Latest / Leaders in Customer Loyalty, Powered by Loyalty360 / #464: Leaders in Customer Loyalty Brand Story: Scooter's Coffee Builds Momentum with a Loyalty Program Redesign That Prioritizes Experience, Flexibility, and Speed

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#464: Leaders in Customer Loyalty Brand Story: Scooter's Coffee Builds Momentum with a Loyalty Program Redesign That Prioritizes Experience, Flexibility, and Speed · Leaders in Customer Loyalty, Powered by Loyalty360

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to our Leaders in Customer Mobility series.
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: It's great to have you with us every Thursday for our Brand Stories edition.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: The beverage retail industry is more competitive than ever.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: In coffee retail, passionate advocates, strong product demand and brand enthusiasm fuel the industry, making competition even fiercer.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Fuel the industry, making competition even fiercer.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Many rapidly growing brands are striving to differentiate their offerings, engage a younger audience and prioritize customer experience to foster long-term brand loyalty.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: With nearly 900 locations, scooter's Coffee is taking on the industry giants and carving out its own unique identity.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: Success in this space requires a seamless blend of technology, training and integration, all executed perfectly at the point of sale, where customer experience matters the most.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: Drive-through efficiency plays a vital role in minimizing wait times.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: Maximizing product offerings and delivering an exceptional experience are key to driving engagement and long-term brand loyalty.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: In this episode we're going to be hearing from Mitch Walden.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: He's the Senior Director of Digital and Loyalty at Scooters Coffee.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: He's going to be sharing insights on how Scooters Coffee is innovating in digital engagement, driving customer loyalty.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: Mitch, great to hear from you.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: It's been a while.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: Welcome back and thanks for taking the time to join us.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: Absolutely.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: Thank you, mark, absolutely.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: For those who may not be familiar.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: Can you give us a brief introduction to Scooters Coffee?
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: You know how or why was the company started?
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: It'd be great to know.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely.
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: Scooters Coffee was founded in Bellevue, nebraska, in 1998.
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: So we just celebrated our 26th birthday, I guess, or 35th birthday, excuse me, but we are a drive-thru kiosk based specialty coffee brand.
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: We offer espresso, coffee based items, but also energy based drinks, etc, etc.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: Our typical store is a 650 square foot kiosk that you drive through and our you know, customer commitment is to serve amazing people, amazing drinks, amazingly fast.
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: So that's our goal.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: Okay, and what's led to its success?
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: I think you know, being a Midwest brand, we strive to be extremely friendly and to start every customer's day with an amazing experience that is kind of triggered off of interacting with our baristas and then enjoying an amazing product that they receive from our stores and that just seems to fit for our model.
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: And so, as we've expanded and grown, we've seen that be successful in other markets as well and we're really excited about being able to grow our brand.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: Okay, can you tell us a little bit more about your role with the company?
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: You know a little bit more about what you do on a daily basis, but also you know how did you get to where you are today.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: What you know stroked your passion.
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: You know what led you to this role.
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely so.
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: In my current role with Scooters, as you mentioned, I'm Senior Director of Digital and Loyalty, and so you know that encompasses several different facets.
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: It's the content areas of our web and app, it's all of our direct digital communication, so email, sms, push, in-app messaging, et cetera, the management of our customer data, everything that we know and learn about our customers and our members of our customer data, everything that we know and learn about our customers and our members of our program.
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: But then it's also very heavily focused on the user experience and the design of our app and the functionality specifically around our loyalty program and the design, the function, the promotional capabilities and then the execution of the campaigns, obviously for the members that are part of our program.
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: And we just recently relaunched our Scooters Copy Loyalty Program, which has been really exciting.
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: Leading up to that and kind of in my background, I've kind of lived in a couple of different areas, but they all kind of seem to collect at like this intersection of data and technology and marketing.
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: So I've had e-commerce roles, I've had digital marketing roles, I've had, you know, loyalty roles, crm roles with companies kind of large, some that are in the retail space, some that are, others that are in the QSR space.
