Leaders in Customer Loyalty, Powered by Loyalty360
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Leaders in Customer Loyalty, Powered by Loyalty360
Leaders in Customer Loyalty: Brand Stories | Blending Tech and Tradition: How Whataburger Builds Loyalty Across Generations
From late-night honey butter chicken biscuits to meme-worthy social engagement, Whataburger has cemented itself as a beloved brand with a fiercely loyal fan base. Founded in 1950 by Harmon Dobson in Corpus Christi, Texas, the company was built on a straightforward promise: to serve a burger so big it takes two hands to hold and so good that customers exclaim, "What a burger!"
Today, Whataburger is in the midst of a multi-state expansion, combining its storied heritage with innovative technology and personalized digital experiences. At the center of this transformation is Keith McLellan, Group Director of Digital Customer Experience.
"As the digital customer experience lead, I'm really focused on leaning into that convenience culture and helping our brand understand the future state of our consumers," McLellan explains. "We're trying to drive the outcome of loyalty through just great food and great service."
Good afternoon, Good morning everyone. My name is Ethan Perry from Loyalty360. Welcome back to Leaders in Customer Loyalty Brand Stories Series. It's great to have you with us every Thursday. In this episode, we will hear from Keith McClellan, the Group Director of Digital Customer Experience at Whataburger. Keith, thank you so much for taking the time to join us today. How are you?
Speaker 2:My pleasure Doing great.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Well, for those of us who may not have gotten down to Texas to try it or aren't familiar with the brand, can you give us a short introduction to Whataburger, how the company was started and what's led to some of its successes?
Speaker 2:Sure. Whataburger was founded in 1950 by Harmon Dobson in Corpus Christi, texas. Founded in 1950 by Harmon Dobson in Corpus Christi, texas, with a pretty simple goal to serve a burger so big it takes two hands to hold it and so good that customers would exclaim what a burger. And so quality ingredients made to order meals, hospitality, and then, even today, combining tech and tradition. We're a customer-centric brand that is growing fast and having our coming-of-age story where we're trying to bring extraordinary hospitality across the United States.
Speaker 1:Amazing. Well, can you tell us a little bit more about your role with the company and how you got where you are today? You know some of the positions that you've had in the past that led you to this role.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so my, you know digital is such a broad word to define, but as the digital customer experience role, I'm really focused on leaning into that convenience culture and helping our brand understand the future state of our consumers and the changing behaviors of our existing customers today, so that we can personalize their experience and make it very convenient and valuable across all the different touch points. So mobile app, com, third-party delivery, first-party delivery and really trying to drive the outcome of loyalty through just great food and great service.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Well, you kind of touched on this a little bit, but we keep hearing from other members of Loyalty360 how the quick service restaurant industry is changing. How is Whataburger responding to those changes and what are you guys seeing?
Speaker 2:Well, we make sure that we're insight led, so we have voice of customer programs set up and evolving and we make sure that we include that feedback in our roadmap and in our investments back into the business, because we really believe that our role in this lifestyle is about making people's lives a little bit better through goodness, 24-7. So 24-7 means being reliable, because your tech has to be practical and work and functional before you can get them into the hook. Modeling, which a lot of the loyalty program and personalization and the gamification that we're running do.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Well, you mentioned there, Ty, you know, the listening to the voice of the customer and how would you describe Whataburger's core customer base and how has that evolved in the recent years with the brand's growth beyond Texas?
Speaker 2:You know, we're so multi-generational we hear great stories about how you know my love for Whataburger passed down through my mom and dad and their mom and dad, and so we serve every generation and so, yes, we're trying to make the experience very convenient for our digital customer, but we're also trying to make the non-digital customer be welcomed and at home and have a great experience too. So we span multiple generations across multiple states, and we try to bridge nostalgia with newness and we're seeing being both a legacy brand but always willing to react to what customers and our cult-like fans are telling us, to stay true to ourselves and true to what makes them love us.
Speaker 1:Well, that's awesome, because one challenge we continue to hear about from different brands is how sometimes younger customers don't always act the way that surveys say they will always act the way that surveys say they will. For example, they might say they want healthy options or cool digital features, but then they still order their usual favorites or they skip the app altogether. Has Whataburger seen some of these challenges with the younger guests and how are you trying to engage them Like what's working for you guys?
Speaker 2:You know, yes, of course we're trying to engage with that guest. We've seen great success with some Twitch streamer partnerships. We've seen some great guests or we've seen some great movement when we've done some eSports with our Fortnite collaboration, um. But at the end of the day, you know people, we're trying to have craveable food, like the honey butter chicken biscuit at late night. Uh is just a lot of times a rite of passage and a part of these young people's lives, and so we want to be there when they need us and consistently deliver on on quality food and and uh, hospitality. So, you know, we, our social team, is great too, because they lean into the meme culture and have great engagement and two-way dialogue, so it's really an integrated approach. We also spend a lot of time on our customer resolution and recovery. So when we do forget the cheese, you know we quickly respond. Don't just make it right, make it better. And sticking to that has kind of made us successful for the past 75 years and hopefully for the next 75.
