Leaders in Customer Loyalty, Powered by Loyalty360
- Leaders in Customer Loyalty: for those looking to deepen customer experience, engagement, and brand loyalty. Each episode features innovative brands, industry experts, and executive leaders who share actionable insights, proven strategies, and real-world experiences designed to help marketers and brand professionals stay ahead in the ever-evolving world of customer loyalty.
Leaders in Customer Loyalty, Powered by Loyalty360
#473: Leaders in Customer Loyalty: Brand Story | From Scratch to Strategy: Building Loyalty at Church’s Texas Chicken
When Jay Jhun joined Church’s Texas Chicken® three years ago, he stepped into a 73-year old legacy brand with a fiercely loyal guest base—but without a formal loyalty program in place. What followed was a fast-paced, ground-up effort to create a digital and loyalty ecosystem that could serve both the brand’s long-standing values and its evolving customer expectations. Today, Jhun leads loyalty and digital strategy for the brand as Senior Director, and in less than a year since launching the brand’s "Real Rewards" loyalty program, Church’s has already seen measurable success in both digital engagement and emotional guest connection.
Good afternoon, good morning.
Speaker 1:Mark Johnson from Loyalty360. Hope everyone's happy, safe and well. It's Thursday, so that means another edition of our Brand Stories. It's part of our Leaders and Customers Loyalty series. It's great to have all of you with us every Thursday. If you're in the restaurant industry in 2025, you know that chicken is all the rage. With a growing focus on healthy options, variety and value, chicken has become a key menu across many restaurant verticals QSR, fast, casual, casual dining and even upscale restaurants. But just because chicken is trending doesn't automatically mean you have raving fans. Enter Church's Chicken. The passion their customers have for the brand is hard to match. Designing a loyalty program that resonates with such emotionally charged fans can be a challenge. Emotional loyalty runs deep and requires more than just points and perks. Yet Church's continues to drive unique engagement and strengthen its already substantial customer base. In this episode we're going to hear from Jay June. He's the Senior Director of Loyalty and Digital at Church's Texas Chicken and he's also the architect for its award-winning customer loyalty program.
Speaker 3:Jay is going to share insights in all things, customer loyalty and, of course, chicken Jay how are you today Doing well, really glad to be here, here, great, uh, looking forward to this discussion. For those who may not be familiar, uh, can you give us a short introduction to church's texas chicken? Uh, it's kind of. A company was started.
Speaker 2:Uh, a little bit about the back backstory yeah, sure, so churches was founded in 1952 by george w church, so that's where the name comes from. Uh, in san anton, right across the street from the Alamo, and you know, the brand has been like from the beginning about just making the best fried chicken, just that anyone can affordably enjoy. Enjoy, it's just. It's really that simple.
Speaker 3:OK, and so what's led to its great success?
Speaker 2:I mean, honestly, it's been about our team members, our people that have been with the brand. I mean we have some folks that have been with the brand, cooking up our chicken and serving our chicken for decades upon decades. So you know, when the brand is 73 years old, it's just, it's astonishing to me to still see like folks that are just so dedicated to the brand. So it's really been about our people.
Speaker 3:Okay, great, you and I recently met at the 2025 Loyalty Expo. It was great getting to kind of know you a little bit at the conference, but would love to know a little bit more about your role, kind of what you do for churches and maybe how you got into the role. Was there previous positions that interest you in customer loyalty? You know. How did you get to where you are today? Previous positions that interest you in customer loyalty?
Speaker 2:You know how did you get to where you are today? Yeah, long story. I'll try to not make it too long, but you know, I joined three years ago I just hit that anniversary a couple days ago actually and we were. It was just a fixer-upper. We were starting from scratch on all fronts, on an e-commerce level, from a loyalty level. You, you know our board was asking for us to, you know, uh, add a loyalty program, and so my, when I joined, I had been at a previous qsr brand.
Speaker 2:I've been agency side and also software side, doing a lot of consulting around crm and loyalty and so this felt like a, it was like a green space really to build a loyalty program out for, you know, a legacy brand that had a loyal following. So, you know, it's been everything I expected in the end zone, but a really big job. But it's been great doing it with the team that we've built. You know that, put together to do this job, it's been more than we imagined and we learn new things every day about what it takes to do this the right way. But that's been the goal, okay, excellent.
