Staying on the cutting edge of rapidly changing technology and evolving consumer expectations places customer loyalty as an absolute key priority at Chili’s Grill & Bar®.
Wade Allen, VP Digital Innovation & Customer Engagement for Chili’s, spoke to Loyalty360 about this key theme for the company.
“It’s one of the top three initiatives across the company,” Allen explained. “We’re committed to our loyalty program that is the best in the business. That means, for us, guests are satisfied, team members believe in the program, and its profitable for Chili’s. We’re transitioning from My Chili Rewards to My Chili’s + Plenti starting in Q4. We will reward with points or surprise & delight elements. We’re excited about it! It will give our base customers broader earning power across a myriad of options.”
What’s more, Chili’s has been very focused on the mobile space to create better customer experiences.
“Having things delivered where you are, the ability to pay through your phone … these are just a few things on our road map to deliver to our guests,” Allen said. “We’re making sure our app has all of the right capabilities for loyalty points, geolocation, and queuing for a restaurant. Mobile is for me, but web is for all. We’re very committed to mobile and making it an even better, more personalized, customer experience.”
What is the biggest opportunity Allen sees via mobile?
“Changing the thinking that we’re an on-premises restaurant to deliver and provide food anywhere,” he said. “I believe the opportunity is to use mobile devices for customers to consume our product anywhere and everywhere.”
Allen sees a recurring theme when it comes to future customer loyalty trends.
“Frictionless loyalty,” he said. “The ability to walk into a restaurant and your device syncs with the location you’re at. It knows everything about you and those are served up in a personalized, relevant fashion. Personalization isn’t realistic, but can be now because we carry devices in our pockets that can ID us. I think the best example is Amazon Prime. Amazon Prime provides free shipping and customers really see it as high perceived value.”
Personalization is a term used broadly among loyalty marketers.
“The issue with personalization is speed, and how fast we can analyze transactions, ID key insights, and deploy communications,” Allen said. “Speed, timing, and synchronization is difficult today.”
Chili’s always listens to its customer and turns those ideas into operational efficiencies by region, state, restaurant, and down to the team member.
“We learn what guests do and do not like,” Allen said. “The most valuable asset is the data and feedback we get from our guests telling us how they want it and recommendations to improve it.”
Allen offered his views on what constitutes a challenger brand.
“Being first to market on ideas, and willing to try new and innovative things,” he said. “You have to be truly bold and willing to change things. As a challenger brand, you won’t always be successful. They aspire to see the newest greatest thing. It also means you pay the price and pay for all the R&D while others can sit back and see if you’re successful and then jump on.”