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: So it's been a mix of experiences across several different industries and different roles that that you know, have kind of driven me to this point, and you know my passion typically lies in working with companies that are emerging through change, either growing rapidly or looking to change.
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: You know what they're doing with a loyalty program or a technology stack just looking to grow overall.
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: That's really what excites me is being part of helping to kind of define and implement that change and then obviously execute once the change is in place.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: Okay, what keeps you up at night?
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: Lots of changes in customer loyalty, customer experience, MarTech some of the economic issues we're seeing right now.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: What's the biggest opportunity or challenge that you face within your position?
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I think with any organization is just being able to clearly define your goals and get buy-in from you.
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: Know those inside your organization, whether it's your leadership or, like in our case, we have a very heavily driven franchise organization, so it's the franchisees that are part of your system.
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: So that's always something that we're focused on, and behind that is the data that helps to support the recommendations and the decisions that you're making.
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: Knowing enough about not only the customers that are in your program, but equally as important are those that are not, and that's usually the big gray area, right, is how do you know about customers that you don't have a way of really collecting a good set of data around, because you know they're the area that we really want to focus, to grow as well.
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: So I think that's another piece, and then you know the next is just what's next, and staying on top of what those customer preferences and trends are.
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: As we think about, you know, those that are in Gen Z, and then the generation coming behind them, right, the kids that are in elementary school today.
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: You know what motivates them.
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: It's not the same thing that motivated their parents or their grandparents, and so we have to continually be thinking about how we build our programs, the types of rewards that we include and experiences that we include, to really truly drive the loyalty and connection to our brand.
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: It's not just, you know, punch cards and free drinks.
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: It's got to be experiential, it's got to be something that's exclusive, that really ties them emotionally to us both, because that's a stronger bond and it's a much more difficult thing for a competitor to try to replicate.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: Absolutely.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: You talked a little bit about how the customers are changing.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: How is the industry changing?
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: You and I talked a little bit about this when we prep for this call.
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: Just a rapidly growing interest in kind of the different brews and coffee and even an iced tea right now we have a speaker at the Loyalty Expo from HTO and I'm a tea guy myself so rapidly changing.
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: So how's the industry changing and I would love to know that more holistically.
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's a couple of different ways In our core products like espresso and coffee.
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: There are changes in preferences there around the types of modifications that people want to make um, things like cold foam that they add to the top, that can be flavored differently, which changes the way the drink tastes overall.
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: Uh, different combinations of beans and and different, you know, syrups and things that mix in.
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: So you know, staying in front of kind of those taste profile changes and and what's you know coming and emerging is is important.
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: How do you make it new and fresh while still staying true to who you are?
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: But then I think there are new categories, as you mentioned, that are emerging, which are playing big in our beverage category, and you have brands like Swig or Pop-Up Drink-Through who don't serve coffee at all but who have lines around the block.
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: Usually you know when they open in markets because you know especially that younger demographic that just doesn't like coffee.
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: It offers a flavor profile that they really, really enjoy.
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: And so how do we try to play in that space to the degree that we can.
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: That makes sense for our brand without you know losing track of who we are.
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: So I think we're always and then you know, then you have the really trendy stuff right, like floral.
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: You know flavors and boba, and you know, you know there was, there was olive oil and you know.
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: So it's like, you know, how do you, how do you kind of decipher what's going to be a true trend and what's just the fad and make sure that you're not heading in a direction that's going to disappear in front of you but that you're staying, you know, kind of as close to the emerging edge as you can.
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: Is Boba a fad?
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: You know, I think it's to be determined.
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: It definitely is popular, but I, you know the longevity of it and maybe I should say how big of a share of the US beverage market it will take over will be interesting to see.
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: Okay, excellent beverage market it will take over will be interesting to see.
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: Okay, excellent.
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: You mentioned motivation, understanding customers, the different, changing demographics, their interests.
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: One of the things that we see within our member community is that younger individuals may not necessarily get involved with the loyalty program straight off.
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: But once you get them involved, once you can tailor the program to them, have some simplicity to the program, it's engaging, maybe more experiential they can be the biggest advocates for your brand.
