Terri Snyder, Chief Marketing Officer and Senior Vice President of Checkers and Rally’s Drive-In Restaurants, told Loyalty 360 that she believes the 2014 launch of a mobile loyalty program will be “transformative” for the company.
Checkers and Rally’s new mobile wallet app will lead its customer initiatives, such as CRM, loyalty, and stored value. Snyder said Checkers and Rally’s will be the first QSR to lead such a campaign on a fully mobile platform; all digital offers, rewards/loyalty, and stored value will be available on the app without the need for physical coupons or cards.
“Financially, it will grow sales for us make our brand stickier,” Snyder said. “Ordering ahead will make it easier for customers. It’s that easiness with the app. We never had a loyalty program before so this is a significant leap. I’m really excited. We’ll be able to better understand what people are buying. We listen to our customers and this will give us terrific data and make our offers smarter and more of a surprise and delight. It will be a whole different kind of customer experience. I think it’s a powerful differentiator.”
Snyder said the company will leverage CARDFREE’s mobile commerce platform. With almost 800 locations across the U.S., Checkers and Rally’s is the largest double drive-thru restaurant chain in the country. The platform will enable Checkers/Rally’s to tie all programs together with mobile acting as a common thread. The platform gives merchants a comprehensive view of their customers that traditional programs have been unable to do, based on individual behaviors and preferences. Snyder said testing on the app will begin early next year.
“Knowing and understanding customer behavior is a huge opportunity for us,” she said. “In the fast food category, I think it’s a massive opportunity to build one more platform that makes the brand a little stickier. We’ve been thinking about this for some time. Now we’re moving to a growth platform. We have the money, time, and capability to do something pretty significant. This is where we have to own that and the brand has to own the strategy and data and relationships.”
The CARDDREE end-to-end solution was critical, Snyder said.
“It literally gives us all of that functionality in one platform,” she said. “They have so much experience in our category.”
Snyder said the company chose the mobile loyalty route because she believes mobile will be the key platform in the near future.
“Our customer base is predominantly Millennials and they use mobile the most,” Snyder said. “I think that’s where much of the new technology will be in the next three to five years.”
Snyder said the program will be conducted in a phased rollout next year.
“Your ability to send offers that will surprise and delight customers will be huge for us,” she said. “Customers want discounts and offers tailored to them. Our customers will be more surprised and delighted. With the rapid adoption of smartphones, we think we’ll be in the right place at the right time.”