Leaders in Customer Loyalty, Powered by Loyalty360

#484: Leaders in Customer Loyalty: Brand Stories | Moe’s Southwest Grill: Redefining Loyalty with Flavor and Fun

• Loyalty360

Share episode

Send us a text

Step into Moe’s Southwest Grill and the first thing you’ll hear is the signature shout: “Welcome to Moe’s!” As part of the GoTo Foods platform company, Moe’s taps into enterprise resources in technology, culinary innovation and guest insights that help the brand translate flavorful energy into long-term loyalty. But what really keeps guests coming back isn’t just the burritos, bowls and queso, it’s the energy, the personality and the way the brand makes loyalty feel fresh and fun. 

In this edition of Leaders in Customer Loyalty: Brand Stories, we sat down with Mike Smith, Chief Brand Officer at Moe’s Southwest Grill, to talk about how the brand is blending bold flavors with bold ideas. With more than 7 million members in Moe’s Rewards, Smith shares how the team is reimagining loyalty with flexibility, personalization, and plenty of brand personality. 

SPEAKER_01:

Good afternoon, good morning. It's Mark Johnson from Loyalty Theory Safety. I hope that one happy today as well. To Thursday, that means another edition of our leaders in customer loyalty theory, the brand stories edition. But of course, a fast capital vertical in the restaurant industry highlights its unique ability to respond to and engage with customers evolving product interest and their needs. One of Vertical's key strengths is its flexibility it offers, particularly in the health and wellness based, by enabling highly personalized products and experiences. At the same time, economic headwinds are affecting brands in different ways. This makes it imperative for brand brands, as well as brands more broadly, to actively listen to and understand our customers, especially among the ongoing search for value and how value can have different meanings to the different brands. Developing customer experience and customer loyalty programs that generally connect with individuals, wherever they are, and recognize that the distinctiveness that each customer segment is essential. Today, we have the pleasure of speaking with Mike Smith. He's a chief brand officer of MOS, Southwest Grill, part of the go-to foods group. Mike, thank you very much for taking the time to speak with us today. How are you? I'm doing great. How are you? I'm doing well, thanks. Uh, first off, for those who may not be familiar, can you give us a brief introduction to Moze Southwest Grill? How, you know, why was the company started and what's led to its great success?

SPEAKER_00:

Sure. Yeah. I mean, Moose, uh, we're about to celebrate our 25th anniversary. So we've been around 25 years, and we exist to bring um fast casual Southwestern cuisine to the masses. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01:

And when you look at uh kind of the success, what's led to the success? Great product, great offering? It's kind of the that uh more fast casual kind of booming right now. You know, what's led to that?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I think you know, Mose has always embraced our rebel spirit, and we've tried to um elevate both our food and deliver a great value and experience. And we empower our employees to, you know, be a little bit unique and put their own spin on things and engage with our customers in a way that I think some of our competition doesn't.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. Your role as a company, uh, you know, can we love to know a little bit more about your role uh at most, what you're in charge of, what you do, kind of what your vision is. Uh, and also, you know, how did you get to that role? Were there positions that led up to you in the customer experience, customer loyalty industry? You know, how did you get involved in a kind of customer loyalty?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, so um, you know, it's funny. I um 20, what is it, 26 years ago, 25 years ago, uh I was coming out of school with a finance degree and I paid my way through school working in restaurants, and I decided I couldn't sit behind a desk. And that led me on a path of uh working in restaurants and experiencing and growing from the front lines um all the way to the executive team that um runs Mo's today. And, you know, after just interaction with guests and customers, that unique ability every day to make someone's day by just delivering on their expectations has been, you know, really fun for me. So I've been with Moes for about four years. I came here as uh the vice president of operations and I took over as the chief brand officer um last September.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. When you look at your role, uh brand off brand is very important, customer loyalty is very important, lots of rapid transformation in uh kind of the fast casual QSR spaces now. Uh, you know, what keeps you up at night? And what are some of the biggest challenges or potential opportunities that you see in your position?