Speaker 3:You know, when you look at the position, look at your role, customer loyalty is becoming more and more important. For many brands, especially brands that seem to be doing well in this kind of economic environment, customer loyalty is kind of the fulcrum of focus within the organization. You know what keeps you up at night, what's the biggest challenge or opportunity that you face within your position.
Speaker 2:You know it's interesting because you know what we do from a loyalty perspective. It's it's it's right between marketing and technology, right, and with all the pieces in terms of like setting up a loyalty program, running the e-commerce pieces of it, the thing that I think we're most obsessed with is really getting it right for our guests. With is really getting it right for our guests, and that means making the user experience really simple and easy, making the program something that resonates and is actually valuable, because there's certainly it's dime a dozen there are plenty of QSR loyalty programs out there, and we wanted to make sure we got it right for our guests.
Speaker 3:Okay, that's great. You know the QSR space you mentioned. You very much focused on seamless experiences, making sure you understand the customers and being able to, you know, access them across all touch points. When you look at the customers, their expectations have changed a good deal. And how do you see their expectations changing?
Speaker 2:How is churches responding in kind to that customer set and how they're changing. I think what, for us, what's been one of the big things we've learned about our guests is that our guests are, you know, we've known this for forever. They're value driven, and so it's not just about the discounts either. It's like they need to really feel that there's value in the program, and so I think that you know, finding the right mix of, like the practical value, but then also just the meaningful value in terms of like hey, this is something that is, you know, something that I'm going to, that's going to be worth my time from an experience standpoint, to say like, yeah, I'll start ordering online. Yes, I'll use this rewards program. I'll stop, you know, going to other competitors and choosing churches right, and that's not just for our loyal customers, but I'd say even for guests that are just coming to know churches right. There's certainly a huge segment of people that haven't had churches and are now becoming more interested in the brand.
Speaker 3:So Okay, you launched Real Rewards in 2024. When launching the customer loyalty program, there's kind of a couple of areas brands can focus on right. You can look at the customer facing experience, expectations and the technology potentially as well. Some brands look at doing both at the same time. But when you look at the technology expectations making it seamless, as we talked about earlier how do you make sure both work together to drive engagement?
Speaker 2:We obsess about, like every last detail from a customer experience standpoint. I think that when we were first setting up the program, that meant us personally going out to the field with a scanner, plugging into a POS and seeing how our mobile app with the loyalty components interacts with the POS and in-store and getting feedback from our team members as they were watching you know what they'd be doing and giving us inputs on like, hey, maybe this could be easier, Maybe try it this way. I mean, we were obsessed down to like what are the scripts, what are the things that we're going to ask our team members to say to prompt our guests to maybe, you know, sign up for awards or to even scan the barcode on the receipt to earn points. It was down to that level where we had to make it easy, not only for our guests but for our team members, because, at the end of the day, we're a quick service restaurant, so we've got to keep it fast, and so we didn't want our program to bog things down in the restaurants.
Speaker 3:Okay, and what were some of the primary goals, objectives that you had when you launched Real Rewards?
Speaker 2:You know, I think it's a few things. Certainly, there's anticipation and hope for growing digital sales for the business right, and that loyalty would be a big part of that in terms of a reason why people would start ordering online for us. We have so many guests that are just cash customers and a lot of guests that are just they're busy with their own lives, and you know the idea of adding, you know, participating in a loyalty program maybe it's just one more thing they don't want to do. So we really wanted to make sure that. I think we're hoping to see people, you know, earning points, redeeming for rewards and seeing that, hey, this is our way of saying thank you to our for guests that have been loyal to us for decades, and so that's, I think you know.
Speaker 2:A simple example of that you know is you know, when we set up our rewards catalog, we saw sort of an opportunity where we actually offer family size rewards. Like you can get an 8, 12, 16 piece of order of fried chicken with points, and that can come in within five or six visits, based on average check Right. So that's pretty attainable. That's better than the old sort of, you know, buy 10, get one thing free right. This it was, you know, really again, sort of attainable, meaningful in terms of the value, in the way that we're saying thank you to our guests. Okay.
Speaker 3:Yeah, being able to access and leverage customer data is very important. Zero party first party is, you know, third party data very important to be able to leverage that in a way, a meaningful way, and action on it for brands to those who have successful loyalty programs. When you look at the personalization approach that you've taken, how are you effectively leveraging data throughout the program to drive the personalized offers and communication that is so important in this program?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think for us, we are almost a year into the program. What I would say is we're still sort of at the starting gates with that. I think that we are preparing to really get into that level of personalization and I think that the task ahead of us is really going to be about. You know, we're in the process right now of finding out what are the channels that our guests interact, engage with us, the most right. We have all the channels available to us. You know, whether it's email, whether it's SMS or push, like those are all things that are available to us. We have both our web and our app ordering experience, but we have to find the right mix of communications and figure out what makes sense for our guests and we're still discovering that.
