Mitch Walden, Senior Director of Digital and Loyalty at Scooter's Coffee, isn’t just overseeing a rewards program—he’s steering a loyalty transformation rooted in long-term growth, customer-centric innovation, and operational alignment. With nearly three decades of experience spanning e-commerce, CRM, and digital strategy, Walden brings a cross-disciplinary lens to an industry that is evolving as rapidly as consumer preferences.
Founded in Bellevue, Nebraska, in 1998, Scooter’s Coffee has grown from a Midwest favorite into a rapidly expanding drive-thru specialty beverage chain. With a footprint built on convenience and friendly service, Scooter’s aims to deliver "amazing people, amazing drinks, amazingly fast" through 650-square-foot kiosks across the country. The company's culture of hospitality underpins its approach to loyalty—one that Walden has helped evolve to meet the expectations of modern consumers.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome back to our Leaders in Customer Mobility
series.
It's great to have you with usevery Thursday for our Brand
Stories edition.
The beverage retail industry ismore competitive than ever.
In coffee retail, passionateadvocates, strong product demand
and brand enthusiasm fuel theindustry, making competition
even fiercer.
(00:23):
Fuel the industry, makingcompetition even fiercer.
Many rapidly growing brands arestriving to differentiate their
offerings, engage a youngeraudience and prioritize customer
experience to foster long-termbrand loyalty.
With nearly 900 locations,scooter's Coffee is taking on
the industry giants and carvingout its own unique identity.
Success in this space requiresa seamless blend of technology,
(00:48):
training and integration, allexecuted perfectly at the point
of sale, where customerexperience matters the most.
Drive-through efficiency playsa vital role in minimizing wait
times.
Maximizing product offeringsand delivering an exceptional
experience are key to drivingengagement and long-term brand
(01:09):
loyalty.
In this episode we're going tobe hearing from Mitch Walden.
He's the Senior Director ofDigital and Loyalty at Scooters
Coffee.
He's going to be sharinginsights on how Scooters Coffee
is innovating in digitalengagement, driving customer
loyalty.
Mitch, great to hear from you.
It's been a while.
Welcome back and thanks fortaking the time to join us.
(01:29):
Absolutely.
Thank you, mark, absolutely.
For those who may not befamiliar.
Can you give us a briefintroduction to Scooters Coffee?
You know how or why was thecompany started?
It'd be great to know.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Yeah, absolutely.
Scooters Coffee was founded inBellevue, nebraska, in 1998.
So we just celebrated our 26thbirthday, I guess, or 35th
birthday, excuse me, but we area drive-thru kiosk based
specialty coffee brand.
We offer espresso, coffee baseditems, but also energy based
drinks, etc, etc.
Our typical store is a 650square foot kiosk that you drive
(02:04):
through and our you know,customer commitment is to serve
amazing people, amazing drinks,amazingly fast.
So that's our goal.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Okay, and what's led to its success?
Speaker 2 (02:19):
I think you know, being a Midwest brand, we strive
to be extremely friendly and tostart every customer's day with
an amazing experience that iskind of triggered off of
interacting with our baristasand then enjoying an amazing
product that they receive fromour stores and that just seems
(02:40):
to fit for our model.
And so, as we've expanded andgrown, we've seen that be
successful in other markets aswell and we're really excited
about being able to grow ourbrand.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Okay, can you tell us a little bit more about your
role with the company?
You know a little bit moreabout what you do on a daily
basis, but also you know how didyou get to where you are today.
What you know stroked yourpassion.
You know what led you to thisrole.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Yeah, absolutely so.
In my current role withScooters, as you mentioned, I'm
Senior Director of Digital andLoyalty, and so you know that
encompasses several differentfacets.
It's the content areas of ourweb and app, it's all of our
direct digital communication, soemail, sms, push, in-app
messaging, et cetera, themanagement of our customer data,
(03:23):
everything that we know andlearn about our customers and
our members of our customer data, everything that we know and
learn about our customers andour members of our program.
But then it's also very heavilyfocused on the user experience
and the design of our app andthe functionality specifically
around our loyalty program andthe design, the function, the
promotional capabilities andthen the execution of the
campaigns, obviously for themembers that are part of our
(03:45):
program.
And we just recently relaunchedour Scooters Copy Loyalty
Program, which has been reallyexciting.
Leading up to that and kind ofin my background, I've kind of
lived in a couple of differentareas, but they all kind of seem
to collect at like thisintersection of data and
technology and marketing.
(04:06):
So I've had e-commerce roles,I've had digital marketing roles
, I've had, you know, loyaltyroles, crm roles with companies
kind of large, some that are inthe retail space, some that are,
others that are in the QSRspace.
So it's been a mix ofexperiences across several
different industries anddifferent roles that that you
(04:29):
know, have kind of driven me tothis point, and you know my
passion typically lies inworking with companies that are
emerging through change, eithergrowing rapidly or looking to
change.
You know what they're doingwith a loyalty program or a
technology stack just looking togrow overall.
That's really what excites meis being part of helping to kind
(04:49):
of define and implement thatchange and then obviously
execute once the change is inplace.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Okay, what keeps you up at night?
Lots of changes in customerloyalty, customer experience,
MarTech some of the economicissues we're seeing right now.
What's the biggest opportunityor challenge that you face
within your position?
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Yeah, you know, I think with any organization is
just being able to clearlydefine your goals and get buy-in
from you.
Know those inside yourorganization, whether it's your
leadership or, like in our case,we have a very heavily driven
franchise organization, so it'sthe franchisees that are part of
your system.
So that's always something thatwe're focused on, and behind
that is the data that helps tosupport the recommendations and
(05:34):
the decisions that you're making.
Knowing enough about not onlythe customers that are in your
program, but equally asimportant are those that are not
, and that's usually the biggray area, right, is how do you
know about customers that youdon't have a way of really
collecting a good set of dataaround, because you know they're
the area that we really want tofocus, to grow as well.
(05:56):
So I think that's another piece, and then you know the next is
just what's next, and staying ontop of what those customer
preferences and trends are.
As we think about, you know,those that are in Gen Z, and
then the generation comingbehind them, right, the kids
that are in elementary schooltoday.
You know what motivates them.
It's not the same thing thatmotivated their parents or their
(06:19):
grandparents, and so we have tocontinually be thinking about
how we build our programs, thetypes of rewards that we include
and experiences that we include, to really truly drive the
loyalty and connection to ourbrand.
It's not just, you know, punchcards and free drinks.
It's got to be experiential,it's got to be something that's
exclusive, that really ties thememotionally to us both, because
(06:40):
that's a stronger bond and it'sa much more difficult thing for
a competitor to try toreplicate.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Absolutely.
You talked a little bit abouthow the customers are changing.
How is the industry changing?
You and I talked a little bitabout this when we prep for this
call.
Just a rapidly growing interestin kind of the different brews
and coffee and even an iced tearight now we have a speaker at
the Loyalty Expo from HTO andI'm a tea guy myself so rapidly
(07:07):
changing.
So how's the industry changingand I would love to know that
more holistically.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Yeah, I think it's a couple of different ways In our
core products like espresso andcoffee.
There are changes inpreferences there around the
types of modifications thatpeople want to make um, things
like cold foam that they add tothe top, that can be flavored
differently, which changes theway the drink tastes overall.
Uh, different combinations ofbeans and and different, you
(07:35):
know, syrups and things that mixin.
So you know, staying in frontof kind of those taste profile
changes and and what's you knowcoming and emerging is is
important.
How do you make it new andfresh while still staying true
to who you are?