SPEAKER_00:

I think the biggest opportunity or what I think about on a daily basis is how do we continue to deliver value to our guests? When you go back in time, you know, Fast Casual had this competitive advantage where we were delivering casual dining or higher quality food at um, you know, sort of discounted prices relative to what you could get. And casual dining has really kind of reined that in. And so that competition has elevated. And I think you know, our biggest opportunity is how do we continue to deliver on that uh value experience and that speed of service as needs and as the environment and all the changes. Like everyone is dealing with the same pressures around you know, uh food cost and inflation and changing labor markets, and it's who executes the best, is who wins.

SPEAKER_01:

There's a big push right now. Uh we see within the organization, uh, you know, we have a hundred and some brands that are members, we speak in with them on a daily basis, we have weekly meetings, but this push for value right now, making sure that the brand is providing value to the customer, there's value with the organization. You know, customers are asking, maybe what can this brand do for me right now in this kind of uh kind of time of economic uncertainty? Is that something you're seeing? Kind of the push for value? And you know, what does value mean to most potentially?

SPEAKER_00:

100%. So I think value is delivered in a lot of ways. Like I don't think value is just price. I think when you look across the marketplace today, um, sometimes there's a race to the bottom on discounting and what you can give something away for and still hopefully be profitable. The way we think about value at Mo's and inside of the go-to foods building at a larger scale is how do we deliver fair portions at a fair price where we can increase the frequency and loyalty of our guests? And that's really what value is. It's it's kind of this this uh, you know, it's it's what's the reality minus expectations? And when you exceed that, you create value. And and that's our opportunity.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. You talked a little bit about kind of the fast, casual uh industry, uh, kind of the genesis and how it's unique and how it's changing a little bit. You know, uh it's a big discussion point as well. How customers are changing, expectations, product, service, offering. You know, what do you see uh holistically for the industry? You know, how is the industry evolving, changing?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I think, you know, one of the things that I see across the industry is I see a desire for uh more choice when it comes to portions and and creating value through execution. I mean, it's no secret that a lot of people are trying to maintain their protein intake, but control the size and volume of their meals overall. And you know, we're creating some new menu items that go to market text test next month with our dippers platform. And I think that by right sizing these as well as like right sizing the family meal kits with our new meal kit XL that launches in in October as well, that these create value for the consumer. And we try to say, how do we feed people for that less than$10 price point um so that we can give them more opportunities to come see us? Because we know families and and all the consumers are facing pressure from lots of different angles.

SPEAKER_01:

No, you're absolutely right. I think that's a very uh pressing point you made too, that that value isn't just about discounts, right? It's about convenience, it's about being maybe using packaging things differently, right? So people are looking for protein, uh, more health conscious in theory. Uh, a lot of people talk about being health conscious, they may not be, but um, but kind of push for protein, but packaging it up in a way that kind of addresses that need, which involves listening to and understanding the customers, I think it is very uh prudent as well.

SPEAKER_00:

And it seems like the other element is we continue to see the consumer want to access us at different times of day.

SPEAKER_01:

Yep.

SPEAKER_00:

You go back, you know, 20 years ago when all we had was people walking through the front door or calling us on a phone with a cord that you got wound up in circles by the time you took it to go order. That was the only two methods. And with all of our third-party partners like Uber and DoorDash, as well as our own new digital app, we see more guests that like miss their lunch hour who want to come visit us in that two to five o'clock hour. And you can't always uh be in the mood for a burrito. Our standard burrito weighs over a pound. It's like almost a pound and a half if you get the homewrecker fully loaded. And you're not eating dinner if you eat a homewrecker at 3:30, 4 o'clock. And that's why we want to continue to innovate around these sack snack size portions that are great for afternoons and late night as well.

SPEAKER_01:

Excellent. Um, you talked a little bit, or touching on kind of the food delivery services, uh, can be kind of a challenging uh kind of opportunity uh for everyone involved, right? Kind of who owns that does uh service delivery. I actually had an issue with one of the big carriers. I'm in uh Boston watching my daughter play soccer, she plays T1 soccer, but I ordered from uh a company and the service delivery was horrible, right? Just they didn't have the right addresses. So that impacts the brand's ability to be nicked potentially, right? So how do you uh kind of manage the expectations around if you're using a third-party delivery service or uh kind of where you may disin dis become disintermediated, you know, how do you manage that whole kind of that relationship?

