Leaders in Customer Loyalty, Powered by Loyalty360
Leaders in Customer Loyalty, Powered by Loyalty360
Leaders in Customer Loyalty Brand Stories featuring Portillo’s
Bringing Loyalty to Life with an Authentic, Brand-First Approach
Since its founding in 1963, Portillo’s has built a loyal following with its crave-worthy Chicago-style street food, from iconic Italian beef sandwiches to its famous chocolate cake. Customers don’t just dine at Portillo’s—they celebrate there, creating memories that span generations. Now, with the launch of its first-ever loyalty program, Portillo’s Perks, the brand is taking customer engagement to the next level with an approach that is as unique as the brand itself.
In a recent interview on Leaders in Customer Loyalty: Brand Stories, Keith Correia, Chief Information Officer, and Vallory McCormack, Director of Marketing, shared insights on Portillo’s loyalty strategy, the role of digital innovation, and how they’re reinforcing customer connections beyond the four walls of their restaurants.
Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another episode of Leaders in Customer Loyalty Brand Stories. I'm Ethan Perry, content Director at Loyalty360, and I'm thrilled to have you with us today as we dive into the ever-evolving world of customer channel and brand loyalty. On this podcast, we sit down with industry leaders to explore the strategies, challenges and innovations shaping loyalty programs and customer engagement. Today, we have an exciting conversation lined up for you on this episode with two key leaders from Portillo's, a beloved brand known for its Chicago-style street food and deep-rooted customer loyalty. Joining us are Keith Correa, chief Information Officer, and Valerie McCormick, director of Marketing at Portillo's. Portillo's has built a passionate fan base over the years and they've recently launched their first-ever loyalty program. This initiative blends digital innovation with add-to-wallet technology and a truly brand-authentic approach to rewarding their most loyal guests the top dogs approach to rewarding their most loyal guests the top dogs. We're going to hear from Keith and Valerie about how they designed this program, what sets it apart and how it's evolving. Customer engagement at Portillo's.
Speaker 1:Keith Valerie thank you both for joining us today.
Speaker 2:Thanks for having us.
Speaker 1:So, for those who may not be familiar, can you give us a short introduction to Portillo's, how the company was started and a little bit of the backstory?
Speaker 2:a short introduction to Portillo's, how the company was started and a little bit of the backstory. Yeah, absolutely so. Portillo's is named after the founder, dick Portillo. Dick started the company in 1963. So this is one of those great American bootstrap stories of taking $1,100 and investing that into a hot dog stand in Villa Park, illinois, and that was called the Dog House. So that was the origins a hot dog stand of the brand. And fast forward many years later, we're 90 restaurants large now across 10 states, and it's really about our food deliciousness. So certainly Chicagoans, but broadly so many more people, are realizing how incredible our food is. So we're known for Chicago street food delicious hot dogs, italian beef sandwiches, we have great burgers, salads and then of course, our very famous chocolate cake. And I think what really differentiates us is that we are incredibly high quality on the food side, but we really try to move with quick service, restaurant kind of speed and service. So we combine both of those in a great way.
Speaker 1:Excellent, and I will say I am personally a big fan of your Italian Italian beef. And now you've got me thinking about it and it's too long of a drive from Cincinnati to go up there, so I'm gonna be thinking about it all night. But tell us a little bit more about from both of you what about your role with Portillo's and how you got to where you are and maybe some other positions you've had that kind of led you on your journey to where you are today.
Speaker 3:Sure, so well. First of all, Ethan, I know you're in Cincinnati, but we do have a shipping business, so we will ship you some Italian beef after that.
Speaker 1:That would really make my day for real.
Speaker 3:So I started at Portillo's in 2017. I was one of the first marketing team members at Portillo's, so a lot of people are surprised to hear that Portillo's did not have any marketing function prior to 2016. Word of mouth, word of mouth marketing. So, yeah, it's been very cool to see how the company has grown over the past few years since I started and also how the marketing function has been built out from just being a team of four to now a team of 20 plus people, spanning digital and brand marketing field marketing, our guest services team, as well as our off-premise dining team all falls under marketing.
Speaker 1:Heath, did you want to add in a little bit about your backstory?