Speaker 1:Definitely. And you know, I mean everyone has heard, I'm sure, that Whataburger has a really loyal fan base. They often engage in things like regional pride and love for the brand. So how do you lean into that sentiment through, like your personalized offers or your community activations?
Speaker 2:Yeah, for us, you know, loyalty goes far beyond just the repeat visit and earning points and redeeming points and getting personalized offers. It's really about combining the data but also the emotion. Right, when we can combine data and emotion, you know, that's where we really find these memorable moments. You know, it's decorating the college students' dorm room orange and white, orange and white. It's getting married at Whataburger and coming back to anniversary dates in later years. You know, we just really try to build it around trust and relevance and our job is just to honor that in every interaction, whether it's digital or non-digital. And it's everybody's job, not just the marketing team, to make sure that we're driving loyalty and our operators and hiring great people is so important to that model.
Speaker 1:Yeah and that kind of actually leads me to my next question how does Whataburger balance digital innovation with the warmth and familiarity of its in-store experience?
Speaker 2:digital innovation with the warmth and familiarity of its in-store experience. Well, we try to build around our so that you know that, we know you and you know sometimes we feel like we don't have customers. We have neighbors, and that means a warm welcoming and relevant items when you open our app, but it also means smiling faces and hellos when you come into the store. So that's really you know in person and digitally. We're trying to orchestrate that across.
Speaker 1:Awesome. So can you give us maybe some examples of things that are working well for you guys in that personalization realm?
Speaker 2:We did some. We combined gamification streaks with some historical data so customers got some. Customers, based upon their behavior, had a different criteria for streaks and we saw some great engagement of that. I guess you know leaning into competition, we've seen some fantastic engagement when we've done sweepstakes for online order, for a chance to win SEC championship tickets, because we know football so big in the South and Southeast and so really, things that are already important to your customers and we're just adding the element of Whataburger into it. We've seen some great success. And then we're super excited about our 75th birthday coming up in August, where we've got big surprises planned for our customers.
Speaker 1:That's awesome, and so are you seeing any particular metrics being affected by the ability to personalize? You know the experiences for folks.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, and the big metrics, the important ones like CLV, or annual spend and monthly frequency, and check average and overall satisfaction. We found that the more we can personalize and deliver on our promise, the higher the scores and the more customers reward us with their wallet and choices.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, it sounds like it's working well for you guys too, but so is there a way? When you're looking at all these efforts, how do you gauge the difference between long-term brand love versus short-term promotional wins based on some of those things?
Speaker 2:Well, you have to have elements in your campaigns for both. We're always looking at having like limited time offers to drive, you know, trial within a limited time and at the same time we're also trying to lean into the core burgers and chicken category and breakfast category that we know, based upon historicals, what high value actions are, and so we orchestrate a lot of campaigns around that. Profile building is a good example that I think a lot of people can understand is continuing to get them to show reasons why it makes sense to sign up for SMS and the benefits you have. Of course, the benefits of getting a free Whataburger when you download the app, but also the chance to win exclusive experiences are also a great way to do that that. We've seen some positive results.
Speaker 1:Awesome. So kind of along with all of that personalization stuff comes, of course, having technology in the right places and with the right functionality. How have you dealt with any of the challenges of getting the right technology mix to allow you to do that optimal personalization?
Speaker 2:You know, it's a combination of like keeping your head in the clouds, dreaming, but your boots on the ground on what you can practically execute, and so we take a very pragmatic approach where our digital team is very focused in on providing solutions that truly draw value for the customer. You know, we tend to stay away from some of the flashy, shiny things until they've proven to be effective, and so in some ways, that's where we're blending tech and tradition. Ways that's where we're blending tech and tradition, but in other ways, when we've tested and learned and seen results, we're not afraid to go all in, and personalization was a great example of that. So it's so important to get lead with architecture and use cases when you're putting in your CDPs and your email providers, or your mobile automation tools, or your AI personalization and generative tools or your machine learning models. You do have to have that in a modern day, and leading with use cases and architecture is going to help you successfully implement those things.
Speaker 1:Well, shifting gears a little bit. Another area that we continue to hear a lot about from our brand members is partnerships. We know in the past Whataburger has had some really cool, meaningful partnerships with Wrangler and Dr Pepper. How has your brand traditionally approached partnerships?