SPEAKER_00:

Sure. I think at the brand level, we have a responsibility to innovate in a few ways. So when we started looking at our new Dippers platform, the first thing we wanted to do was innovate around products that uh were mostly or all hot ingredients that we knew would travel well. So they'd have more flexibility as far as if it took longer to make the delivery, et cetera. I think the second part is um all brands are out there trying to innovate packaging in general of what's the right container or what's the right vessel uh to get the product to the consumer in the best we can. So we can't really 100% control what happens when it leaves our four walls. What we can control is how do we set it up for success? Do we double check our orders? Uh, did we do everything we could to make sure that the guests has a great experience? And then if they call us and they say, hey, my food arrived like X, we don't question them. We try to just do the right thing and say, hey, how can we make this right? And not mince it with them.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and because uh customer loyalty can be simply uh impacted by that service recovery, right? Saying, I'm sorry, how do we make it right? Let's not uh you know, you know, argue over what happened. Let's let's make it right going forward and being able to listen to again, like what you guys do and understand and address it is that'll drive more emotional engagement uh in the service recovery than potentially even the initial engagement, don't you think?

SPEAKER_00:

Absolutely. I I think that's the hardest thing for our managers today is how many different things they have to manage from order modes to changing expectations to things that are out of their control. And it's something that we try to work with our uh franchise owners and leaders of like, how do we coach our teams to do the right thing for the guest, no matter what it is for the business? Because ultimately, I think if we take care of our customers, especially our loyalty customers, that they want to come in the store when they can, when they can't, and they have to order delivery, how do we make it happen for them every single time and be as reliable as we can?

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. So uh when you look at some of the macroeconomic changes that may be impacting uh kind of what you're seeing today uh on the industry, you know, what are some of those uh that you may be concerned about from a customer experience, customer loyalty perspective?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I think at the macro level, um it's it's easy to look around and say like uh there's a lot of uh local legislation going on that's hard to kind of keep up with, um, whether it's changes in packaging or um legislation around um, you know, different costs that are hitting the consumer and how do we manage those out? You know, we work really hard with our supply chain team here at GoToFoods and at Mo's to just make sure we can we can eliminate as many of passing as many of those costs on as possible. Like we try to say, like, how do we do the best thing for the consumer so it's not just a pass-through when we see those macro events? Um, and where we can, we try to create new value for the guest or or make changes that benefit them, not just our bottom line.

SPEAKER_01:

That's awesome. And I think too, yeah, you talked a little bit about kind of the packaging and kind of repositioning the offering from a value perspective and understanding what's best for the customers. There's a good deal uh kind of push on that. You see in the CPG relationships, right? Because traditionally CPGs wanted more slotting fees, they're starting more uh shelf allowance, right? And they wanted product line extensions. Now they're seeing that maybe we kind of can compact that a little bit and maybe offer more of what the customers are looking for. Do you learn anything from kind of cross-industry uh kind of opportunities, like maybe what CPGs may be doing or retail may be doing with regard to product and product offerings?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I think the one thing um, you know, we get a lot of information inside the building by having seven brands that that we work with across GoToFoods. I would tell you the thing that we've learned about the consumer is in general is like they're busy, they're stressed, they have a lot going on, and we want to make it simple for them. Uh, we recently launched a value meal where it's our junior burrito and drink and a queso for$9.95. And we think that's a best in class um deal where the customer doesn't have to come in and look at the menu board and start doing math in their head and say, if I get this, but I have this, is this in my budget? And I think where um, you know, both consumer and retail has done a good job is like simplicity is winning today because people have decision fatigue and where we can help them make an easy choice that they feel like is a good value, I think you win again and again.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. Interesting. I know Mo's recently uh refreshed, uh, updated their customer loyalty program. You kind of lowered the uh threshold for rewards, and uh you also introduced kind of a gold tier. You know, uh what was kind of the the impetus to do that uh and and kind of what are you seeing with uh kind of the in the the implementation of these changes?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it was really about accessibility for our guests. Um before our program was uh basically a dollars reward platform where you had to spend X to get Y, and then whether or not you use the whole discount, you lost those dollars that you had banked. So if you wanted to just use part of it, you couldn't. And so we really said, like, if we were consumers, what would we want out of a loyalty program? And what our loyalty team here came to us with was a program where they could select items and redeem their points for items, and then we said, Hey, how do we take care of uh our most frequent customers and the people who are most engaged in the brand? And we created a gold tier for them where they earn points at a faster level so they can redeem even more rewards. So, you know, today you might want to redeem your points for a full burrito. Tomorrow you might want to do a family meal, or you might want to get just a dessert or just a soda or just take a couple dollars off. And we just wanted to give the consumer maximum flexibility, and that's what we did with our new program that we launched in April. Um, on the off side, our team has been pushing rebel service because you know, Mo's is about feeding the rebel spirit and all of us. And we've been out kind of training our teams and talking about like how do we deliver on the experience as we see these new loyalty guests, like when can we call them by name? How do we thank these people for their spend on a daily basis? Because they make up such a huge piece of our overall revenue. We wanna, we wanna, we do want to give them a disproportionate experience in a positive way.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, that's awesome. And it's great to kind of the those uh moments of uh that matter, right? Uh that that that can be very impactful. Um, how how do you train around that? Because that that can be a consistent challenge too. You change the program, do you uh making sure everyone understands kind of the new program benefits, those moments that matter in a surprise and delight, thanking people. Is that something you can train for, hire for a little bit of both? Because you guys I go to most quite often. You seem to do a great job of that.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, thanks for that. Uh, it's a little bit of both. I had a mentor that used to tell me there's two kinds of communication: there's over-communication and no communication. So we've wired this into like everything we do. So every communication that's going out to the field going forward, we're elevating those conversations of, hey, we have this new item. This is something you can remind loyalty guests of, or hey, you know, there's this is the benefit to this consumer. And what we want to do is we want to tell them about it as much as possible. And I think it's just um consistency inside of communicating to our managers and to our teams and to our franchise owners of we're committed to this strategy for the long term, not for, you know, 10 days or 10 weeks or 10 months, but we're gonna we're gonna dial this in for years and we're gonna stay committed to this guest and and we're gonna deliver on this experience.

SPEAKER_01:

Excellent. You've grown the program to over 7 million members. You know, what strategies have been most effective in driving enrollment and engagement within the program?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, we have multiple strategies going on. I mean, our our commercial team has done a good job of helping us uh create offers that drive both frequency and drive new guests. Uh, we've partnered with um outside companies to do sign-up initiatives, et cetera. Um we offer uh freak walk or queso for new members when they sign up. Um and so we're gonna continue to kind of try to, on an annual basis, create calendars where we can show the guests, like on an annual basis, here's how many offers you get as part of the the uh Mo Rewards program. And I really think that's a challenge or an opportunity that I give to my team is like, how do you tell the consumer on January 1 or today that if you're loyal to us all next year, here's the here's the what you can get every month, every week. And and we're trying to create calendars that people can upload and and download into their phone because Lord knows we all live by our phones and what they tell us to do on a daily basis. And so how do I make this easy for the end user?

SPEAKER_01:

Excellent. Uh, it seems uh like you have a very unique uh kind of approach to customer loyalty. You're very familiar with a number of the kind of go-to uh food brands. Uh when you look at customer loyalty, what does customer loyalty mean to you and to Mo's uh as you know in in total?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I I I can't remember the specifics, but I think last time we did the lifetime value of a loyalty customer, and it was somewhere in the four to 10 times what you know the average customer is. So we know there's a ton of financial value to a customer that's loyal to the brand. And you know, I think eventually we'd love uh to be able to share that loyalty across multiple brands inside of GoToFoods. We're not there today, but I think there's a vision of like how do we create one platform that users could use? Uh, in the short term, each brand here is really dedicated. And at MOES, we think about like how do we create sort of what we call brand holidays where we can reward those guests and they can think about like, I'm only getting this personal holiday or this event um because I'm loyal to the MOES platform. And so, you know, we want it to be so good that our guests tell their friends about it and say, hey, you should download the app because tomorrow I'm going in for$2 tacos on National Taco Day, or you know, I got to buy one, get one burrito on National Burrito Day. We want to make these offers aggressive enough that they're bringing people in with them and that they want to sign up and join.