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: Is that something that you're seeing as well?
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: It is members in mind and that we built it to continue to support new features and functions that will, you know, appeal to the social nature, the sense of community, the sense of giving and charity.
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: You know sustainability and you know all those elements that really, you know, play at the forefront of, you know, the emotional decision making for the younger generations, but also can influence their parents as well, because they're obviously living in the household with those same individuals.
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: There's bound to be some influence.
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, it's really been an evolution of going from the focus being on the thing that you're giving away to the experience that you're creating for your best customers.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: Okay, when you look at customer loyalty.
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: What does customer loyalty mean to you, since you have a pretty significant background in it and also to Scooter's Coffee?
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, for me personally, loyalty if I could define it, I guess I would say that you know the goal of loyalty for me is to create a customer, a member, who is as passionate about talking about my brand as I am, and so you know the goal of my program is to create as many of those members as possible.
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: When we talk about it for Scooters Coffee, you know we are a part of many of our customers daily routine.
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: You know I've been part of other, you know QSR brands with pizza or things like that, which the frequency of purchase is much lower, but coffee and beverages in general can be a daily, if not a multiple times daily, purchase occasion for a lot of our customers.
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: And so you know it truly is a loyalty brand and business.
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: So you know, making sure that we are rewarding our customers and keeping them, you know, as true to being customers of ours as we can, when we know that there are lots and lots of other options that are becoming more and more readily available.
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: So how do we create that connection that when they're ready to, you know have a beverage selection that we're top of mind and top preference?
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: Okay, and when you look at the Scooters Coffee Rewards Program, how does that fit into this overall vision you have for customer loyalty at Scooters Coffee Rewards Program?
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: How does that?
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: fit into this overall vision you have for customer loyalty at Scooters.
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so the new program design took a couple of things into play.
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: One, it was operationally right for our stores.
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: We understand that speed is critical to the success of our operations, and so we built it in a way that incentivized customers to scan and pay with the app to earn more smiles, which is a benefit for the members, but it's also a benefit for our stores, because one touch payment is a much faster transaction and it allows us to get more cars to the drive through and overall improve our speed of service.
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: So that was one piece.
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: The second piece was in flexibility and choice.
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: We understand that not all members redeem the same they don't all want the same thing.
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: And choice we understand that not all members redeem the same, they don't all want the same thing, and so we wanted to give flexibility for them to be able to redeem the way that they want to, by using their smiles essentially as currency across almost our entire menu.
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: And then the third piece was in our previous program structure.
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: We had kind of a flat like tier structure and it didn't really allow it.
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: It was much too heavy in terms of the percent of our membership that was at an elevated level and we really weren't able to do much in terms of benefiting those members because there was such a large group.
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: So what we did in the new program structure was we shrunk those statuses down a little bit.
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: We made them a little bit more involved in terms of how you're having to unlock, you're having to do it on a more regular basis, monthly, and then we boosted the benefits that are associated with each.
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: So for our best customers, we really did create a more connected experience and we're unlocking a lot more benefits for them with our brand for unlocking those elevated statuses, brand for unlocking those elevated statuses.
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: So we looked at it in a couple of different ways and really we wanted to make sure that we were rewarding your behavior with the brand, your frequency of interacting with the brand, and also that you were helping us, help help our customers as well by moving in the direction of a more speedy transaction.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: Okay, you mentioned the relaunch.
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: How long was the current sorry, the previous program in place?
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: So our previous program had been in place for about seven years and you know it was just a simple earn so many smiles, got a free drink.
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: Earn so many smiles, got a free drink.
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: It was just a single threshold which was candidly very high for some of our less active members and it created very little incentive for some of those members that were a less frequent customer to our stores.
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: And we took that into consideration when we kind of put in place the structure of our new rewards levels so that you know customers that maybe weren't as frequent could still get benefit from the program even if they weren't our highest frequency customers.
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: So yeah, that was a big part of it.
