Achieving that optimum culture balance goes a long way toward creating, enhancing, and sustaining a memorable customer experience.
At Moe’s Southwest Grill, that optimum culture is present and plays a large role in the company’s brand loyalty efforts.
“The atmosphere inside our restaurants and inside our offices is incredibly in sync,” Dom Losacco, vice president of global marketing for Moe’s, told Loyalty360. “As a general rule, we don’t take ourselves too seriously, and we like to be who we are. Whether on the line or in the office, we’re all working toward the same goal of delivering the highest quality fresh, handmade food possible. hat motivation creates a seamless culture that trickles down to our customers and, ultimately, promises a consistently awesome experience at any of our restaurants and keeps people coming back.”
Customer engagement at Moe’s begins with the quality of the food delivered and providing options that cater to any palate or diet.
“At the core of our brand, we don’t take ourselves too seriously, and we have no problem letting our customers see that side of us all the time,” Losacco said. “We’ve created a really honest and strong foundation for engagement with our customers. We know the way customers are engaging with brands and restaurants is changing, and we pride ourselves on making it a priority to meet our fans where they are. Our mobile app, increased delivery service partnerships, social programs, etc. are examples of how important it is to us to engage with our customers in a way that’s meaningful to them.”
Meeting customers where they are includes mobile.
“Providing a seamless experience to the mobile customer is an imperative part of our business,” Losacco added. “Over the past several years, we have seen double-digit growth in our mobile sales so it continues to be a priority for us. We are testing delivery services and learning how to perfect this new way of bringing Moe’s to where the customers are (including Postmates, Grub Hub, Foodsby, and DoorDash). Due to the shift in mobile sales, and to meet consumer needs, we are testing a two-line operation model to handle the growing demand.”
Moe’s is serious about its “honestly awesome food,” Losacco noted.
“We have a variety of high quality and fresh ingredients made in-house daily and meats grilled right in front of our customers,” he explained. “This allows our fans to create meals with unique combinations and bold flavors in every restaurant, every day. We pride ourselves on our food, but also on food innovation. We are constantly looking to evolve the bold, southwest flavors on our menu. We’re best known for our burritos, but took that to a new level by introducing smothered burritos; Our Famous Queso was taken up a notch when we introduced chili con queso; and, several times a year we introduce new, bold flavors on our salsa bar with freshly made seasonal salsas. We know our fans are looking for spicy and hot flavors and we currently have Carolina Reaper salsa on the salsa bar made with the hottest pepper on earth.”
Millennials aren’t just engaging with Moe’s inside its restaurants.
“Technology gives us new and innovative ways to connect with them, whether it’s engaging social content or through mobile apps, we’re able to leverage these tools to really bring our bold personality and flavors to life and meet the consumer where they are,” Losacco said. “It’s no surprise that our fans are interacting with our brand online–providing them with original content is imperative to keep them engaged.”
Losacco noted some campaign examples:
- 27 Club: The brand partnered with a local graffiti artist to create a tribute mural to the brilliant musicians in the 27 Club (a list of popular musicians, artists and actors who passed away at the young age of 27). Moe’s created an interactive time-lapse video using the latest 360 technology to show the mural being created – this video had one of the highest engagement rates ever for the brand.
- Putting Microwaves in Their Place: Moe’s wanted to show our fans how passionate we are about fresh ingredients – you won’t find microwaves or freezers in our restaurants so we created a video in true Moe’s fashion – and threw microwaves out of a helicopter and blew up a freezer with TNT. The video landed the brand on Adweek.com and plus, it was epic.
With the increased saturation of fast casual restaurants, Losacco said, “it’s incredibly important to keep your core customers satisfied, while also finding ways to stand out in the crowd in a way that’s true to your fan base, but grabs the attention of potential new customers. Our digital and loyalty programs are centered around retaining and rewarding our best customers, and that’s been a very successful and positive experience.”