The customer data platform built exclusively for multi-unit restaurants.
The National Restaurant Association expects restaurant industry sales to hit a record $1.1 trillion in 2024, a 10% increase from 2023’s forecast. That means more data coming into the industry than ever before.
But one of the biggest open questions we hear from operators is what to do with that data. How do you capture it and, more importantly, use it to impact your business? At this year’s Restaurant Franchising & Innovation Summit, we hosted a panel with a diverse group of operators, from brand size to service models.
Here’s what we learned about how they use data across their marketing, menu, and real estate efforts.
Applebee’s initially launched the Dollarita in 2017, and it quickly became one of their most successful promotions ever.
In 2023, the brand wondered if they should bring it back.
Jill Marchik, VP of Consumer Insights & Business Analytics, turned to the data. Her team looked at attach rate, guest behavior, product mix, and more to draw insights and build a business case around the Dollarita’s impact.
“What I try to do and have my team do,” says Jill, “is really tell the story and make it actionable for our franchisees and corporate employees.”
From Jill’s perspective, the story was clear: the Dollarita was a success. It drove traffic - which you’d expect from a low-cost menu item - but more importantly, guests who ordered the Dollarita had a much higher average check. The promotion brought in more guests who spent more money: a win-win for the brand and franchisees.
Before relaunching the promotion though, Jill turned to one more piece of data: franchisee and front-line team feedback. While the initial run of the Dollarita was widely successful, she heard that the increase in traffic overwhelmed staff inside the restaurants. This time around, she made sure to emphasize to folks internally the expected benefits and impact of the promotion.
“We were able to bring the Dollarita back to great success,” says Jill. “But if you don’t have happy team members, you don’t have happy guests.”
As we saw in our conversation with Dave’s Hot Chicken CMO Brad Haley, aligning operations and marketing are critical to a successful promotion. When launching their first meatless menu item, Dave’s NOT Chicken, the brand ensured that it’d be as similar to prepare for guests as their core chicken menu items.
Beyond that, to get franchisee adoption, Dave’s partnered with Bikky to measure the item’s success. Despite its relatively low menu-mix, Bikky data showed that NOT Chicken brought in new guests who came back faster and spent more on subsequent orders, leading to thousands of dollars in incremental sales per week.
Brad and his team were able to clearly demonstrate the positive impact of the NOT Chicken promotion to franchisees, ensuring their buy-in and leading to a national rollout.
At a smaller brand like MOOYAH Burgers, Fries & Shakes, President Doug Willmarth relies on the loyalty program as his main source of customer data.
He also relies on it as a valuable customer acquisition tool. To drive more guests into the program, MOOYAH recently incentivized sign-ups with the offer of a free burger. Through acquiring more loyalty members in their digital ecosystem, Doug can better understand his loyal guests’ frequency and make decisions around segmentation to drive that frequency higher.
“The loyalty program serves as a database for us to power our digital advertising,” says Doug.
Within his database of loyalty members, Doug and his team build marketing journeys based on guest recency, frequency, and spend. Higher up the marketing funnel, they also build lookalike audiences from these different segments to acquire new customers through paid ads.
These efforts around driving frequency are working for MOOYAH. Altogether, Doug was able to increase his share of loyalty transactions by 3% last year.
“Our goal is to try to get the loyalty transactions over the 25% mark,” Doug says. “We have this very engaged group that we can have a conversation and dialogue with, but also give them incentives and information so that they’ll be more active with the brand.”
While 25% is a laudable goal for loyalty transactions, many brands are trying to discover even more about their guests, especially non-loyalty ones. MOD Pizza, a brand known for having one of the nation’s top loyalty programs, learned about the more than 20 million guests they’ve serviced since 2020 by partnering with Bikky. This gave them crucial insight into how the “median” guest - across different markets and ordering channels - behaves. More importantly, it gave them a new window into measuring the incrementality of their marketing, menu, and operational decisions.
For Yaron Goldman, CEO of Rib and Chop House, the decision to launch a subscription-based loyalty program in addition to a more traditional loyalty program was a data-driven one.
During COVID, a large problem for casual dining brands was seating capacity. Because Rib and Chop House decided to stay open every day of the week, long lines for seating often formed on nights when other brands closed their doors.
“We had these anecdotal stories of people paying $100 to the host or hostess to get a table,” says Yaron. “And this is in Gillette, Wyoming, not Las Vegas!”
As a result of this feedback at the restaurant level, Rib and Chop House’s subscription-based offering was born, satisfying eager customers with an exclusive, VIP experience, while also doubling as a valuable revenue source.
On the topic of leveraging data, Yaron admits that it can be overwhelming, especially as owner of the smallest brand on the panel with just 15 restaurants. His strategy is to narrow his focus on the determining factors that will help improve guest satisfaction across his units.
“You can get in the weeds so deep where you lose sight of what you’re trying to accomplish,” says Yaron. “If the data doesn’t help you get to a point to build sales, then all of this is a waste of time.”
For Yaron, the number one driver of guest satisfaction at Rib and Chop House is how properly the steaks are cooked to the temperature requested. That makes feedback after the meal not just a critical data point, but a key way to operationalize data with his in-restaurant teams.
With this understanding of what moves the needle, Yaron shares only the most relevant metrics with his team to effectively coach them on what to care about. On the topic of buy-in, Yaron emphasizes simplicity: “If you give them too much information, it’s basically giving them no information.”
The Great Greek Mediterranean Grill is a small brand growing fast - in fact, it’s the fastest growing Mediterranean franchise brand in the world today. The Great Greek hit $34 million across 28 units in 2022 and is on track for $80 million across around 55 locations in 2024. When it comes to site selection for new units, President Bob Andersen relies heavily on data.
Following the pandemic, The Great Greek grappled with increasing challenges to development, including rising construction costs and limited real estate opportunities. At the same time, Bob observed that off-premise sales were accelerating faster than on-premise sales.
As a result, The Great Greek’s real estate strategy shifted from 70% on-premise locations to 70% off-premise locations. The brand even decided to open 3 new non-traditional store formats this year, including a special venue, a smaller unit called Great Greek To Go, and a digital-only model using a cloud kitchen.
“We’re looking for ways to accelerate our growth,” says Bob. “Today I look at a space and think what is the minimum amount of seats I can put in and be most effective.”
As The Great Greek continues its incredible pace of growth, it’s important for the brand to also stay on top of customer experience. To do so, Bob relies heavily on guest feedback data, while trying not to get lost in the noise.
“Almost every independent third party is collecting feedback from guests,” says Bob. “Our first step was to identify all of those avenues. For our brand, there are 11.”
The Great Greek harnesses the data across those various silos into one platform that provides a customer experience score. Actionable insights are then shared publicly with franchisees and corporate employees, so that everyone is aligned on how well they are meeting guest expectations. It’s all about keeping a pulse on what’s happening with the guest amidst rapid growth.
In today’s digital landscape, data is highly accessible and brands of all sizes and service models can wield it as their superpower.
Our session at this year’s Restaurant Franchising & Innovation Summit revealed how a diverse group of operators are using data to inform strategy around factors ranging from real estate, to menu item promotion, to the customer experience.
And with CDP platforms like Bikky, the process of centralizing data across silos, gaining a 360° view of guests, and distilling actionable insights is easier than ever.
The customer data platform built exclusively for multi-unit restaurants.