Speaker 2:Strategically but also with open arms when they make sense. You know we've had wonderful partnerships like the ones you mentioned. Plus, you know, partnerships with grocery brands where our spicy ketchup is the number one spicy ketchup in the in the category. So we've been focusing our partnerships on um, retail and cpg and and have now been moving more into um. Of course, menu has always been a great place, with partnerships with the uh dr pepper shake and uh the a1 Thick and Hardy from so many years ago. And we're definitely looking at it in the loyalty space, especially from the hotels and the airlines and the coffee shops and the ride shares. We're looking at that and opening to ones that make sense with our brand and the lifestyle that our customers have.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. So how do you, when you're evaluating those, like, how do you look at making sure that they're mutually beneficial for both of the brands that are involved?
Speaker 2:You know you first got to make sure that it feels authentic to your customers. So relentless on consumer paneling and talking to your customers is a big important part because you want it to be authentic. And then the other one is around owning that experience. You know the dining experience has repeatable patterns, and so we're also looking at ones that have nice synergies and complementing where Whataburger is at and those others. So we also look at it as terms of a great way to acquire, and help each other acquire, new customers, and so that's also another big component of thinking through those partnerships.
Speaker 1:Awesome. So you know you kind of mentioned, like the future of your partnerships and exploring new avenues there. What would you say is the next big thing for customer loyalty or customer experience that Whataburger is focused on or investing in right?
Speaker 2:now, and it's going to be around customization. It's going to be around continuing to help customers skip the line and avoid the wait, and we're going to continue to invest in personalizing and providing offers and rewards and maximizing the spend of our customers and giving them exclusive experiences that you can only get by being in this program. So you know there's still so much to uncover in that, and so those will be kind of our focus in the next 12 months.
Speaker 1:Sounds awesome. So, along with that, are there any new technologies that you're going to look to add to help facilitate those things?
Speaker 2:Well, we're looking at AI use cases across the whole funnel using AI to help us generate briefs all the way to copy. We've already been using machine learning to help power some of our canvases, and AI for customer resolution through the form of agents taking the response and then agent support. That's helping making our humans smarter. So AI across the customer experience, too, is a big focus. That's it's here today. It's and brands that are capitalizing it are accelerating and being a digital leader.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's definitely something that we're continuing to see and hear from our members all the time, so I think you're right on there. So can you tell me what are two or three things that you're most proud of in your customer loyalty program?
Speaker 2:program. I'm so proud of our entire organization to adopt the customer first mindset and how our leadership this year is talking about this is the year of the customer and then also so pleased with the team that's been working on this for several years recently got ranked number one in the online ordering experience, so I know the hundreds and thousands of people that did work to make this successful across our business. So proud of people coming together and effectively making change, and I'm super proud of what our brand has in store for the rest of this year to celebrate our 75th birthday.
Speaker 1:Well, that sounds like it's going to be a party. We'll have to have you back on the podcast later this year to hear all about the details. I'm sure there's going to be some fun surprises in there. So the last question, kind of self-servingly what can Loyalty360 do for you? How can we help support your loyalty program efforts?
Speaker 2:I think help get the word out in states that are new to having Whataburger. You know we're growing so fast and there's a great coming of age story to tell.
Speaker 1:And, you know, helping us just spread that word and that voice is all the help we could ever ask for. Awesome. Well, we'll help spread the word and look forward to seeing Whataburger, hopefully, in our neighborhood one of these days. Yes, thank you so much, yeah, well, that brings us to our fun quickfire questions. We like to keep these responses to one word or short phrase, so I'm going to go ahead and jump right into them.
Speaker 2:What is your favorite word, honey?
Speaker 1:butter. What excites you?
Speaker 2:Talking to customers.
Speaker 1:And what do you find tiresome?
Speaker 2:Waiting in line.
Speaker 1:What book do you like to recommend to your colleagues?
Speaker 2:The one right now is the Advantage.
Speaker 1:What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?
Speaker 2:I'd go back to being a radio DJ.
Speaker 1:What do you enjoy doing that you don't get to do too often?
Speaker 2:Fish.
Speaker 1:Who inspired you to become the person you are today.
Speaker 2:My dad.
Speaker 1:What do you typically think about at the end of the day?
Speaker 2:Coming home and playing with my kids.
Speaker 1:And how do you want to be remembered by your friends and family?
Speaker 2:As a friend and ally.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Well, Keith, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us today. It's always a pleasure having you on the podcast and getting an update on Whataburger and all the cool things you guys are doing. We really appreciate it and we look forward to hearing more about the continued success of the program and your birthday celebration later in 2025. And we look forward to hearing more about the continued success of the program and your birthday celebration later in 2025.
Speaker 2:Awesome. Looking forward to seeing y'all in Orlando.
Speaker 1:Awesome.