Speaker 2:Once we figure that out, I think that's where we're looking ahead to really starting to say, like, what's meaningful? Is it personalizing the offers? Is it personalizing content? Those are all things that we're looking ahead to, okay, but I think that's the expectation that I think that the industry has generally set, like, hey, let's you know the right message, right time, you know in the right channel. Like that, all is true for us, as well as anybody, as much as anybody else, but I think that our version of that is still ahead of us.
Speaker 3:Okay, when you look at customer loyalty, uh, very important, but as we talk to different brands, we love to get a kind of understanding of how they define it qualitatively. Um, so you know, what does customer loyalty mean to you and to churches?
Speaker 2:You know, I know there's an aspect of just loyalty where it's about driving incremental visits and growing check and all the commercial pieces of it. I think for me personally, it's been about again just really being true to the idea of loyalty. What does that mean To me? I'm reminded of not to date myself, but you know cheers like Norm walks into the bar and everybody goes Norm Right, and it was it's. You know, I think it's acknowledging things that you know that I think are already happening in our restaurants.
Speaker 2:When a regular guest comes in the our team member knows are you getting your usual right and you know to thank them properly. For I think that those are the things about loyalty that I think are I don't hear about very much. It's usually about you know the math and you know and the financials, but I think that you know for me personally, I think for our team, we really want to make it. You know, I think I talked about this at the conference like really just meaningful in ways that go beyond just you know it's in addition to you know value in terms of you know being able to provide meals that are affordable and accessible. But I think that really thanking them, you know that if I were to talk to a guest, you know, and they and they felt that you know, hey, this, I really appreciate this program. You know, like if I were to hear that I think I could probably, just, you know, drop the mic, walk away, I'd feel pretty good about what we did.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 2:And you know you talked about personalization.
Speaker 3:You talked about the cheers, the norm effect, correct. Everyone knows your name, everyone. You know you can leverage the technology to create that simplicity. So you know you can action on it. You know how does the real rewards program enable you to do that?
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, that's sort of the opportunity, with you know, with first party data, be able to see like, hey, I see that this guest is a regular family meal guest for us. Like, what are we going to offer them as a way to make sure that they, you know, you know, maybe visit us one more time, Right? Or, you know, make sure they don't go to a competitor? Quite, honestly, like that's, that's, that happens quite a bit. I think that you know the way that I think it can surface in terms of offers. It can surface in the way that we talk a bit.
Speaker 2:I think that you know the way that can. I think it can surface in terms of offers. It can just surface in the way that we talk to them and what we talk to them about. I don't think it needs to be fancier than that. Honestly, I think those are the things that, in terms of maximizing relevance, in terms of what we're, you know, talking to them about, I mean, there's, you know, everybody, it doesn't matter what kind of income you're making there are a thousand things that are that get your attention. Like, how do we, how do we make that, those little moments that we get with them, you know, connect.
Speaker 3:Okay, excellent. So when you look at the efficacy and efficiency of the program, metrics are very important, something that we're very focused on at Customer Loyalty, at Loyalty360, should I say? We have a yearly study, we're getting ready to launch again. We're looking at all kinds of KPIs and metrics. What KPIs and metrics are important to you when you look at your customer loyalty strategy and the efforts to keep the program on track and performing so well?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think what we're it's probably not unusual, right, it's going to be how often is our guest coming? I think this is, for us, one of the things that we, you know we're, one of the things we're looking to gain out of. This is like first party data that tells us, hey, these, your guests come this many, you know times a year. Right, there's sort of what we would get from third parties that were directionally probably helpful, but being able to talk to really know that, hey, this guest comes once a week, once a month. I think those, those types of metrics are in place. Certainly we're looking at. You know, how much are they ordering? What are they ordering? I think, how often are they redeeming our you know loyalty offers? Are they? You know which offers, which rewards are they redeeming for?