SPEAKER_01:

Excellent. Uh, it's great to hear that uh you're using the customer loyalty program in a very unique way and the personalization uh that it can enable. Many brands struggle with that, right? Uh, they may view customer loyalty as just a program, but customer loyalty should and and and could be or could and should be really more holistic, like the organizational alignment around the customer. It's everything you do to drive customer loyalty. And it sounds like you're definitely integrating it into your you know broader digital personalization and even menu innovations because you know, listening to and understanding, looking at kind of that data set. You know, how how are you doing that so effectively and how do you see that going forward?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, there's there's two big pieces to this. Um, the first is uh obviously, based on data that we get through our local customers, we can use our suggestive sell feature to recommend items and options that we know that they'll like. Or, you know, maybe you've had you know our home record with chicken before, and we launch a new dipping burrito that's um has the same adobo chicken in it. We could recommend those items to you, and that's one method. Uh, the other thing that we do that's provided a lot of value and informed our strategy going forward is we do a lot of surveys with our loyalty guests, so they get you know your typical guest satisfaction survey afterwards, but sometimes we also pulse other surveys. Um, recently we did some work with um you know consumers and found out um we have a lot of adults ordering kids' meals from us, and that's informed some research around, huh? Why are you doing this? Tell us why you want to do that. And and it taught us that, like what value price point the consumer is looking for, as well as um it informed us on the opportunity to create new menu items that are in those portion sizes so that we could deliver to that guest the value they want more frequently.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. When you look at uh kind of the program in general, what are two or three things that you're most proud of with regard to your customer loyalty efforts?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I think I'm most proud of um just the growth of the program overall. I mean, we have um over a half a million signups this year. Uh, we're working towards our goal of getting to you know 700,000 signups. Um, and so that's a big component is um how do we grow this program so that we have you know more information that we can continue to deliver on. Um, I think the other thing that I'm really proud of is that we've continued to deliver more richness to the program, so more optionality to our guests. Um, I think a lot of times um brands get out there and they start a program and then they find out it's too rich and they say, how do we pull this back? And I think we've been able to evolve this and create richness through choice and not just through you know discounts. Um, and I think the third component is like it's our communication tool to how we talk to our guests. And so by you know, our offers and by the reminders and by the communication that we have both inside of our app and eventually through SMS, we'll be able to talk to consumers and let them know when we have events and things going on that might fit their needs.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. When you look at uh what's next, you know, what's the next big thing for customer loyalty, customer experience uh that uh Mose is focused on?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I I think the next big thing is um it's probably just just getting better at um offering guests uh the right offerings based on changing needs in their lives and based on their habits. So if I know that you're coming in every afternoon and I have something that probably fits your afternoon need, whether it's a new beverage LTO or uh it's a new snack item or new dessert that we're delivering on, yeah. It's that customizable experience based on your needs and your purchase history that I think is is incredibly important. I know sometimes people get concerned about um too much data being out there. Um but I think that if you use it in the right way to you know build your relationship with the consumer, um I think it's a really positive thing.

SPEAKER_01:

Excellent. And last question, you know, what can loyalty 360 do to help you and your team with your customer loyalty efforts?

SPEAKER_00:

Um it's two pieces. It's one, the communication with the guests. Like I said earlier, those guests um tell us what they want. Um, I think if I were to, you know, one of the things I talk to my team about a lot is like, are we listening to the guests? Are we asking them the right questions? So we do um uh we're always doing what we call ask now surveys with our loyalty customers, and they're gonna tell us what they want to come in more frequently. And it's our job as a leadership team to deliver on those experiences. And I think the more that we can um show the customers that after you know we do these surveys that we actually change our business model and support them and their feedback, um, I think that's how we win the hearts and minds of the consumer.