Speaker 2:Yeah, sure, nathan, it's actually different than most people who are technologists. I actually have an operations background, so about three quarters of my career was in field operations and ops services. So I have a background in project management, equipment innovation, operations innovation and, later on in my career, just because operations often got so embedded in the technology stack, making sure that what we were doing as a business really fit the restaurant business If we made technology changes, I wound up pivoting over to technology and ultimately became CIO at two different brands, and it makes me think differently. I think what's been great about that is I know that we're in the restaurant business and it's very important to consider the restaurant itself first anytime we do anything, and I think that drives a lot of our adaption and innovation and technology is really thinking about what's happening to the restaurant team and, in turn, how is that empowering the restaurant team to interact with our guests?
Speaker 1:That kind of leads me to my next question for you, Keith. What keeps you up at night? What is the biggest challenge or opportunity you face within that position?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's such a great question that I completely our team completely mucks up the operation because we chase a shiny penny for technology implementation, and that's just not a smart thing to do. So I really worry about operational simplicity when we're innovating in the technology space. So if we're going to do anything with the technology stack, it's got to be something that is additive to that team and does not detract from their ability to serve the guests, especially because we do incredibly high volumes. I'm very proud of the number of guests that we can serve, and so the architecture of our technology and doing a great, great job of being able to do really huge throughput is incredibly important, and that also extends into what we do digitally that we don't want to complicate the guest experience because we want it to be easy for them to get in and out of our business or order off premise, and so I spend a lot of time worrying about how to do that correctly.
Speaker 1:Excellent. So we've talked to quite a few folks in the quick service restaurant industry lately and the restaurant industry in general and we've heard you know that there's a lot of things happening in that industry and a lot of change. How do you perceive your customers changing and how is Portillo's responding to the challenges of a change in customer base?
Speaker 3:Well, guests are expecting more personalization in their dining experiences, and that's across all ordering channels. So they're expecting the same ease of ordering, whether they come in through our drive-thru, they come inside and order with the cashier, they order from the kiosk or online ordering. They're expecting a personalized and seamless experience, and one way that we're responding to this is through our shift to our digital wallet, through our new Portillo's Perks loyalty program. So now guests have their own personalized digital perks card that they can scan and check in for visits, they can redeem their rewards, and it really has created a seamless experience across all channels when using and engaging with the perks program.
Speaker 1:That's awesome and you know we invited you to come on today because we were excited to hear that Portillo's launched their first ever loyalty program. We always love it when a heritage brand joins the loyalty fold. So can you tell us about the details of the new program and what made you decide to go forward with a formal loyalty program?
Speaker 2:Happy to do that. So we really wanted to do something that was, in fact, innovative, and we've spent a lot of time our teams, our marketing and IT teams really trying to think about what is that in fact? What's a great loyalty program that fits our brand? That would really drive the needle. And so we decided to pursue an app-less program, basically to take a program through vendor relationships that's embedded in the phone wallet, and it really felt like if we could do that well, we could somewhat leapfrog some of the concerns that are associated with a conventional app.
Speaker 2:Apps can be great, but you also have to open them and you have to sign on to them, and it can take time and it adds friction. So what we did is actually built an offer-based program that gives people a wallet sitting in their phone. That's the ability to put really great compelling offers in that phone that they can easily access. And people have their phones on them all the time and they're really ready to embrace this kind of approach. And so what we're excited about with our program is that it's going to be visit-based.
Speaker 2:As they come to visit us, we're going to give them very personalized offers that are compelling for them, that recognize them for those visits and give them an opportunity to get the products that they love. So we're going to make data-driven decisions and really try to make it meaningful to people so that after they visited us, they actually are on their way home or they are at home and they see this great offer and say, wow, I'm so glad I went to Portillo's and now they're thinking about me and they know me and they're giving me an opportunity to come back and maybe try different menu items or get other personalized offers. And so we're really proud of the membership base we had. I mentioned that we have about 100 restaurants and we are looking to activate over a million and a half subscribers through this wallet and if you think about that number of subscribers relative to locations that we have, it's a pretty impressive number of people that are really going to be in our forum for being able to communicate with them and having a great experience with our platform.
Speaker 1:That's a lot of users. That's exciting. So can you tell me you know what does customer loyalty mean to you and to Portillo's?
Speaker 3:So customer loyalty we have always had very loyal guests inside our restaurants. We've created lifelong memories for our guests and we've made that part of our purpose statement. We've done that through inside our restaurants. People celebrate with us. They come into our restaurants after celebrating a big game. We've had people propose at Portillo's and have their weddings at Portillo's. So we did a really good job prior to launching the program of creating those lifelong memories and customer loyalty with our guests inside our restaurants. Now, through Portillo's Perks, we're creating experiences beyond the four walls. It's really exciting. We were able to get really creative with it. For example, part of our program we have a top dog tier. Those are our most loyal guests. We surprise them with free merch when they reach a top dog tier. So those are our most loyal guests and we surprise them with free merch when they reach the top dog tier. And merch allows us to create positive word of mouth, marketing and brand advocacy beyond just discounting food to our loyal fans.