Speaker 2:Because you know, we, we, the way we started the program was with, we designed the program with based off of a survey of our guests at the time that told us, hey, which rewards? You know, what kind of a welcome offer do you want, right? It started with that question because we wanted to get that right and that was, you know, it was chicken Shocker. It wasn't a side, it wasn't a dessert. It wasn't a drink, it was. You know, we want chicken, so we said, okay, let's do that, and so I think that you know making sure that our rewards again are in line with what our guests want and our offers are in line with what they want and things that resonate with them. I think that's the only way it becomes a win-win for both the business and for our guests.
Speaker 3:Okay, Are there KPIs that you've heard about or KPIs that you would maybe like to have as part of your program that you might not be tracking now?
Speaker 2:I mean we're going to keep an eye on. We'd like to. I'd love to know, like, hey, how much is our you know, depending on whether they're a frequent guest or an infrequent guest, what are they spending with us annually? You know, I kind of bristle at the notion of lifetime values. Like, are you going to really track how much I'm spending over you know, 30 years of my life as I've been a loyal guest? Like that's not going to happen. Really, I'm not sure. I mean, I think we want to identify our VIPs, but I think annual spend is definitely, you know, something that we're looking at. You know how often they're checking in and earning points and redeeming rewards. Those are all things that we're going to keep an eye on, but ultimately, we're trying to grow our digital business and this is a big part of that growth plan.
Speaker 3:Ok, you guys seem to do a really good job too with kind of the younger generations. Obviously, chicken is very much in vogue now all the way around, which is good. But oftentimes the younger generations, they may say they want X, y and Z and they actually do the opposite. The irrationality fallacies that exist. But when you look at you know them. Healthy fare tends to be something they crave, but they sometimes want comfort food.
Speaker 2:So you know, how do you, how do you look at that kind of the stated preferences of that group and maybe other groups and what they're actually choosing and you know partaking in? Yeah, you know, I think you know that this is just a.
Speaker 2:You know there's been a legacy question about explicit versus implicit right In terms of, like, well, we can, there's what you tell us and then there's what you actually do, right, and what we see you doing. Um, you know, I think, for for younger, our younger demographic, look, uh, you know, I think that that's, um, probably, you know, it's an area where we're we're still kind of trying to figure out what that looks like. I think you, you know, if I, based on what I see on TikTok, right, like, I think what I'm interested to see is like, well, you know, are they?
Speaker 2:all buying gravy to dunk their chicken in, because they see all these you know, influencers, you know dunking their chicken and raving about what it's like, you know it's really, you know, know that I think there are certainly more opportunities to just see in real life. There's like what we see in data, and then there's also, I think, an opportunity to see like what is actually happening, uh, out there, you know, with our, with our guests, in the real world. So I don't think there's an easy answer on that one and I think that you know, I look at my kids and it's like you know, know I'm Gen X and they're Gen Z and my son, my youngest son, is Gen Alpha, I guess technically, and I'm like I don't know what they're going and I think that the way that I think I think the next generations make decisions about where they're going to, what they're going to eat, whether it's healthy or not healthy. I mean fried chicken, fried chicken, it's, it's pretty freaking good.
Speaker 1:I think that's pretty timeless.
Speaker 2:So I think it's maybe a little bit. I think it'll prove itself over time Excellent.
Speaker 3:So, keeping up the platform, the technologies, the kind of the amazing focus you have on the customer is front and center, obviously, within your organization. And what's the next big thing for customer loyalty, customer experience for churches?
Speaker 2:for churches. I think it's really it's finding the next piece that is actually valuable to our guests and finding ways to deliver on that. I think, you know, I certainly get kind of interested in, like when I see someone like a Duncan you know, like, oh, there's all this swag, like branded swag is kind of an interesting idea, but is that what really what our guests want? Is that really what's going to add value and make the program, you know, stick? I think we're looking ahead to well what you know. We're almost at a year with the program. What does it look like at year three and year five? Like, how do we stay relevant? What are the things that we're going to want to be doing that make the program, you know, really last the way that the brand has? That's still, I think, untrusted territory for us.
Speaker 3:Okay, and when you look at the customer loyalty program holistically, what are two or three things that you're most proud of?
Speaker 2:I think one. I'm just excited that we're able to thank our loyal guests. I mean, when we read through feedback on Apple, google Play, app Store, google Play and Google Business Reads all the feedback we're getting through our surveys. They've been waiting, they've watched every other brand with the Launch Loyalty Program and I think that being able to finally thank our guests has been really gratifying and I think that what we're seeing in the feedback is that the value is meaningful.