But then I think there are newcategories, as you mentioned,
that are emerging, which areplaying big in our beverage
category, and you have brandslike Swig or Pop-Up
(08:01):
Drink-Through who don't servecoffee at all but who have lines
around the block.
Usually you know when they openin markets because you know
especially that youngerdemographic that just doesn't
like coffee.
It offers a flavor profile thatthey really, really enjoy.
And so how do we try to play inthat space to the degree that
we can.
That makes sense for our brandwithout you know losing track of
who we are.
So I think we're always andthen you know, then you have the
(08:23):
really trendy stuff right, likefloral.
You know flavors and boba, andyou know, you know there was,
there was olive oil and you know.
So it's like, you know, how doyou, how do you kind of decipher
what's going to be a true trendand what's just the fad and
make sure that you're notheading in a direction that's
going to disappear in front ofyou but that you're staying, you
(08:43):
know, kind of as close to theemerging edge as you can.
Is Boba a fad?
You know, I think it's to bedetermined.
It definitely is popular, but I, you know the longevity of it
and maybe I should say how bigof a share of the US beverage
market it will take over will beinteresting to see.
Okay, excellent beverage marketit will take over will be
interesting to see.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Okay, excellent.
You mentioned motivation,understanding customers, the
different, changing demographics, their interests.
One of the things that we seewithin our member community is
that younger individuals may notnecessarily get involved with
the loyalty program straight off.
But once you get them involved,once you can tailor the program
to them, have some simplicityto the program, it's engaging,
(09:26):
maybe more experiential they canbe the biggest advocates for
your brand.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Is that something that you're seeing as well?
It is members in mind and thatwe built it to continue to
support new features andfunctions that will, you know,
appeal to the social nature, thesense of community, the sense
of giving and charity.
You know sustainability and youknow all those elements that
(09:59):
really, you know, play at theforefront of, you know, the
emotional decision making forthe younger generations, but
also can influence their parentsas well, because they're
obviously living in thehousehold with those same
individuals.
There's bound to be someinfluence.
So, yeah, it's really been anevolution of going from the
focus being on the thing thatyou're giving away to the
experience that you're creatingfor your best customers.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Okay, when you look at customer loyalty.
What does customer loyalty meanto you, since you have a pretty
significant background in itand also to Scooter's Coffee?
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Yeah, you know, for me personally, loyalty if I
could define it, I guess I wouldsay that you know the goal of
loyalty for me is to create acustomer, a member, who is as
passionate about talking aboutmy brand as I am, and so you
know the goal of my program isto create as many of those
(10:49):
members as possible.
When we talk about it forScooters Coffee, you know we are
a part of many of our customersdaily routine.
You know I've been part ofother, you know QSR brands with
pizza or things like that, whichthe frequency of purchase is
much lower, but coffee andbeverages in general can be a
daily, if not a multiple timesdaily, purchase occasion for a
(11:12):
lot of our customers.
And so you know it truly is aloyalty brand and business.
So you know, making sure thatwe are rewarding our customers
and keeping them, you know, astrue to being customers of ours
as we can, when we know thatthere are lots and lots of other
options that are becoming moreand more readily available.
So how do we create thatconnection that when they're
(11:33):
ready to, you know have abeverage selection that we're
top of mind and top preference?
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Okay, and when you look at the Scooters Coffee
Rewards Program, how does thatfit into this overall vision you
have for customer loyalty atScooters Coffee Rewards Program?
How does that?
Speaker 2 (11:47):
fit into this overall vision you have for customer
loyalty at Scooters.
Yeah, so the new program designtook a couple of things into
play.
One, it was operationally rightfor our stores.
We understand that speed iscritical to the success of our
operations, and so we built itin a way that incentivized
customers to scan and pay withthe app to earn more smiles,
which is a benefit for themembers, but it's also a benefit
(12:09):
for our stores, because onetouch payment is a much faster
transaction and it allows us toget more cars to the drive
through and overall improve ourspeed of service.
So that was one piece.
The second piece was inflexibility and choice.
We understand that not allmembers redeem the same they
don't all want the same thing.
And choice we understand thatnot all members redeem the same,
they don't all want the samething, and so we wanted to give
flexibility for them to be ableto redeem the way that they want
(12:29):
to, by using their smilesessentially as currency across
almost our entire menu.
And then the third piece was inour previous program structure.
We had kind of a flat like tierstructure and it didn't really
allow it.
It was much too heavy in termsof the percent of our membership
that was at an elevated leveland we really weren't able to do
(12:49):
much in terms of benefitingthose members because there was
such a large group.
So what we did in the newprogram structure was we shrunk
those statuses down a little bit.
We made them a little bit moreinvolved in terms of how you're
having to unlock, you're havingto do it on a more regular basis
, monthly, and then we boostedthe benefits that are associated
(13:10):
with each.
So for our best customers, wereally did create a more
connected experience and we'reunlocking a lot more benefits
for them with our brand forunlocking those elevated
statuses, brand for unlockingthose elevated statuses.
So we looked at it in a coupleof different ways and really we
wanted to make sure that we wererewarding your behavior with
(13:31):
the brand, your frequency ofinteracting with the brand, and
also that you were helping us,help help our customers as well
by moving in the direction of amore speedy transaction.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
Okay, you mentioned the relaunch.
How long was the current sorry,the previous program in place?
Speaker 2 (13:49):
So our previous program had been in place for
about seven years and you knowit was just a simple earn so
many smiles, got a free drink.
Earn so many smiles, got a freedrink.
It was just a single thresholdwhich was candidly very high for
some of our less active membersand it created very little
(14:10):
incentive for some of thosemembers that were a less
frequent customer to our stores.
And we took that intoconsideration when we kind of
put in place the structure ofour new rewards levels so that
you know customers that maybeweren't as frequent could still
(14:31):
get benefit from the programeven if they weren't our highest
frequency customers.
So yeah, that was a big part ofit.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
Okay, that's awesome and that's one of the things
we've seen pretty consistentlythrough 24 and 25 in restaurant
QSR retail is redoing theprograms that more closely align
the customers, looking at thevalue proposition of the tiers,
but also value proposition tothe customer and to the brand.
How did you go about makingsome of these changes?
(14:57):
You talked about making surethat the top tiers were rewarded
most highly.
Right, I don't know if that'sthe best word there, but you
talked about changing the wholestructure and the construct.
How did you go about it?
Did you listen to customers?
Did you look at?
What metrics did you use tolook at posts to see how it's
working?
Speaker 2 (15:17):
Yeah, so we were kind of trying to achieve a couple
of goals I mentioned.
The old program had been inplace for a while and the
structure of how those rewardswere generated was not conducive
to managing our ongoing programdiscount rate.
Because as we introduced newdrink categories that maybe had
(15:38):
a higher price point, or asprices naturally crept up, or as
we added sizes, like we addedXL sizes, which added a price
level to our menu, you know itjust kept increasing the overall
value of that free item thatmembers were receiving and our
franchisees were feeling thatright in the P&L.
And so we had to not only createa new system that was
(15:59):
beneficial for our members butalso that helped to insulate
that business model a little bitas well.
And so we took all of that intoconsideration when we, when we
reformatted and we did have toactually take a little bit of a
step back in terms of our valueoverall, um, for our, for our
core members and and of course,as expected when you do that um,
you know there was a subset ofour membership that was that was
(16:21):
a little bit frustrated by thatand and you know we, we heard
it and we knew we would and wewere prepared for it, but it
still doesn't make it fun.
But what that allowed us to dowas for our best member groups
we were able to actuallymaintain parity, and so we
executed that implementation ofa new structure that allows us
(16:42):
to kind of manage that discountrate going forward for our
system while still keeping ourtop members whole with the value
they were receiving from ourold program.
