At Arby’s, compelling customer experiences lead to brand loyalty. It is part of the company’s culture and permeates every customer interaction.
Jeff Baker, VP, Brand Experience, Arby’s Restaurant Group, Inc., talked to Loyalty360 about this and many other customer loyalty tactics employed by the company.
How would you assess or characterize Arby’s approach toward customer loyalty, customer engagement, and the customer experience?
We train, trust, and empower our restaurant teams to deliver the Arby’s Brand Purpose of Inspiring Smiles Through Delicious Experiences. Our Make It Right service culture is intended to highly satisfy our guests and ultimately build brand loyalty. We extend the philosophy to social channels, where we seek to engage rather than sell. The lens for each interaction is ensuring that our conversation is adding value vs. a megaphone for self-promotion. Guests have noticed when we’re willing to engage in ways that are fun, self-aware and imperfect (Jon Stewart and our Pepsi Commercial as examples). We believe the personification and personal connection we’re able to build through this approach builds guest loyalty.
Simplicity was one of the main themes at our Loyalty Expo in April. How does Arby’s simplify its customer relationships to enhance brand loyalty?
There are countless ways to add complexity to decision making balancing all the dynamics of a multi-billion dollar business. We keep it simple by maintaining a singular focus on the guest. How can we provide them the best experience possible? That simple lens makes many decisions easier. 
Marketers are tasked to be more data-centric than ever before, yet the challenge of creating actionable insight from data is more challenging than before. What is your advice for marketers?
We believe data is incredibly important to the decision-making process. However, in most situations we believe that data should be used to inform a decision with consideration to objective, strategies, and judgment. Few decisions are entirely black and white based on a single data point. It’s also important to consider that certain data points can be misleading and some important variables can’t be measured by data.
How should brands attempt to keep up with the rapid proliferation of technologies, especially with some of the newer technologies harder to measure versus more traditional technologies that brands are more comfortable with?
Stay focused on the guest experience and business and marketing objectives. Astounding technological advancements continue to change how we interact with the world. A focus on who your guest is and what you’re trying to accomplish is critical. It’s easy to be distracted with new technology.
And, I’d recommend with any first or new initiative to be willing to accept both success and failure towards the goal of learning and continual improvement.