Speaker 1:Awesome. And so how does the loyalty program and the process fit into the vision that you have for loyalty?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So that's a great question, ethan. And loyalty to us first comes from the interaction that our guests have and the experience they have with our team. So think of this program as leaning forward with an incredible experience, which means that it reduces friction. If you're going to use our wallet, it needs to be easy and simple. On the backside of a really great having, a great experience, having engagement with our team members, it doesn't matter how you choose to interact with us. If you're in our drive-through, if you're using our new kiosk. On the backside of that is a personalized effort to communicate with them after the fact and say thanks for coming and here's an offer please come back. And that offer is building on the back of a loyalty transaction, meaning that we gave them a great experience and this reinforces. You know what? I want? To go back. I had a great experience.
Speaker 2:That's a little bit different than some loyalty programs where it's more of a friend-end approach of trying to lure somebody to come back with maybe a frequency play hey, come back this many times and we'll give you X. We really want to have it reinforce. A great visit, a great experience, and that's really the structure of our program. That's a little bit different, awesome. And so how would you say customer loyalty is prioritized within the organization.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it really comes on the back of what I said, which is we make sure that the teams know the first thing we need to do to build loyalty is to drive a great experience. Let's give people great food that's delicious, that's hot when it's supposed to be hot, that's cold when it's supposed to be cold, and let's give people speed and make sure that they enjoy what they're doing. And then make sure our team understands fully what is the loyalty program. How do I encourage people to sign up for perks? How does a guest use perks? If somebody has not signed up yet, that I can give them a great experience and incentivize them to sign up. Hey, this is a great program, you should sign up. So it's really embedded in everybody. Understanding the guest is first, the experience that we deliver is first, and then let's give people the added opportunity to be part of this program and recognize them when they visit us.
Speaker 1:Excellent. So many brands that are running customer loyalty programs are telling us that their customers are increasingly searching for value. How does your program address that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it addresses it very overtly initially when they sign up. So when a guest signs up for the Perks wallet, they'll actually get an offer for a free large fry and they can use that as they see fit. So right out of the gate we want to make sure that people have a really great product. We're really proud of our fries and we're happy to give that to the guests to come in as a reward for participating in the program. As Val mentioned before, we want to do some unusual things.
Speaker 2:So for our really engaged guests, people who are visiting us frequently, we want to do really cool stuff, like give them brand swag, maybe unique swag that you just wouldn't have anywhere. That's almost coveted. Somebody walks out of a location with the swag or we send it to them and they tell their friends about it and that connects them to the brand and that's a form of value to us, which is okay. That's great. You gave me the free fry and then you gave me things that are personally relevant to me and we're building that component of the value of perception and we will, at times, surprise people with things that might be extremely generous or delightful. When somebody has visited a certain number of times Wow, what a great offer. Maybe we give them an inducement for their whole family to come in and enjoy a meal on us, and that is really exciting for them and it's fun for us because we know we're giving them a great experience and that, to us, that's all part of a value proposition.
Speaker 1:That sounds great. So what methods are you using to engage, slash, reward those folks in your program and how do you see that continuing to evolve, going forward?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so badging is an important part of the program. Giving people cool badges that recognize their visit behavior is fun. People will socialize that. We hope that people will snap images of that and put it on social media and talk about how they achieved a badge. That's gamification. So there'll be gamification components in the app, where going back to the app is fun because people want to see how many visits do I have, what did I earn, what could they talk about with friends and others as part of their experience with us. So we'll keep doing things like that. That top dog status is pretty cool. We'll have these elite badge experiences that make people feel special. Those are the types of things we want to do to really drive engagement.
Speaker 1:That sounds great and people love to share those badges on social media and hype it up. So one of the things that we've touched on briefly and it's something that we consistently hear about from other members of Loyalty360 is personalization. How does Portillo's plan to further personalize the experience for the guest and navigate any of the challenges around personalization?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So a way that we're further personalizing is with one-to-one marketing, especially in new markets where people may not be as familiar with Portillo's. So think about someone who creates a perks account. They maybe haven't tried Portillo's before and they come in and they try our chicken sandwich. We are known for our Italian beef and our hot dogs and we want them to come back in quickly to make that second visit. We might incentivize them and say hey, come in and try our homemade Italian beef sandwich. It's what we're known for. We want you to enter through Portillo's with one of our top two favorite menu items. So that's one way that we're personalizing specific to new markets.