So it was a good kind ofcompromise for us to be able to
kind of protect the top tier ofour members while also kind of
resetting our value propositionof our program internally.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Okay.
Well, the communication piececan be a big challenge as well.
We saw Delta get evisceratedlast year and many other brands
when they scaled down theprogram and didn't have the
customer buy-in per se right.
So being able to delicately andeffectively communicate that to
the customers can be achallenge, and it sounds like
(17:23):
you managed that with a plum.
How were you able to do that?
You manage that with a plum.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
How were you able to do that?
We had a benefit that our newloyalty platform, so we used
Talon One, which is the platformthat is powering our program.
They allowed us to run asimultaneous pilot through our
existing mobile app, side byside with our current program.
It was an incredible structure,really, where we had members on
(17:49):
the pilot going through thedrive-through right in front of
members that were on our currentprogram, and our systems worked
as they should.
Our baristas didn't notice thedifference.
It was seamless.
That allowed us to run a pilotin market for about 90 days
before we launched the newstructure and really get a lot
of these insights and preparefor what we would see when we
rolled this to our full system.
(18:11):
We were able to recognize someareas where there were either
lack of understanding or wherewe just needed reinforcement
around some of the new keychanges, and so we built those
up in preparation for the launch.
And then Braves is ourmessaging platform, and we were
able to build extremely involvedmessaging journeys so that
(18:34):
customers were receivingpersonalized messaging about
what status they were, you know,brought into the program in.
They were, you know, takingdown a journey in terms of if
they had tried certain featuresin the new program so that they
were encouraged to explorecertain features in the new
program, so that they wereencouraged to explore and learn
about the new functionality.
So it really allowed us to beprepared in a way that we
(18:56):
wouldn't have been able to if wehadn't run the pilot and seen
early on some of the maybe thehurdles that we needed to make
sure we were able to clear.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
When you look at customer loyalty, we see in our
industry there's kind of abifurcation of brands who truly
have customer centricity at topof the organization and the
customer loyalty program,customer loyalty focus, is part
of that right.
They prioritize it, theyunderstand it, they look at
metrics, they understand theircustomers are actively
communicating to them and thereare some that kind of view it
more as an expense, a cost thatneeds to be marginalized or even
(19:26):
minimized right so that itdoesn't kind of hit the top and
or bottom line.
But the prioritization withinthe program, within the
organization, is a big focus.
How do you prioritize customerloyalty within your organization
?
Speaker 2 (19:41):
Yeah, and I would say that it's been an evolution
inside of Scooter's Coffee overthe three years that I've been
with the brand.
I would say that when I joinedit was probably looked at very
much the way you described thelatter, which is a cost center
and just a discount that we wereputting into our system, as
we've been able to implementsome more targeted strategies
(20:01):
that were able to prove out theincrementality of what we were
driving with the program andthen we were able to measure and
show with data the impact thatwe were having for the brand.
It is absolutely shifted to be atop of focus strategy and it is
now.
It plays a key role in all ofour campaigns our app and that
(20:22):
digital experience and whatwe're going to offer customers
through loyalty.
It's a key part of our campaignpromotional strategies and so
it's really become an evolutionwhere we think about, you know,
loyalty and the digital elementsequally as much as we think
about our store you know, pos orthe marketing materials that
(20:43):
are going to be seen in ourdrive-thrus, and it flows
through to the education that wedo with our franchisees and our
baristas and it's really becomea critical element of our kind
of marketing channel mix and ourorganization's focus.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
Okay, excellent.
I know with the new SmilesPoint program it's a little
different.
What are the earning rates fordifferent payment methods?
How did you approach that?
Speaker 2 (21:12):
Yeah, as I mentioned, we wanted to differentiate and
incentivize customers for usinga one-touch payment method, a
method that is faster overalland more efficient.
Method that is faster overalland more efficient.
So we actually give five smilesper every dollar that you spend
if you use OneTouch.
So that's, either you're payingwith a stored credit card or a
(21:33):
preloaded gift card or preloadedfunds.
You're scanning and paying withthe app.
You can also earn by not doingthat, and we wanted to make sure
that we kept that element,because we know we have a
certain segment of our customersthat are unbanked or that
prefer cash, and so weunderstand that.
But we did leave that at ourthree smiles per dollar rate,
(21:55):
which is equivalent to what itwas in our old program Based on
the redemption rate.
It's a little less value,though, so it creates a channel
for customers to earn more, tomove in that direction, and
we're excited about where thatcould even take us with future
iterations as well, because weknow preloaded funds is key for
us for a couple of reasons.
So we look forward toopportunities to even maybe add
(22:18):
elements to that differentiatedearning structure as we evolve
Right.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
Sounds like you've seen some great early results
with regard to kind of changingthat behavior to preloaded funds
and ordering ahead, because, asyou know, throughput in the
drive-thru is everything.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
Yes, absolutely right .
The efficiency piece, you know,especially in the mornings for
our brand is critical and we'redefinitely seeing movement in
that direction, which we'rereally excited about.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
Okay, one of the things we see within the
organization right now withinour member community, which is
growing quite rapidly, which isgood because is this whole
discussion around value, valuefor the program, value in the
product right.
Many grocers are doing morewith private label brands.
You see kind of value meals allin vogue again within the fast
(23:10):
food restaurant chains.
When you look at value, whatdoes value mean to scooters and
how are you leveraging it acrossthe marketing efforts but also
in the program?
Speaker 2 (23:21):
Yeah, I think you can define it in a couple of
different ways efforts, but alsoin the program.
Yeah, I think you can define itin a couple of different ways.
You know value can be thequality of what you're receiving
for the price that you pay.
For some people value is wherecan I get, you know, the lowest
denominator of thing I'll acceptfor the cheapest price.
So you know you got to kind ofaccount for that, and in others
it's you know, where do I feellike I'm overall having just the
(23:42):
best experience, and thatstretches beyond the product and
the price to the overallexperience with the brand,
convenience, how you feel whenyou drive out that drive-thru
window, et cetera.
So we factor all of that intoit.
And that's a hard equation,right to take all those
variables and come out with asingle answer on the other end
and maybe there isn't a singleanswer, but our new program
(24:04):
structure was kind of intendedto try and cover as many of
those bases as we can.
So we, you know, first andforemost we focus on providing
the best customer experience andthe best product, and so that
part is kind of core to our DNA.
So we know that's there, youknow.
And so what our program wasintended to help add to that
equation was for our bestcustomers can we, you know, and
(24:28):
not even our best customers forall customers that are part of
the program earning smiles, youknow, by scanning to earn are we
adding some of that value in away that either allows you to
get a you know an item at nocost or to maybe add to your
item.
So a really important categorythat we added into our new
structure is you can now redeemyour smiles for modifications,
(24:50):
so things like adding cold foamor 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 ofthe drink.
If I can just get that extrashot for free today, that's,
that's a benefit that I couldn'tget in our old program
structure and I don't have towait a long, long time to get it
because at the average earnrate it's every couple of drinks
(25:11):
I have that available to me.
So you know it's it's we can.
We can play value in a lot ofdifferent ways and I think what
I'm excited about is how do weadd the value?
That's more on the end, that'sgetting away from the price part
and more around the overallexperience part, that when you
interact with our brand and whenyou talk to our brand with your
friends and family, you'reproud to be a customer of
(25:34):
Scooter's Coffee and you likethe features that we're able to
provide you.
Things on our roadmap are goingto make that even more
important ability to socializeyour rewards and share your
earnings with others, orcharities that you suggest,
things like that.
So that's the end of thespectrum.
(25:54):
That we're really focused on ishow do we create that value
that isn't just tied to discount, it's tied to your overall
experience.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
Okay, a couple more questions.
