Burger King is testing a loyalty program in five U.S. markets as part of a broader push to expand the digital experience for customers.
Restaurant Brands International is the latest restaurant chain to consider rewards programs as a way to promote sales. Loyalty programs under names like Starbucks and Chipotle Mexican Grill help the companies grow their base of loyal customers and encourage more frequent visits. The launch of Burger King’s Royal Perks test follows the announcement by arch – rival McDonald’s on Wednesday that he will enter the next phase of his own loyalty program tests.
“It’s something we’ve been working on for a while now, which we’ve had in different versions of beta tests,” said Ellie Doty, chief marketing officer at Burger King. “This is the natural next step if you want digital leadership and find ways to create more personalized experiences for your guests.”
Jose Cil, CEO of Restaurant Brands, said at an investor conference in Morgan Stanley in December that Royal Perks will help Burger King move away from a promotion-driven approach to offering prices and every day to low prices for customers.
Burger King customers in Los Angeles, Miami, New York, New Jersey and Long Island can earn reward points for every dollar they spend. Members can also collect points for orders from Burger King’s website or app. According to Doty, the testing of the program is currently mainly in the digital channels of the civic chain.
Among the benefits of the program is the ability to redeem points on most menu items. By comparison, McDonald’s test limits the redemption options to 16 menu items.
Burger King’s loyalty program also offers daily free benefits, such as increasing members’ drinks or fries, and will award double points during the birthday month.
The chain plans to bring the program to more markets throughout the year. However, Doty said that Burger King has not yet committed to a nationwide launch in 2021, and that the current format is not in stone.
“We’ll take our time fixing things, so we’m going through quite a bit of scaling up, so we’re learning as we go and getting it right before it hits nationwide,” she said.
The shares of the parent company Restaurant Brands have fallen by 6% over the past 12 months, giving a market value of $ 27.6 billion. Burger King’s sister chain Tim Hortons has taken longer to bounce back from the coronavirus pandemic as more consumers brew their own coffee at home. Restaurant Brands is expected to share its results in the fourth quarter on Thursday.