’s human nature to resist change, we
assembled an integrated program team to work with all restaurant functions and create a
‘we’re in this together’ way of working, with all ideas taken seriously. Vendors and their
competitors worked hand in hand and focused on providing good service to Chipotle. A
detailed technology roadmap made it easier to define the design and technology
requirements of the company’s loyalty program, and also merged the needs of teams located
around the world, while always keeping customers’ privacy top of mind.
Getting all systems
experience. to talk
By continuing to each
to browse other
this site you was complicated,
consent as different vendors were
to the use of cookies.
responsible forPlease
Chipotle’s
visit our secure account
cookie policy creation,
for further details.offer management and loyalty/CRM
systems. However, a ‘special sauce’ made everything click. The plan started by coordinating
data flow and timing with the vendors in order to create a seamless customer account and
loyalty profile.
Then, we helped reconcile digital online ordering data (which is real time) with in-restaurant
data (which can be delayed a bit) to provide a fast, accurate experience for loyalty members
that lets them rack up loyalty points immediately. In addition, the company built data systems
that could understand the differences between base points and promotional points (for
ordering an item a certain number of times via the app or online) to ensure accurate
accounting.
‘Feed’
back
To test the loyalty program, Chipotle initiated a limited rollout in 150 restaurants in three
markets: Phoenix; Columbus, Ohio; and Kansas City, Missouri/Kansas. The rollout also
included a command centre, where Chipotle and PwC representatives, along with the
relevant tech vendors, gathered to troubleshoot the system and resolve any issues that might
arise. The response to the program was positive, and the technology worked as planned.
Feedback from the command centre was incorporated into the program’s national rollout,
during which nearly two dozen teams from Chipotle, PwC and the tech vendors were taken to
Chipotle’s support centre in Columbus, Ohio. There, the focus was on ensuring a successful
launch and quickly triaging potential issues. The behind-the-curtain problem-solvers tweaked
operations; the data crunchers determined which levers to pull for promotions and rewards;
and the front-of-the-house employees (cashiers and food service workers) helmed face-to-
face customer interactions.
Rewarding
efforts
The effort paid off. In what a Chipotle executive called “the most seamless rollout ever”, the
team helped tap into the company culture to bring its more than 80,000 employees together
toWemake
use cookies to personalize
digital-driven content andand
operations to provide you with
customer an improved
loyalty userThe payoff:
a reality. I UNaD99
E R Spercent
TA N D
increase in digital sales, one million enrolments in Chipotle Rewards program in the first
week and seven million within seven months, and US$1.4B in quarterly revenue post-launch,
an increase of 13.2 percent.
Chipotle has certainly come a long way since Méndez’s first accidental burrito.
Posted In: Customer, US perspectives, Retail / Tagged: BXT, digital transformation, customer
experience
Contributor
Jon Glick
Jon is a partner in
Customer Experience
and Loyalty at PwC US,
and a leader in the
company’s customer
strategy consulting
practice.
MORE ABOUT JON GLICK
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1/25/2020 Chipotle creates a new type of customer loyalty program

Hoping to gain an in-depth understanding of its customers, the fast casual

Wanting to be a leader in customer loyalty, Chipotle asked PwC to help it

MORE ABOUT JON GLICK

Previous: All Post Next: Article

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