When you look at theintegration of badges and
challenges within the app, howhas that impacted customer
interaction and loyalty?
Speaker 2 (26:10):
overall, it's actually surprisingly made a
huge difference.
We saw it very, very early onas we launched it internally
with some of our beta testersinside of our organization.
People that are already superpassionate with our brand and
visit quite frequently wereincreasing their frequency so
that they could get to some ofour higher status levels and
(26:31):
show that they had the badges,that they had the status
unlocked on their phone, and itwas interesting to see that
happen.
It was even more interesting tosee what it's done with our
customer base.
And so you know, when you talkabout the opportunity, as you
look at members, you knowtypically you don't see that top
, top member group as being awhole lot of opportunity,
because they're already fairlyloyal to your brand, they're
(26:52):
already spending a very highpercentage of their wallet with
you.
But we've seen huge lifts inthat group as well because you
know they're wanting toreactivate those statuses.
They're enjoying the benefitsthat they're seeing.
It's kind of it's a little bitof a gamification element that
you mentioned.
Right, I want to unlock mythree-day streak badge or my
afternoon energy badge orwhatever it is, and it really is
(27:15):
having benefit for our membersand we're seeing that in their
activity.
So you know, we knew therewould be a benefit from adding
in those features.
So you know we knew there wouldbe benefit from adding in those
features, but I think we'vebeen very surprised by how much
benefit our customers have takenfrom it.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
Okay.
Are there any plans for addingnew elements of gamification or
AI or new technologies into theapp or at the kiosk.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
The initial set of badges that we launched were
kind of our core set tied toyour status, your anniversary
and some other aspirationalpurchase behaviors.
But, yeah, we absolutely have aroadmap of badges that we're
looking to expand and include aswell, as you know, evolve this
to fit in with our campaignstrategy that we have throughout
(28:00):
the year.
So different, you know, limitedtime products that we launch or
partnerships that we have, andyou know we did a huge
gamification piece aroundCandyland, which was a
partnership that we had lastholiday where we got a lot of
engagement from our loyaltymembers being able to unlock
skins inside of our app, as wellas different, you know, price
(28:20):
functions.
We're looking at another really, really cool partnership for
later this year.
So we're really excited and akey piece of what we did in the
first probably year and a halfthat I was here was rebuild and
relaunch our tech stack thatpowers basically every element
of our app and loyalty program,from menu to payments, to
(28:42):
ordering, to loyalty, tomessaging to, you know, data and
tracking and data visibility.
So it has built a veryimportant foundation for us to
be able to do a lot and reallynow it's just prioritizing what
we want to do and getting thereas quickly as we can.
Excellent, excellent.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
You mentioned Candyland Partnerships.
That's another area that's verygermane to the audience of
Loyalty360.
Those who run successfulcustomer loyalty programs.
It's very important but therecan be challenges making sure
the program, the partnership, isgood for one brand, two brands,
three brands.
Oftentimes one brand wants tobe the redemption hub, Others
are looking for marketingexposure and there can be some
(29:21):
dissonance there.
How do you approachpartnerships and how do you get
them to work for both brands soeffectively?
Speaker 2 (29:27):
Yeah, you know, the big thing for us is making sure
that there is a fit culturallywith with who we are.
We know we're not.
You know our competitors andthat's OK.
We we need to make sure thatwe're partnering with brands
that align with us.
And so that that's the firstpart and I think from there it's
just exploring you know, whatis it that we want to do?
How can we integrate andcollaborate the brands together
(29:51):
to create, you know, really fun.
And with Candyland it was justnatural right when you think of,
you know, a gingerbread housein a candy wonderland, our
kiosks kind of, you know, fitthat mold very, very well.
So we transformed them intothis magical kind of Candyland
experience.
And then, as we talked abouthow we did that digitally, you
(30:12):
know, we were able to kind oftransform our mobile app same
way.
So we unlocked skins that tiedto the main characters from the
game.
It basically reconfigured thelook feel of your, of the UX of
the app, around the color schemeand the iconography and some of
those things, which was really,really fun.
And then, you know, weintroduced a prize wheel that
(30:32):
kind of was tied to purchases,scanned in our loyalty program,
and then gave away some greatprizes, which you know really
helped to sync people up and getthem to try the products.
And so you know, it's likeCandyland, for example.
You know, when you think aboutthe candy elements and the sweet
and the you know kind of thoseflavors of mint and gingerbread
and things, they match our drinkprofiles really, really well.
(30:55):
And so that's what I say,fitting our brand.
You know that's a little bit ofwhat I mean there.
It's got to be a cultural fit,but it's got to be something
that we can apply to ourproducts as well.
And then you know, from therethe rest is just coming up with
fun ideas.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
Okay, you look holistically.
What are two or three thingsyou're most proud of when you
look at your customer loyaltyefforts, your customer loyalty
program?
Speaker 2 (31:14):
Yeah, I mentioned it a minute ago, but I think the
biggest one for me internally isjust the confidence that we've
been able to build with ourleadership and with our
organization around what ourloyalty program can do.
And then you know justunlocking, you know the ability
to go and execute those things.
So I think that that's a bigone.
And then you know, the other isthat foundation that I
(31:35):
mentioned is building that solidbase that we can now grow on
and we have, you know, fairlyaggressive aspirational goals
for what we want our program tolook like and we feel very
confident that we can get therebased on the work that we've
done.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
Okay and last question what can Loyalty360 do
to help you or your team in yourcustomer loyalty efforts?
Speaker 2 (31:54):
What I love about your organization is number one
the data and what you shareabout the industry, others in,
whether it be differentverticals from us or the same
verticals, but just being ableto collaborate, uh, in that
ideation space, uh is is a greatone, um, and and the other one
is is, like I said, the themember base you know.
(32:14):
Being able to, to talk andinteract with others at your
events and through yourorganization, um, and just be
able to share peer level ideas,ask questions, get answers from
folks that have been in similarsituations and see their
successes and maybe not andlearn from both is very, very
helpful.
So very grateful for you forhaving an organization that
(32:36):
allows us to learn, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
Well, thank you for that feedback, thank you for the
interview, and now we have ourwonderful quickfire questions.
We like to keep these to oneword or a short phrase.
The first one is what is yourfavorite word Growth?
What is your least favoriteword Budget?
Okay, what excites you?
Speaker 2 (32:59):
Innovation.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
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 yourcolleagues oh boy, this is a
good one.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
Um, I like the energy bus um build a lot of teams.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
Uh, energy bus is a good one, Great model, Okay, Uh
what profession other than theone that you're currently in
would you maybe like to try?
Uh, what profession other thanthe one that you're currently in
would you maybe like to try?
Uh, fighter pilot.
Okay, uh, what do you enjoydoing that you often don't get
the time to do?
Speaker 2 (33:31):
Um, I love uh doing home improvement projects and uh
, I don't get to do them near asmuch as I need to.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
Okay, uh, who do you?
Who inspired you to be theperson, to become the person
that you are today?
Speaker 2 (33:44):
Ooh, who inspired you to become the person that you
are today?
I had a mentor, when I was inhigh school actually, who was a
great leader, a great person andwas very inspirational.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
Okay, what do you typically think about at the end
of the day?
What's for dinner?
There we go.
How do you want to beremembered by your friends and
family?
A driver of change and growth?
That's awesome, okay.
Well, mitch, thank you verymuch for taking the time to join
us today on the Leaders inCustomer Loyalty series.
It was a great pleasurespeaking with you again.
(34:17):
It had been a while, but it wasone of the best interviews
you've had in a long time.
Very engaging Kind of yourthorough approach to customer
loyalty, from technology toresearch to implementation, of
kind of a vision for the program, was great to hear.
