One of the great things about being in this industry is helping iconic brands grow and adjust to the market. Checkers & Rally’s offers our latest opportunity to be part of such a change. The brand has always been known for its great burgers and its drive-thru locations, but just this week announced that it closed $20 million in funding to fuel new growth. Now its new Paytronix-driven loyalty program and mobile app will be a key part of that strategy, as the company predicts the rewards program and app will help increase guest visits by as much as 20% and increase guest spend by as much as 15%.

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Today we caught up with Systems Administrator Paul Marrero of Uncle Julio’s, the person behind the award-winning campaign that Uncle Julio’s was recognized for today with a 2017 Loyaltees Award. Paul offered some additional insight on how he’s leveraging Paytronix and the Uncle Julio’s loyalty platform to make an impact. 

Paytronix: Congratulations Paul, on Uncle Julio’s recognition as a 2017 Loyaltees Award winner. Thanks for taking the time to tell us a bit more about your loyalty platform today. As the System Administrator for Uncle Julio’s, you are the person responsible for designing the loyalty program, or the Uncle Julio’s Loyalty Czar as we’ve heard you called.

Paul: Thanks, the Uncle Julio’s team is honored by the recognition.

Paytronix: In talking with you about the Uncle Julio’s loyalty program, you mentioned having done away with your old email club in the process. How has the Paytronix platform replaced your previous email solution and how are you leveraging the integration of email and loyalty today? […]

There’s an interesting problem that restaurants with loyalty programs face. All of the behavioral data gleaned from these programs means that restaurants can easily identify their best customers: the people who spend the most and visit most frequently. And that’s very useful for creating profitable campaigns.

Running unsegmented promotions can cannibalize profit because your best guests will receive the same promotion as your less frequent customers. Your best guests are going to come in anyway, and discounting purchases they were already going to make can hurt profits.

Discounts and promotions designed to drive revenue should only […]

For a quite a while, Chipotle executives didn’t believe loyalty programs were for them. In fact, Mark Crumpacker, CCO/CDO of Chipotle, said in September 2015*, “We don’t believe the general supposition that loyalty will make less frequent customers more frequent.”

However, from the fourth quarter of 2015 into the early second quarter of 2016, Chipotle had a few health scares that contributed to its stock prices — and sales — to take a tumble.

In summer 2016, Chipotle was ready to rethink its stance on loyalty programs and launched its Chiptopia Summer Rewards, a three-month tiered loyalty program.

It’s reasonable to assume, based on the structure of the program (that we’ll cover next) and the business challenges they were experiencing, that
Chipotle’s motivation in creating its loyalty program was to increase visits.

Note: Before we go any further, we want to make it clear that Chipotle is not a client of Paytronix. This blog post is designed to analyze the Chiptopia program, share what worked and what didn’t, and help you think — or rethink — your own loyalty program.

The Chipotle Loyalty Program Structure: How It Worked

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