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: Okay, that's awesome and that's one of the things we've seen pretty consistently through 24 and 25 in restaurant QSR retail is redoing the programs that more closely align the customers, looking at the value proposition of the tiers, but also value proposition to the customer and to the brand.
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: How did you go about making some of these changes?
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: You talked about making sure that the top tiers were rewarded most highly.
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: Right, I don't know if that's the best word there, but you talked about changing the whole structure and the construct.
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: How did you go about it?
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: Did you listen to customers?
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: Did you look at?
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: What metrics did you use to look at posts to see how it's working?
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so we were kind of trying to achieve a couple of goals I mentioned.
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: The old program had been in place for a while and the structure of how those rewards were generated was not conducive to managing our ongoing program discount rate.
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: Because as we introduced new drink categories that maybe had a higher price point, or as prices naturally crept up, or as we added sizes, like we added XL sizes, which added a price level to our menu, you know it just kept increasing the overall value of that free item that members were receiving and our franchisees were feeling that right in the P&L.
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: And so we had to not only create a new system that was beneficial for our members but also that helped to insulate that business model a little bit as well.
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: And so we took all of that into consideration when we, when we reformatted and we did have to actually take a little bit of a step back in terms of our value overall, um, for our, for our core members and and of course, as expected when you do that um, you know there was a subset of our membership that was that was a little bit frustrated by that and and you know we, we heard it and we knew we would and we were prepared for it, but it still doesn't make it fun.
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: But what that allowed us to do was for our best member groups we were able to actually maintain parity, and so we executed that implementation of a new structure that allows us to kind of manage that discount rate going forward for our system while still keeping our top members whole with the value they were receiving from our old program.
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: So it was a good kind of compromise for us to be able to kind of protect the top tier of our members while also kind of resetting our value proposition of our program internally.
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: Well, the communication piece can be a big challenge as well.
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: We saw Delta get eviscerated last year and many other brands when they scaled down the program and didn't have the customer buy-in per se right.
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: So being able to delicately and effectively communicate that to the customers can be a challenge, and it sounds like you managed that with a plum.
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: How were you able to do that?
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: You manage that with a plum.
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: How were you able to do that?
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: We had a benefit that our new loyalty platform, so we used Talon One, which is the platform that is powering our program.
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: They allowed us to run a simultaneous pilot through our existing mobile app, side by side with our current program.
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: It was an incredible structure, really, where we had members on the pilot going through the drive-through right in front of members that were on our current program, and our systems worked as they should.
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: Our baristas didn't notice the difference.
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: It was seamless.
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: That allowed us to run a pilot in market for about 90 days before we launched the new structure and really get a lot of these insights and prepare for what we would see when we rolled this to our full system.
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: We were able to recognize some areas where there were either lack of understanding or where we just needed reinforcement around some of the new key changes, and so we built those up in preparation for the launch.
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: And then Braves is our messaging platform, and we were able to build extremely involved messaging journeys so that customers were receiving personalized messaging about what status they were, you know, brought into the program in.
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: They were, you know, taking down a journey in terms of if they had tried certain features in the new program so that they were encouraged to explore certain features in the new program, so that they were encouraged to explore and learn about the new functionality.
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: So it really allowed us to be prepared in a way that we wouldn't have been able to if we hadn't run the pilot and seen early on some of the maybe the hurdles that we needed to make sure we were able to clear.
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: When you look at customer loyalty, we see in our industry there's kind of a bifurcation of brands who truly have customer centricity at top of the organization and the customer loyalty program, customer loyalty focus, is part of that right.
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: They prioritize it, they understand it, they look at metrics, they understand their customers are actively communicating to them and there are some that kind of view it more as an expense, a cost that needs to be marginalized or even minimized right so that it doesn't kind of hit the top and or bottom line.
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: But the prioritization within the program, within the organization, is a big focus.
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: How do you prioritize customer loyalty within your organization?
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I would say that it's been an evolution inside of Scooter's Coffee over the three years that I've been with the brand.
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: I would say that when I joined it was probably looked at very much the way you described the latter, which is a cost center and just a discount that we were putting into our system, as we've been able to implement some more targeted strategies that were able to prove out the incrementality of what we were driving with the program and then we were able to measure and show with data the impact that we were having for the brand.