So it was truly appreciated andI appreciate the time.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
Oh, thank you.
Appreciate being involved.
Mark, Great to talk to you.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
Absolutely, and thank you, everyone else, for taking
the time to listen.
Make sure you join us everyThursday for our Leaders in
Customer Loyalty, the BrandStories edition, and until then,
have a wonderful day and seeyou soon.
Welcome back to our Leaders in Customer Mobility
series.
It's great to have you with usevery Thursday for our Brand
Stories edition.
The beverage retail industry ismore competitive than ever.
In coffee retail, passionateadvocates, strong product demand
and brand enthusiasm fuel theindustry, making competition
even fiercer.
(00:23):
Fuel the industry, makingcompetition even fiercer.
Many rapidly growing brands arestriving to differentiate their
offerings, engage a youngeraudience and prioritize customer
experience to foster long-termbrand loyalty.
With nearly 900 locations,scooter's Coffee is taking on
the industry giants and carvingout its own unique identity.
Success in this space requiresa seamless blend of technology,
(00:48):
training and integration, allexecuted perfectly at the point
of sale, where customerexperience matters the most.
Drive-through efficiency playsa vital role in minimizing wait
times.
Maximizing product offeringsand delivering an exceptional
experience are key to drivingengagement and long-term brand
(01:09):
loyalty.
In this episode we're going tobe hearing from Mitch Walden.
He's the Senior Director ofDigital and Loyalty at Scooters
Coffee.
He's going to be sharinginsights on how Scooters Coffee
is innovating in digitalengagement, driving customer
loyalty.
Mitch, great to hear from you.
It's been a while.
Welcome back and thanks fortaking the time to join us.
(01:29):
Absolutely.
Thank you, mark, absolutely.
For those who may not befamiliar.
Can you give us a briefintroduction to Scooters Coffee?
You know how or why was thecompany started?
It'd be great to know.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Yeah, absolutely.
Scooters Coffee was founded inBellevue, nebraska, in 1998.
So we just celebrated our 26thbirthday, I guess, or 35th
birthday, excuse me, but we area drive-thru kiosk based
specialty coffee brand.
We offer espresso, coffee baseditems, but also energy based
drinks, etc, etc.
Our typical store is a 650square foot kiosk that you drive
(02:04):
through and our you know,customer commitment is to serve
amazing people, amazing drinks,amazingly fast.
So that's our goal.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Okay, and what's led to its success?
Speaker 2 (02:19):
I think you know, being a Midwest brand, we strive
to be extremely friendly and tostart every customer's day with
an amazing experience that iskind of triggered off of
interacting with our baristasand then enjoying an amazing
product that they receive fromour stores and that just seems
(02:40):
to fit for our model.
And so, as we've expanded andgrown, we've seen that be
successful in other markets aswell and we're really excited
about being able to grow ourbrand.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Okay, can you tell us a little bit more about your
role with the company?
You know a little bit moreabout what you do on a daily
basis, but also you know how didyou get to where you are today.
What you know stroked yourpassion.
You know what led you to thisrole.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Yeah, absolutely so.
In my current role withScooters, as you mentioned, I'm
Senior Director of Digital andLoyalty, and so you know that
encompasses several differentfacets.
It's the content areas of ourweb and app, it's all of our
direct digital communication, soemail, sms, push, in-app
messaging, et cetera, themanagement of our customer data,
(03:23):
everything that we know andlearn about our customers and
our members of our customer data, everything that we know and
learn about our customers andour members of our program.
But then it's also very heavilyfocused on the user experience
and the design of our app andthe functionality specifically
around our loyalty program andthe design, the function, the
promotional capabilities andthen the execution of the
campaigns, obviously for themembers that are part of our
(03:45):
program.
And we just recently relaunchedour Scooters Copy Loyalty
Program, which has been reallyexciting.
Leading up to that and kind ofin my background, I've kind of
lived in a couple of differentareas, but they all kind of seem
to collect at like thisintersection of data and
technology and marketing.
(04:06):
So I've had e-commerce roles,I've had digital marketing roles
, I've had, you know, loyaltyroles, crm roles with companies
kind of large, some that are inthe retail space, some that are,
others that are in the QSRspace.
So it's been a mix ofexperiences across several
different industries anddifferent roles that that you
(04:29):
know, have kind of driven me tothis point, and you know my
passion typically lies inworking with companies that are
emerging through change, eithergrowing rapidly or looking to
change.
You know what they're doingwith a loyalty program or a
technology stack just looking togrow overall.
That's really what excites meis being part of helping to kind
(04:49):
of define and implement thatchange and then obviously
execute once the change is inplace.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Okay, what keeps you up at night?
Lots of changes in customerloyalty, customer experience,
MarTech some of the economicissues we're seeing right now.
What's the biggest opportunityor challenge that you face
within your position?
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Yeah, you know, I think with any organization is
just being able to clearlydefine your goals and get buy-in
from you.
Know those inside yourorganization, whether it's your
leadership or, like in our case,we have a very heavily driven
franchise organization, so it'sthe franchisees that are part of
your system.
So that's always something thatwe're focused on, and behind
that is the data that helps tosupport the recommendations and
(05:34):
the decisions that you're making.
Knowing enough about not onlythe customers that are in your
program, but equally asimportant are those that are not
, and that's usually the biggray area, right, is how do you
know about customers that youdon't have a way of really
collecting a good set of dataaround, because you know they're
the area that we really want tofocus, to grow as well.
(05:56):
So I think that's another piece, and then you know the next is
just what's next, and staying ontop of what those customer
preferences and trends are.
As we think about, you know,those that are in Gen Z, and
then the generation comingbehind them, right, the kids
that are in elementary schooltoday.
You know what motivates them.
It's not the same thing thatmotivated their parents or their
(06:19):
grandparents, and so we have tocontinually be thinking about
how we build our programs, thetypes of rewards that we include
and experiences that we include, to really truly drive the
loyalty and connection to ourbrand.
It's not just, you know, punchcards and free drinks.
It's got to be experiential,it's got to be something that's
exclusive, that really ties thememotionally to us both, because
(06:40):
that's a stronger bond and it'sa much more difficult thing for
a competitor to try toreplicate.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Absolutely.
You talked a little bit abouthow the customers are changing.
How is the industry changing?
You and I talked a little bitabout this when we prep for this
call.
Just a rapidly growing interestin kind of the different brews
and coffee and even an iced tearight now we have a speaker at
the Loyalty Expo from HTO andI'm a tea guy myself so rapidly
(07:07):
changing.
So how's the industry changingand I would love to know that
more holistically.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Yeah, I think it's a couple of different ways In our
core products like espresso andcoffee.
There are changes inpreferences there around the
types of modifications thatpeople want to make um, things
like cold foam that they add tothe top, that can be flavored
differently, which changes theway the drink tastes overall.
Uh, different combinations ofbeans and and different, you
(07:35):
know, syrups and things that mixin.
So you know, staying in frontof kind of those taste profile
changes and and what's you knowcoming and emerging is is
important.
How do you make it new andfresh while still staying true
to who you are?
But then I think there are newcategories, as you mentioned,
that are emerging, which areplaying big in our beverage
category, and you have brandslike Swig or Pop-Up
(08:01):
Drink-Through who don't servecoffee at all but who have lines
around the block.
Usually you know when they openin markets because you know
especially that youngerdemographic that just doesn't
like coffee.
It offers a flavor profile thatthey really, really enjoy.
And so how do we try to play inthat space to the degree that
we can.
That makes sense for our brandwithout you know losing track of
who we are.