Speaker 3:And then another tactic we're using is we're gaining insights from our most loyal fans, those top dogs. We're personally reaching out to our top dogs. We've had the program live for two weeks now and we have people in our top who have um have their top dog card. So our card flips from the generic perks card to a top dog card where it has a crown with fries sticking out of the crown. It's really cool. Um, we already have fans in uh who have achieved top dog status. So our loyalty manager is reaching out to those top dogs this week, calling them and just saying hey, what do you love about being a top dog, what did you like about the program? Did you run into any issues while signing up for the program and really getting their insights? Because they are our most valuable guests. So that's another fun tactic that we're using. We're excited to connect with those fans this week and then obviously we'll send them something special as well for being one of the first top dogs.
Speaker 1:That's so cool. I'm sure that they're going to love it. So undertaking starting from scratch for a loyalty program is a big investment in time and energy from you guys. So what specific gaps or challenges in changing customer preference were you aiming to address by, you know, starting from the ground up and building a new loyalty program?
Speaker 3:Yeah, we really wanted to create a more direct relationship with our fans, just beyond transactions, as we were prior to launching Perks, and something that was really important to us was how do we make it fun and how do we make it uniquely Portillo's? We said let's ditch the points like Keith mentioned, let's make it visit-based and let's make it really easy for people to understand. You have your perks card, you scan with it, you get your rewards and you achieve more surprises as you visit more. So when we really simplified it, that's what we wanted to do and we took a lot of guest insights from our current fans to help build that program so that we knew exactly what people were looking for.
Speaker 1:Awesome. So how does employee engagement and employee advocacy fit into the customer loyalty discussion? Are there ways that your employees are trained or engaged with differently, as Portillo's is evolving, this new perks program?
Speaker 2:It's actually a very deliberate part of what we do and it starts with looking for extremely friendly and passionate people that we hire that are going to be in front of our guests.
Speaker 2:So we really try to develop a strong baseline of people who are excited to be at the location and that sets people up naturally for being interested and wanting to support things like loyalty. Then it really is an engagement process. So we actually measure engagement in our business. We talk about how our team members feel like they're part of the Portillo's family, feel like they're part of the Portillo's family and that really sets people up to get excited about what I mentioned before, which is I'm going to drive a great experience and then I'm excited to sign people up for the loyalty program. So it really is the basis of everything we do is the kind of people we hire, the way we set them up for success, and that it extends logically into these kinds of programs because people are able to internalize them and then they want to communicate them and that really drives the whole experience, drives a great transaction with the guests and then makes it fun later on when we're actually sending offers and messages to the guests.
Speaker 1:Awesome. So at last year's Loyalty Expo and during our advisory board meetings, we discussed the challenge of engaging younger audiences. Brands right now are often finding that while some surveys show younger customers are interested in X or Y, they actually end up doing A or B. Have you experienced any of these challenges? If so, like? How are you addressing it? And, you know, have you seen any good results in trying to engage the younger customer base with your program?
Speaker 3:younger consumers and their tech preferences. We know that more and more younger people are using their wallet for other activities that might not necessarily be associated with a loyalty program today, and they don't like to download tons of apps and have clutter on their phone. So the way we validated this was by bringing in a lot of our Gen Z guests that order frequently from Portillo's. We brought them into our innovation kitchen and we just talked to them about the loyalty programs they use, what they like about those programs, what keeps them engaged with those programs, and we found that the no app approach really resonated with them. They love using their wallet Achievement badges. They love the gamification of achieving badges and then surprising them with offers was something that was an interest to them as well. So all of that set us up for success and being able to capture a younger audience with this program.
Speaker 1:Awesome. So another topic that we've been hearing about a lot is emotional loyalty. What does emotional loyalty mean to you?
Speaker 2:and your brand. It's really important to us that, particularly in markets where we're growing what we call our outer markets, where we're developing the Portillo's brand in Texas and Arizona, we want to drive people's desire to come to Portillo's because they love the food and the experience and they really want to come there, and there can be different reasons why a guest wants to go to different restaurants. Sometimes it's more of a convenience element or there's other factors that are a priority to the guests. For us, it's really, really important that the person actually has an emotional connection, really an ardent love of the food. I love Portillo's. You can't really buy that, so to speak. So you know, driving that brand connection is important.