SPEAKER_01:

Excellent. Uh well now, Mike, thank you for uh a very interesting interview. But we have the fun part now. We have the quick fire, rapid fire questions. We like to keep these to kind of a one-word or a short phrase or get in trouble with uh Hannah, and I get lashes from the rest of the team. So I don't want that. So that's a little intimidating. I will do my best. All right, good. Uh, what is your favorite word?

SPEAKER_00:

Uh right now it's value. Excellent.

SPEAKER_01:

There we go.

SPEAKER_00:

Love that.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh what's your least favorite word?

SPEAKER_00:

Can't. Uh we get stand when people like tell me that something can't be done.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. Uh that's a that's a common one, but I I like how you talk about it. It's all mindset. You know, what excites you?

SPEAKER_00:

Solving problems. Like I genuinely, whether it's personal or professional, like I like the coming up against obstacles and figuring out ways to overcome them that drives a lot of satisfaction for me.

SPEAKER_01:

That's awesome. I I same thing. I love being able to look at uh kind of a disparate set of challenges, data, and just solve quickly. Not many people can do that. It's uh very difficult to do, but it's great to hear that you can because that's uh I love that part. What do you find tiresome?

SPEAKER_00:

Uh being a new parent, I got an eight-week old at home. I'm a first-time dad, but uh Vivian's putting us putting us through it, but she's worth every minute of it.

SPEAKER_01:

There you go. Good. Uh girls are awesome. I have uh three uh girls and a boy, and the girls are like all my best friends. They're a little different, but uh yeah, you can have all girls, it works out better. The Girl Dad Club is a special club. It is that for sure. Uh is is there a book that you've read or like to read that you like to recommend to colleagues?

SPEAKER_00:

Um yeah, I love Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers. Um that whole catalog from Malcolm Gladwell is awesome.

SPEAKER_01:

Excellent. Uh, is there a profession other than one that you currently have that you may like to attend? Uh I'd love to be a day trader. There you go. Um what do you enjoy doing now? I think I know who managed this, probably sleep, that uh you you enjoy doing that you don't often get the time to do?

SPEAKER_00:

Uh I would love the ability to snowboard more often since I moved um back east from living on the west coast. It's harder to get to, and and you know, you got a limited season and all the other variables.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. Uh who inspired you to become the person that you are today?

SPEAKER_00:

Uh probably my parents, um, less so in the like um fun, like go be your best, but more in the uh if you want to get out of you know, small town middle America, you have to go out and excel and achieve and like sharpen the saw. And so, you know, that's that's kind of what I've dedicated my life to doing.

SPEAKER_01:

That's awesome. And what do you typically think about at the end of the day?

SPEAKER_00:

Um, what could I have optimized from today or what can I do better tomorrow?

SPEAKER_01:

And last question, how do you want to be remembered by your friends and family?

SPEAKER_00:

Um, I like my sort of personal mission is I want to be acknowledged by um I did the right thing because it was the right thing to do, no matter how no matter how hard it was.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, excellent. Well, Mike, thank you very much for taking the time to speak with us today. It was uh a definite pleasure speaking with you, the passion. Uh also I learned that your Bronco fan is always great talking to a Bronco and uh fan, John Elway fan. Uh, but it was great getting an update on Mo's program, uh, your commitment to the customer, and just how you are completely renovating and updating and just focused on the customer. Because that often doesn't come through in these interviews, the passion, the focus on the customer, the commitment, but it definitely resounded quite clearly in this. So it was great uh for the interview. So thank you. Yeah, my pleasure. Let's make the playoffs. Yeah, that'll be good. Uh and thank you everyone for taking the time to listen today. Make sure you join us back every Thursday for our leaders and customer loyalty series. Until then, we'll see you then. Thanks, w, you know, that's the w