So I think we're always andthen you know, then you have the
(08:23):
really trendy stuff right, likefloral.
You know flavors and boba, andyou know, you know there was,
there was olive oil and you know.
So it's like, you know, how doyou, how do you kind of decipher
what's going to be a true trendand what's just the fad and
make sure that you're notheading in a direction that's
going to disappear in front ofyou but that you're staying, you
(08:43):
know, kind of as close to theemerging edge as you can.
Is Boba a fad?
You know, I think it's to bedetermined.
It definitely is popular, but I, you know the longevity of it
and maybe I should say how bigof a share of the US beverage
market it will take over will beinteresting to see.
Okay, excellent beverage marketit will take over will be
interesting to see.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Okay, excellent.
You mentioned motivation,understanding customers, the
different, changing demographics, their interests.
One of the things that we seewithin our member community is
that younger individuals may notnecessarily get involved with
the loyalty program straight off.
But once you get them involved,once you can tailor the program
to them, have some simplicityto the program, it's engaging,
(09:26):
maybe more experiential they canbe the biggest advocates for
your brand.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Is that something that you're seeing as well?
It is members in mind and thatwe built it to continue to
support new features andfunctions that will, you know,
appeal to the social nature, thesense of community, the sense
of giving and charity.
You know sustainability and youknow all those elements that
(09:59):
really, you know, play at theforefront of, you know, the
emotional decision making forthe younger generations, but
also can influence their parentsas well, because they're
obviously living in thehousehold with those same
individuals.
There's bound to be someinfluence.
So, yeah, it's really been anevolution of going from the
focus being on the thing thatyou're giving away to the
experience that you're creatingfor your best customers.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Okay, when you look at customer loyalty.
What does customer loyalty meanto you, since you have a pretty
significant background in itand also to Scooter's Coffee?
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Yeah, you know, for me personally, loyalty if I
could define it, I guess I wouldsay that you know the goal of
loyalty for me is to create acustomer, a member, who is as
passionate about talking aboutmy brand as I am, and so you
know the goal of my program isto create as many of those
(10:49):
members as possible.
When we talk about it forScooters Coffee, you know we are
a part of many of our customersdaily routine.
You know I've been part ofother, you know QSR brands with
pizza or things like that, whichthe frequency of purchase is
much lower, but coffee andbeverages in general can be a
daily, if not a multiple timesdaily, purchase occasion for a
(11:12):
lot of our customers.
And so you know it truly is aloyalty brand and business.
So you know, making sure thatwe are rewarding our customers
and keeping them, you know, astrue to being customers of ours
as we can, when we know thatthere are lots and lots of other
options that are becoming moreand more readily available.
So how do we create thatconnection that when they're
(11:33):
ready to, you know have abeverage selection that we're
top of mind and top preference?
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Okay, and when you look at the Scooters Coffee
Rewards Program, how does thatfit into this overall vision you
have for customer loyalty atScooters Coffee Rewards Program?
How does that?
Speaker 2 (11:47):
fit into this overall vision you have for customer
loyalty at Scooters.
Yeah, so the new program designtook a couple of things into
play.
One, it was operationally rightfor our stores.
We understand that speed iscritical to the success of our
operations, and so we built itin a way that incentivized
customers to scan and pay withthe app to earn more smiles,
which is a benefit for themembers, but it's also a benefit
(12:09):
for our stores, because onetouch payment is a much faster
transaction and it allows us toget more cars to the drive
through and overall improve ourspeed of service.
So that was one piece.
The second piece was inflexibility and choice.
We understand that not allmembers redeem the same they
don't all want the same thing.
And choice we understand thatnot all members redeem the same,
they don't all want the samething, and so we wanted to give
flexibility for them to be ableto redeem the way that they want
(12:29):
to, by using their smilesessentially as currency across
almost our entire menu.
And then the third piece was inour previous program structure.
We had kind of a flat like tierstructure and it didn't really
allow it.
It was much too heavy in termsof the percent of our membership
that was at an elevated leveland we really weren't able to do
(12:49):
much in terms of benefitingthose members because there was
such a large group.
So what we did in the newprogram structure was we shrunk
those statuses down a little bit.
We made them a little bit moreinvolved in terms of how you're
having to unlock, you're havingto do it on a more regular basis
, monthly, and then we boostedthe benefits that are associated
(13:10):
with each.
So for our best customers, wereally did create a more
connected experience and we'reunlocking a lot more benefits
for them with our brand forunlocking those elevated
statuses, brand for unlockingthose elevated statuses.
So we looked at it in a coupleof different ways and really we
wanted to make sure that we wererewarding your behavior with
(13:31):
the brand, your frequency ofinteracting with the brand, and
also that you were helping us,help help our customers as well
by moving in the direction of amore speedy transaction.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
Okay, you mentioned the relaunch.
How long was the current sorry,the previous program in place?
Speaker 2 (13:49):
So our previous program had been in place for
about seven years and you knowit was just a simple earn so
many smiles, got a free drink.
Earn so many smiles, got a freedrink.
It was just a single thresholdwhich was candidly very high for
some of our less active membersand it created very little
(14:10):
incentive for some of thosemembers that were a less
frequent customer to our stores.
And we took that intoconsideration when we kind of
put in place the structure ofour new rewards levels so that
you know customers that maybeweren't as frequent could still
(14:31):
get benefit from the programeven if they weren't our highest
frequency customers.
So yeah, that was a big part ofit.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
Okay, that's awesome and that's one of the things
we've seen pretty consistentlythrough 24 and 25 in restaurant
QSR retail is redoing theprograms that more closely align
the customers, looking at thevalue proposition of the tiers,
but also value proposition tothe customer and to the brand.
How did you go about makingsome of these changes?
(14:57):
You talked about making surethat the top tiers were rewarded
most highly.
Right, I don't know if that'sthe best word there, but you
talked about changing the wholestructure and the construct.
How did you go about it?
Did you listen to customers?
Did you look at?
What metrics did you use tolook at posts to see how it's
working?
Speaker 2 (15:17):
Yeah, so we were kind of trying to achieve a couple
of goals I mentioned.
The old program had been inplace for a while and the
structure of how those rewardswere generated was not conducive
to managing our ongoing programdiscount rate.
Because as we introduced newdrink categories that maybe had
(15:38):
a higher price point, or asprices naturally crept up, or as
we added sizes, like we addedXL sizes, which added a price
level to our menu, you know itjust kept increasing the overall
value of that free item thatmembers were receiving and our
franchisees were feeling thatright in the P&L.
And so we had to not only createa new system that was
(15:59):
beneficial for our members butalso that helped to insulate
that business model a little bitas well.
And so we took all of that intoconsideration when we, when we
reformatted and we did have toactually take a little bit of a
step back in terms of our valueoverall, um, for our, for our
core members and and of course,as expected when you do that um,
you know there was a subset ofour membership that was that was
(16:21):
a little bit frustrated by thatand and you know we, we heard
it and we knew we would and wewere prepared for it, but it
still doesn't make it fun.
But what that allowed us to dowas for our best member groups
we were able to actuallymaintain parity, and so we
executed that implementation ofa new structure that allows us
(16:42):
to kind of manage that discountrate going forward for our
system while still keeping ourtop members whole with the value
they were receiving from ourold program.
So it was a good kind ofcompromise for us to be able to
kind of protect the top tier ofour members while also kind of
resetting our value propositionof our program internally.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Okay.
Well, the communication piececan be a big challenge as well.
We saw Delta get evisceratedlast year and many other brands
when they scaled down theprogram and didn't have the
customer buy-in per se right.
So being able to delicately andeffectively communicate that to
the customers can be achallenge, and it sounds like
(17:23):
you managed that with a plum.