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: It is absolutely shifted to be a top of focus strategy and it is now.
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: It plays a key role in all of our campaigns our app and that digital experience and what we're going to offer customers through loyalty.
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: It's a key part of our campaign promotional strategies and so it's really become an evolution where we think about, you know, loyalty and the digital elements equally as much as we think about our store you know, pos or the marketing materials that are going to be seen in our drive-thrus, and it flows through to the education that we do with our franchisees and our baristas and it's really become a critical element of our kind of marketing channel mix and our organization's focus.
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: Okay, excellent.
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: I know with the new Smiles Point program it's a little different.
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: What are the earning rates for different payment methods?
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: How did you approach that?
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, as I mentioned, we wanted to differentiate and incentivize customers for using a one-touch payment method, a method that is faster overall and more efficient.
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: Method that is faster overall and more efficient.
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: So we actually give five smiles per every dollar that you spend if you use OneTouch.
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: So that's, either you're paying with a stored credit card or a preloaded gift card or preloaded funds.
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: You're scanning and paying with the app.
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: You can also earn by not doing that, and we wanted to make sure that we kept that element, because we know we have a certain segment of our customers that are unbanked or that prefer cash, and so we understand that.
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: But we did leave that at our three smiles per dollar rate, which is equivalent to what it was in our old program Based on the redemption rate.
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: It's a little less value, though, so it creates a channel for customers to earn more, to move in that direction, and we're excited about where that could even take us with future iterations as well, because we know preloaded funds is key for us for a couple of reasons.
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: So we look forward to opportunities to even maybe add elements to that differentiated earning structure as we evolve Right.
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: Sounds like you've seen some great early results with regard to kind of changing that behavior to preloaded funds and ordering ahead, because, as you know, throughput in the drive-thru is everything.
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely right.
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: The efficiency piece, you know, especially in the mornings for our brand is critical and we're definitely seeing movement in that direction, which we're really excited about.
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: Okay, one of the things we see within the organization right now within our member community, which is growing quite rapidly, which is good because is this whole discussion around value, value for the program, value in the product right.
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: Many grocers are doing more with private label brands.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: You see kind of value meals all in vogue again within the fast food restaurant chains.
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: When you look at value, what does value mean to scooters and how are you leveraging it across the marketing efforts but also in the program?
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think you can define it in a couple of different ways efforts, but also in the program.
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think you can define it in a couple of different ways.
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: You know value can be the quality of what you're receiving for the price that you pay.
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: For some people value is where can I get, you know, the lowest denominator of thing I'll accept for the cheapest price.
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: So you know you got to kind of account for that, and in others it's you know, where do I feel like I'm overall having just the best experience, and that stretches beyond the product and the price to the overall experience with the brand, convenience, how you feel when you drive out that drive-thru window, et cetera.
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: So we factor all of that into it.
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: And that's a hard equation, right to take all those variables and come out with a single answer on the other end and maybe there isn't a single answer, but our new program structure was kind of intended to try and cover as many of those bases as we can.
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: So we, you know, first and foremost we focus on providing the best customer experience and the best product, and so that part is kind of core to our DNA.
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: So we know that's there, you know.
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: And so what our program was intended to help add to that equation was for our best customers can we, you know, and not even our best customers for all customers that are part of the program earning smiles, you know, by scanning to earn are we adding some of that value in a way that either allows you to get a you know an item at no cost or to maybe add to your item.
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: So a really important category that we added into our new structure is you can now redeem your smiles for modifications, so things like adding cold foam or an extra shot of espresso or syrups and things like that, which a lot of customers like to do, but it adds to the cost of the drink.
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: If I can just get that extra shot for free today, that's, that's a benefit that I couldn't get in our old program structure and I don't have to wait a long, long time to get it because at the average earn rate it's every couple of drinks I have that available to me.
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: So you know it's it's we can.
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: We can play value in a lot of different ways and I think what I'm excited about is how do we add the value?