Speaker 2:Sitting behind that, we can do things with our loyalty program that reinforce that. At the end of the day, though, it's really about they want to come to us, they want to bring their friends and family, they socialize the business. We're really proud of people wanting to go to their place of work or going to social events and talking about having gone to Portillo's that day. That word of mouth is incredibly important and ultimately that's going to drive our business. So that emotional loyalty I know we were talking about a loyalty program. I think it's great to emphasize that that's really the loyalty that we're building is is having, uh, really being somewhat of a fan of the brand and then wanting to talk about it Awesome.
Speaker 1:Um, so what are two or three things that you're most proud of regarding your customer loyalty efforts?
Speaker 3:I'll go first. Um, I'm most proud of regarding your customer loyalty efforts. I'll go first. I'm most proud of creating a loyalty program that just authentically reflects our brand personality. It's truly and uniquely different than any other QSR loyalty program. Right now and when we went with the wallet approach, we're really using the wallet to its full capability. That no one else is doing. The wallet today is part of other brands' bigger loyalty program, but for us, the wallet is our loyalty program and we're able to have a lot of the same functionality as other programs that are app-based on our perks card and on the back of the perks card. So achievement badges progress towards those badges offers and I'm just really proud that the team is leading the way with this program.
Speaker 2:I would just add that, working with teammates, val, other members of the team, the speed with which we did this it's actually a catchphrase that I use often, which is this idea of urgency with quality. We try to move as fast as we can to do something really great, and this team mobilized very quickly to get this launched because it's important to our business and thankfully, I think we were able to do it in a way where it was assimilated into the operation. Going back to some earlier comments, I mean I'm really proud of the way we've incorporated into the business so that our team members at the restaurant can really focus on delivering great service to the guests, and this is part of the guest experience that works very smoothly. So many things to be proud of in terms of really doing this fast and well.
Speaker 1:That's great to hear. Well, that brings us to our favorite part of the interview, our quickfire questions. We try and keep this to a one word or short phrase answer, and since we have two of you, I guess we're going to kind of ping pong back and forth between. So, keith, what word or short phrase do you use to inspire others?
Speaker 2:Yeah, just actually snuck it in there. So I'll say it again, is the urgency with quality. So we're a fast paced business, we do a lot of volume, we do things fast.
Speaker 1:And Val. What is your least favorite word that others use?
Speaker 3:So mine's a phrase, it's plus up.
Speaker 1:Keith, what's your favorite food?
Speaker 2:Yeah, of course I'm going to tell you it's portillo and it is, but you know, followed closely by sushi.
Speaker 1:Nice Val. What excites you at work?
Speaker 3:What excites me is bringing awareness of portillos to people who have not heard of us yet.
Speaker 1:Cool, and what do you find tiresome at home or at work?
Speaker 3:At work it is any meeting over one hour, and I'm sure we can all relate. And at home it is my. I have two boys. I have a 10 month old and a four year old, so they keep me very busy.
Speaker 1:Nice, Keith. What book do you like to recommend to your colleagues?
Speaker 2:I just started a book recently by Mel Robbins. It's called Let them it's this idea of letting people be who they are and not letting other people's actions frustrate you, and just controlling your own actions. It's a really great read.
Speaker 1:Cool, and what profession other than your current one would you like to attempt?
Speaker 2:Yeah, probably rock star, but that's not going to happen, Okay it's never too late.
Speaker 1:That's true, Val. What do you enjoy doing that? You don't get to do that often.
Speaker 3:Play basketball.
Speaker 1:And Keith, who inspired you to become the person you are today.
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely my father. I'm first generation. My father was an immigrant from Portugal and it was a story of coming to this country with $40 in the family's pocket and became very successful, so he's a great inspiration to me.
Speaker 1:Cool and Val. Last one, how do you want to be remembered by your friends and family?
Speaker 3:I want to be remembered as funny, empathetic and loyal.
Speaker 1:Great Well, keith and Valerie, thank you so much for taking time to speak with us today. It was a pleasure speaking with you and getting an update on the world of loyalty at Portillo's. We're really excited to see how your program grows and evolves in the future, and thank you to everyone for listening and please be sure to check back next Thursday for our next episode of Leaders in Customer Loyalty. We'll see you then. Thank you.