How were you able to do that?
You manage that with a plum.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
How were you able to do that?
We had a benefit that our newloyalty platform, so we used
Talon One, which is the platformthat is powering our program.
They allowed us to run asimultaneous pilot through our
existing mobile app, side byside with our current program.
It was an incredible structure,really, where we had members on
(17:49):
the pilot going through thedrive-through right in front of
members that were on our currentprogram, and our systems worked
as they should.
Our baristas didn't notice thedifference.
It was seamless.
That allowed us to run a pilotin market for about 90 days
before we launched the newstructure and really get a lot
of these insights and preparefor what we would see when we
rolled this to our full system.
(18:11):
We were able to recognize someareas where there were either
lack of understanding or wherewe just needed reinforcement
around some of the new keychanges, and so we built those
up in preparation for the launch.
And then Braves is ourmessaging platform, and we were
able to build extremely involvedmessaging journeys so that
(18:34):
customers were receivingpersonalized messaging about
what status they were, you know,brought into the program in.
They were, you know, takingdown a journey in terms of if
they had tried certain featuresin the new program so that they
were encouraged to explorecertain features in the new
program, so that they wereencouraged to explore and learn
about the new functionality.
So it really allowed us to beprepared in a way that we
(18:56):
wouldn't have been able to if wehadn't run the pilot and seen
early on some of the maybe thehurdles that we needed to make
sure we were able to clear.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
When you look at customer loyalty, we see in our
industry there's kind of abifurcation of brands who truly
have customer centricity at topof the organization and the
customer loyalty program,customer loyalty focus, is part
of that right.
They prioritize it, theyunderstand it, they look at
metrics, they understand theircustomers are actively
communicating to them and thereare some that kind of view it
more as an expense, a cost thatneeds to be marginalized or even
(19:26):
minimized right so that itdoesn't kind of hit the top and
or bottom line.
But the prioritization withinthe program, within the
organization, is a big focus.
How do you prioritize customerloyalty within your organization
?
Speaker 2 (19:41):
Yeah, and I would say that it's been an evolution
inside of Scooter's Coffee overthe three years that I've been
with the brand.
I would say that when I joinedit was probably looked at very
much the way you described thelatter, which is a cost center
and just a discount that we wereputting into our system, as
we've been able to implementsome more targeted strategies
(20:01):
that were able to prove out theincrementality of what we were
driving with the program andthen we were able to measure and
show with data the impact thatwe were having for the brand.
It is absolutely shifted to be atop of focus strategy and it is
now.
It plays a key role in all ofour campaigns our app and that
(20:22):
digital experience and whatwe're going to offer customers
through loyalty.
It's a key part of our campaignpromotional strategies and so
it's really become an evolutionwhere we think about, you know,
loyalty and the digital elementsequally as much as we think
about our store you know, pos orthe marketing materials that
(20:43):
are going to be seen in ourdrive-thrus, and it flows
through to the education that wedo with our franchisees and our
baristas and it's really becomea critical element of our kind
of marketing channel mix and ourorganization's focus.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
Okay, excellent.
I know with the new SmilesPoint program it's a little
different.
What are the earning rates fordifferent payment methods?
How did you approach that?
Speaker 2 (21:12):
Yeah, as I mentioned, we wanted to differentiate and
incentivize customers for usinga one-touch payment method, a
method that is faster overalland more efficient.
Method that is faster overalland more efficient.
So we actually give five smilesper every dollar that you spend
if you use OneTouch.
So that's, either you're payingwith a stored credit card or a
(21:33):
preloaded gift card or preloadedfunds.
You're scanning and paying withthe app.
You can also earn by not doingthat, and we wanted to make sure
that we kept that element,because we know we have a
certain segment of our customersthat are unbanked or that
prefer cash, and so weunderstand that.
But we did leave that at ourthree smiles per dollar rate,
(21:55):
which is equivalent to what itwas in our old program Based on
the redemption rate.
It's a little less value,though, so it creates a channel
for customers to earn more, tomove in that direction, and
we're excited about where thatcould even take us with future
iterations as well, because weknow preloaded funds is key for
us for a couple of reasons.
So we look forward toopportunities to even maybe add
(22:18):
elements to that differentiatedearning structure as we evolve
Right.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
Sounds like you've seen some great early results
with regard to kind of changingthat behavior to preloaded funds
and ordering ahead, because, asyou know, throughput in the
drive-thru is everything.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
Yes, absolutely right .
The efficiency piece, you know,especially in the mornings for
our brand is critical and we'redefinitely seeing movement in
that direction, which we'rereally excited about.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
Okay, one of the things we see within the
organization right now withinour member community, which is
growing quite rapidly, which isgood because is this whole
discussion around value, valuefor the program, value in the
product right.
Many grocers are doing morewith private label brands.
You see kind of value meals allin vogue again within the fast
(23:10):
food restaurant chains.
When you look at value, whatdoes value mean to scooters and
how are you leveraging it acrossthe marketing efforts but also
in the program?
Speaker 2 (23:21):
Yeah, I think you can define it in a couple of
different ways efforts, but alsoin the program.
Yeah, I think you can define itin a couple of different ways.
You know value can be thequality of what you're receiving
for the price that you pay.
For some people value is wherecan I get, you know, the lowest
denominator of thing I'll acceptfor the cheapest price.
So you know you got to kind ofaccount for that, and in others
it's you know, where do I feellike I'm overall having just the
(23:42):
best experience, and thatstretches beyond the product and
the price to the overallexperience with the brand,
convenience, how you feel whenyou drive out that drive-thru
window, et cetera.
So we factor all of that intoit.
And that's a hard equation,right to take all those
variables and come out with asingle answer on the other end
and maybe there isn't a singleanswer, but our new program
(24:04):
structure was kind of intendedto try and cover as many of
those bases as we can.
So we, you know, first andforemost we focus on providing
the best customer experience andthe best product, and so that
part is kind of core to our DNA.
So we know that's there, youknow.
And so what our program wasintended to help add to that
equation was for our bestcustomers can we, you know, and
(24:28):
not even our best customers forall customers that are part of
the program earning smiles, youknow, by scanning to earn are we
adding some of that value in away that either allows you to
get a you know an item at nocost or to maybe add to your
item.
So a really important categorythat we added into our new
structure is you can now redeemyour smiles for modifications,
(24:50):
so things like adding cold foamor 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 ofthe drink.
If I can just get that extrashot for free today, that's,
that's a benefit that I couldn'tget in our old program
structure and I don't have towait a long, long time to get it
because at the average earnrate it's every couple of drinks
(25:11):
I have that available to me.
So you know it's it's we can.
We can play value in a lot ofdifferent ways and I think what
I'm excited about is how do weadd the value?
That's more on the end, that'sgetting away from the price part
and more around the overallexperience part, that when you
interact with our brand and whenyou talk to our brand with your
friends and family, you'reproud to be a customer of
(25:34):
Scooter's Coffee and you likethe features that we're able to
provide you.
Things on our roadmap are goingto make that even more
important ability to socializeyour rewards and share your
earnings with others, orcharities that you suggest,
things like that.
So that's the end of thespectrum.
(25:54):
That we're really focused on ishow do we create that value
that isn't just tied to discount, it's tied to your overall
experience.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
Okay, a couple more questions.
When you look at theintegration of badges and
challenges within the app, howhas that impacted customer
interaction and loyalty?
Speaker 2 (26:10):
overall, it's actually surprisingly made a
huge difference.
We saw it very, very early onas we launched it internally
with some of our beta testersinside of our organization.