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: That's more on the end, that's getting away from the price part and more around the overall experience part, that when you interact with our brand and when you talk to our brand with your friends and family, you're proud to be a customer of Scooter's Coffee and you like the features that we're able to provide you.
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: Things on our roadmap are going to make that even more important ability to socialize your rewards and share your earnings with others, or charities that you suggest, things like that.
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: So that's the end of the spectrum.
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: That we're really focused on is how do we create that value that isn't just tied to discount, it's tied to your overall experience.
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: Okay, a couple more questions.
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: When you look at the integration of badges and challenges within the app, how has that impacted customer interaction and loyalty?
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: overall, it's actually surprisingly made a huge difference.
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: We saw it very, very early on as we launched it internally with some of our beta testers inside of our organization.
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: People that are already super passionate with our brand and visit quite frequently were increasing their frequency so that they could get to some of our higher status levels and show that they had the badges, that they had the status unlocked on their phone, and it was interesting to see that happen.
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: It was even more interesting to see what it's done with our customer base.
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: And so you know, when you talk about the opportunity, as you look at members, you know typically you don't see that top, top member group as being a whole lot of opportunity, because they're already fairly loyal to your brand, they're already spending a very high percentage of their wallet with you.
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: But we've seen huge lifts in that group as well because you know they're wanting to reactivate those statuses.
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: They're enjoying the benefits that they're seeing.
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: It's kind of it's a little bit of a gamification element that you mentioned.
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: Right, I want to unlock my three-day streak badge or my afternoon energy badge or whatever it is, and it really is having benefit for our members and we're seeing that in their activity.
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: So you know, we knew there would be a benefit from adding in those features.
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: So you know we knew there would be benefit from adding in those features, but I think we've been very surprised by how much benefit our customers have taken from it.
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: Are there any plans for adding new elements of gamification or AI or new technologies into the app or at the kiosk.
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: The initial set of badges that we launched were kind of our core set tied to your status, your anniversary and some other aspirational purchase behaviors.
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: But, yeah, we absolutely have a roadmap of badges that we're looking to expand and include as well, as you know, evolve this to fit in with our campaign strategy that we have throughout the year.
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: So different, you know, limited time products that we launch or partnerships that we have, and you know we did a huge gamification piece around Candyland, which was a partnership that we had last holiday where we got a lot of engagement from our loyalty members being able to unlock skins inside of our app, as well as different, you know, price functions.
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: We're looking at another really, really cool partnership for later this year.
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: So we're really excited and a key piece of what we did in the first probably year and a half that I was here was rebuild and relaunch our tech stack that powers basically every element of our app and loyalty program, from menu to payments, to ordering, to loyalty, to messaging to, you know, data and tracking and data visibility.
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: So it has built a very important foundation for us to be able to do a lot and really now it's just prioritizing what we want to do and getting there as quickly as we can.
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: Excellent, excellent.
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: You mentioned Candyland Partnerships.
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: That's another area that's very germane to the audience of Loyalty360.
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: Those who run successful customer loyalty programs.
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: It's very important but there can be challenges making sure the program, the partnership, is good for one brand, two brands, three brands.
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: Oftentimes one brand wants to be the redemption hub, Others are looking for marketing exposure and there can be some dissonance there.
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: How do you approach partnerships and how do you get them to work for both brands so effectively?
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, the big thing for us is making sure that there is a fit culturally with with who we are.
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: We know we're not.
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: You know our competitors and that's OK.
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: We we need to make sure that we're partnering with brands that align with us.
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: And so that that's the first part and I think from there it's just exploring you know, what is it that we want to do?
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: How can we integrate and collaborate the brands together to create, you know, really fun.
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: And with Candyland it was just natural right when you think of, you know, a gingerbread house in a candy wonderland, our kiosks kind of, you know, fit that mold very, very well.
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: So we transformed them into this magical kind of Candyland experience.
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: And then, as we talked about how we did that digitally, you know, we were able to kind of transform our mobile app same way.
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: So we unlocked skins that tied to the main characters from the game.