People that are already superpassionate with our brand and
visit quite frequently wereincreasing their frequency so
that they could get to some ofour higher status levels and
(26:31):
show that they had the badges,that they had the status
unlocked on their phone, and itwas interesting to see that
happen.
It was even more interesting tosee what it's done with our
customer base.
And so you know, when you talkabout the opportunity, as you
look at members, you knowtypically you don't see that top
, top member group as being awhole lot of opportunity,
because they're already fairlyloyal to your brand, they're
(26:52):
already spending a very highpercentage of their wallet with
you.
But we've seen huge lifts inthat group as well because you
know they're wanting toreactivate those statuses.
They're enjoying the benefitsthat they're seeing.
It's kind of it's a little bitof a gamification element that
you mentioned.
Right, I want to unlock mythree-day streak badge or my
afternoon energy badge orwhatever it is, and it really is
(27:15):
having benefit for our membersand we're seeing that in their
activity.
So you know, we knew therewould be a benefit from adding
in those features.
So you know we knew there wouldbe benefit from adding in those
features, but I think we'vebeen very surprised by how much
benefit our customers have takenfrom it.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
Okay.
Are there any plans for addingnew elements of gamification or
AI or new technologies into theapp or at the kiosk.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
The initial set of badges that we launched were
kind of our core set tied toyour status, your anniversary
and some other aspirationalpurchase behaviors.
But, yeah, we absolutely have aroadmap of badges that we're
looking to expand and include aswell, as you know, evolve this
to fit in with our campaignstrategy that we have throughout
(28:00):
the year.
So different, you know, limitedtime products that we launch or
partnerships that we have, andyou know we did a huge
gamification piece aroundCandyland, which was a
partnership that we had lastholiday where we got a lot of
engagement from our loyaltymembers being able to unlock
skins inside of our app, as wellas different, you know, price
(28:20):
functions.
We're looking at another really, really cool partnership for
later this year.
So we're really excited and akey piece of what we did in the
first probably year and a halfthat I was here was rebuild and
relaunch our tech stack thatpowers basically every element
of our app and loyalty program,from menu to payments, to
(28:42):
ordering, to loyalty, tomessaging to, you know, data and
tracking and data visibility.
So it has built a veryimportant foundation for us to
be able to do a lot and reallynow it's just prioritizing what
we want to do and getting thereas quickly as we can.
Excellent, excellent.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
You mentioned Candyland Partnerships.
That's another area that's verygermane to the audience of
Loyalty360.
Those who run successfulcustomer loyalty programs.
It's very important but therecan be challenges making sure
the program, the partnership, isgood for one brand, two brands,
three brands.
Oftentimes one brand wants tobe the redemption hub, Others
are looking for marketingexposure and there can be some
(29:21):
dissonance there.
How do you approachpartnerships and how do you get
them to work for both brands soeffectively?
Speaker 2 (29:27):
Yeah, you know, the big thing for us is making sure
that there is a fit culturallywith with who we are.
We know we're not.
You know our competitors andthat's OK.
We we need to make sure thatwe're partnering with brands
that align with us.
And so that that's the firstpart and I think from there it's
just exploring you know, whatis it that we want to do?
How can we integrate andcollaborate the brands together
(29:51):
to create, you know, really fun.
And with Candyland it was justnatural right when you think of,
you know, a gingerbread housein a candy wonderland, our
kiosks kind of, you know, fitthat mold very, very well.
So we transformed them intothis magical kind of Candyland
experience.
And then, as we talked abouthow we did that digitally, you
(30:12):
know, we were able to kind oftransform our mobile app same
way.
So we unlocked skins that tiedto the main characters from the
game.
It basically reconfigured thelook feel of your, of the UX of
the app, around the color schemeand the iconography and some of
those things, which was really,really fun.
And then, you know, weintroduced a prize wheel that
(30:32):
kind of was tied to purchases,scanned in our loyalty program,
and then gave away some greatprizes, which you know really
helped to sync people up and getthem to try the products.
And so you know, it's likeCandyland, for example.
You know, when you think aboutthe candy elements and the sweet
and the you know kind of thoseflavors of mint and gingerbread
and things, they match our drinkprofiles really, really well.
(30:55):
And so that's what I say,fitting our brand.
You know that's a little bit ofwhat I mean there.
It's got to be a cultural fit,but it's got to be something
that we can apply to ourproducts as well.
And then you know, from therethe rest is just coming up with
fun ideas.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
Okay, you look holistically.
What are two or three thingsyou're most proud of when you
look at your customer loyaltyefforts, your customer loyalty
program?
Speaker 2 (31:14):
Yeah, I mentioned it a minute ago, but I think the
biggest one for me internally isjust the confidence that we've
been able to build with ourleadership and with our
organization around what ourloyalty program can do.
And then you know justunlocking, you know the ability
to go and execute those things.
So I think that that's a bigone.
And then you know, the other isthat foundation that I
(31:35):
mentioned is building that solidbase that we can now grow on
and we have, you know, fairlyaggressive aspirational goals
for what we want our program tolook like and we feel very
confident that we can get therebased on the work that we've
done.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
Okay and last question what can Loyalty360 do
to help you or your team in yourcustomer loyalty efforts?
Speaker 2 (31:54):
What I love about your organization is number one
the data and what you shareabout the industry, others in,
whether it be differentverticals from us or the same
verticals, but just being ableto collaborate, uh, in that
ideation space, uh is is a greatone, um, and and the other one
is is, like I said, the themember base you know.
(32:14):
Being able to, to talk andinteract with others at your
events and through yourorganization, um, and just be
able to share peer level ideas,ask questions, get answers from
folks that have been in similarsituations and see their
successes and maybe not andlearn from both is very, very
helpful.
So very grateful for you forhaving an organization that
(32:36):
allows us to learn, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
Well, thank you for that feedback, thank you for the
interview, and now we have ourwonderful quickfire questions.
We like to keep these to oneword or a short phrase.
The first one is what is yourfavorite word Growth?
What is your least favoriteword Budget?
Okay, what excites you?
Speaker 2 (32:59):
Innovation.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
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 yourcolleagues oh boy, this is a
good one.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
Um, I like the energy bus um build a lot of teams.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
Uh, energy bus is a good one, Great model, Okay, Uh
what profession other than theone that you're currently in
would you maybe like to try?
Uh, what profession other thanthe one that you're currently in
would you maybe like to try?
Uh, fighter pilot.
Okay, uh, what do you enjoydoing that you often don't get
the time to do?
Speaker 2 (33:31):
Um, I love uh doing home improvement projects and uh
, I don't get to do them near asmuch as I need to.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
Okay, uh, who do you?
Who inspired you to be theperson, to become the person
that you are today?
Speaker 2 (33:44):
Ooh, who inspired you to become the person that you
are today?
I had a mentor, when I was inhigh school actually, who was a
great leader, a great person andwas very inspirational.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
Okay, what do you typically think about at the end
of the day?
What's for dinner?
There we go.
How do you want to beremembered by your friends and
family?
A driver of change and growth?
That's awesome, okay.
Well, mitch, thank you verymuch for taking the time to join
us today on the Leaders inCustomer Loyalty series.
It was a great pleasurespeaking with you again.
(34:17):
It had been a while, but it wasone of the best interviews
you've had in a long time.
Very engaging Kind of yourthorough approach to customer
loyalty, from technology toresearch to implementation, of
kind of a vision for the program, was great to hear.
So it was truly appreciated andI appreciate the time.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
Oh, thank you.
Appreciate being involved.
Mark, Great to talk to you.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
Absolutely, and thank you, everyone else, for taking
the time to listen.
Make sure you join us everyThursday for our Leaders in
Customer Loyalty, the BrandStories edition, and until then,
have a wonderful day and seeyou soon.
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