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: It basically reconfigured the look feel of your, of the UX of the app, around the color scheme and the iconography and some of those things, which was really, really fun.
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: And then, you know, we introduced a prize wheel that kind of was tied to purchases, scanned in our loyalty program, and then gave away some great prizes, which you know really helped to sync people up and get them to try the products.
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: And so you know, it's like Candyland, for example.
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: You know, when you think about the candy elements and the sweet and the you know kind of those flavors of mint and gingerbread and things, they match our drink profiles really, really well.
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: And so that's what I say, fitting our brand.
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: You know that's a little bit of what I mean there.
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: It's got to be a cultural fit, but it's got to be something that we can apply to our products as well.
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: And then you know, from there the rest is just coming up with fun ideas.
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: Okay, you look holistically.
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: What are two or three things you're most proud of when you look at your customer loyalty efforts, your customer loyalty program?
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mentioned it a minute ago, but I think the biggest one for me internally is just the confidence that we've been able to build with our leadership and with our organization around what our loyalty program can do.
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: And then you know just unlocking, you know the ability to go and execute those things.
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: So I think that that's a big one.
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: And then you know, the other is that foundation that I mentioned is building that solid base that we can now grow on and we have, you know, fairly aggressive aspirational goals for what we want our program to look like and we feel very confident that we can get there based on the work that we've done.
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: Okay and last question what can Loyalty360 do to help you or your team in your customer loyalty efforts?
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: What I love about your organization is number one the data and what you share about the industry, others in, whether it be different verticals from us or the same verticals, but just being able to collaborate, uh, in that ideation space, uh is is a great one, um, and and the other one is is, like I said, the the member base you know.
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: Being able to, to talk and interact with others at your events and through your organization, um, and just be able to share peer level ideas, ask questions, get answers from folks that have been in similar situations and see their successes and maybe not and learn from both is very, very helpful.
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: So very grateful for you for having an organization that allows us to learn, absolutely.
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: Well, thank you for that feedback, thank you for the interview, and now we have our wonderful quickfire questions.
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: We like to keep these to one word or a short phrase.
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: The first one is what is your favorite word Growth?
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: What is your least favorite word Budget?
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: Okay, what excites you?
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: Innovation.
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: And what do you find tiresome Restrictions, and is there a book that you've read, or you read often, that you'd like to recommend to your colleagues oh boy, this is a good one.
• 33:10
  Speaker 2: Um, I like the energy bus um build a lot of teams.
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: Uh, energy bus is a good one, Great model, Okay, Uh what profession other than the one that you're currently in would you maybe like to try?
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: Uh, what profession other than the one that you're currently in would you maybe like to try?
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: Uh, fighter pilot.
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: Okay, uh, what do you enjoy doing that you often don't get the time to do?
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: Um, I love uh doing home improvement projects and uh, I don't get to do them near as much as I need to.
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: Okay, uh, who do you?
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: Who inspired you to be the person, to become the person that you are today?
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: Ooh, who inspired you to become the person that you are today?
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: I had a mentor, when I was in high school actually, who was a great leader, a great person and was very inspirational.
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: Okay, what do you typically think about at the end of the day?
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: What's for dinner?
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: There we go.
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: How do you want to be remembered by your friends and family?
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: A driver of change and growth?
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: That's awesome, okay.
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: Well, mitch, thank you very much for taking the time to join us today on the Leaders in Customer Loyalty series.
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: It was a great pleasure speaking with you again.
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: It had been a while, but it was one of the best interviews you've had in a long time.
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: Very engaging Kind of your thorough approach to customer loyalty, from technology to research to implementation, of kind of a vision for the program, was great to hear.
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: So it was truly appreciated and I appreciate the time.
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: Oh, thank you.
• 34:35
  Speaker 2: Appreciate being involved.
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: Mark, Great to talk to you.
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, and thank you, everyone else, for taking the time to listen.
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: Make sure you join us every Thursday for our Leaders in Customer Loyalty, the Brand Stories edition, and until then, have a wonderful day and see you soon.