Speaker 2:I talked about it during the conference right when guests are, you know, some of our guests really need that dollar to be stretched a little further and when we can give them points that they can use like currency to get one of their meals for free, it really means a lot to them. It's not just a meal, sometimes, it's a meal they really need to make ends meet. And that's another level of, I think, in terms of loyalty. Honestly, I probably couldn't have anticipated, but when I see that feedback of loyalty that I, you know, I honestly I probably couldn't have anticipated, but when I see that feedback, it means a lot.
Speaker 2:And I think the last thing really is just digital sales and and this loyalty program has been part of a rocket ship that I've been. You know I've been I and you know the team that I get to work with every day that we've been able to be a part of and watching the watching our business grow as part of this and letting this be a big engine of that growth and the investment that the business put into it have been. It's like like we're being asked to grow the business like you know, really aggressively but as much as big of a challenge. That is, we have the support and we're excited that the progress we've been making. So that's been awesome.
Speaker 3:Okay, and then the last question we have, somewhat self-serving. You know, what can loyalty 360 do to help you and your team and your customer loyalty journey?
Speaker 2:I think I saw a glimpse of that at the conference. You know that was our first time there and I think just being able to connect with other brands and get some perspective of you know what's working, what's not, I really feel like, you know, I think loyalty for the agency can help, continue to help right by just growing and connecting the loyalty community. Like it was cool, you know, rubbing elbows with folks that I was competing with, you know, for you know some of those categories for the awards. But you know, byproduct of that was just like, oh, I get to hear what they're doing and they get to hear what I'm doing and you know we can compare notes and it helps, you know, sleep comes a little easier knowing that. Like, oh, okay, I have a glimpse of what might be ahead. I have a glimpse of, like, what other brands are doing with loyalty. So you know better.
Speaker 2:together is kind of, I think, the theme there Excellent.
Speaker 3:Well, jay thank you very much for taking the time to speak with us today. It was great. Getting to know you More about the church is amazing. Customer loyalty program. You guys are doing a great job, but you're not off the hook yet. We have our quick fire question round, so we like to keep these to a short phrase or a one word response, or I get in trouble with Hannah and Ethan, which I'm always in trouble with them, so it wouldn't be anything different. But anyway, here we go. The first question we have is what's your least favorite word others use?
Speaker 2:Oh, 360 view of a customer just makes me vomit every time Like I'll take 180 before I have to really need 360.
Speaker 3:Maybe I'll change it to loyalty 180. Then what is your favorite word? Context Excellent. What excites you at work?
Speaker 2:context. Excellent. What excites you at work? I mentioned this. I think it's just being able to be a part of growing the business right through loyalty, e-commerce and CRM. Like it's stuff that I've been working on for years and I'm just like you know. I did that from a distance, as a vendor, as an agency. Now doing it hands-on is so awesome. It's just great to build something.
Speaker 3:Okay, okay. And what do you find tiresome at home or at work?
Speaker 2:uh, I'll keep myself safe by not going home. I'll start at work um. I think dealing with loyalty e-commerce fraud is just exhausting yeah it's exhausting 100 percent?
Speaker 3:uh, it is. I know we joked about this before. I don't know if we came to a conclusion. Is there a book that you've read in the past or an audiobook that you like that you recommend to colleagues?
Speaker 2:I am. I'm going to go with Good to Great by Jim Collins, just because I remember it and it's been a minute, but it left an impression that's it.
Speaker 3:That's safe, that's good. Uh, is there a profession other than one that you're currently in that you would like to attempt?
Speaker 2:uh, maybe being a foodie influencer, like I see people making all kinds of money just eating food and posting tiktoks, I'm like that sounds like uh good money. So if my body will support it, then sure why not Perfect.
Speaker 3:Is there something that you enjoy doing that you often don't get the chance to do?
Speaker 2:Camping or golf. Either one of those they just take time. Either one of those would be great.
Speaker 3:I just picked up golf with my son. I have two girls that are division one athletes, and then a third one is going to be. She's in recruiting, and so I'm going to settle down a little bit so I can pick up some old hobbies. So golf and skiing came back this year. So nice, nice. Yeah, we're only on the par three so far, but we'll get to the bigger courses eventually. So who inspired you to be the person that you are today?
Speaker 2:Honestly, I don't think I could name any one person I've been really fortunate to work with. I'd say there's just been sort of this influence by a collective, just this collective excellence among peers I've had the you know, privilege of working with like it's, it's it's. Everything about where I am today feels like a hat, what I call a happy accident, like I didn't plan this, I didn't go to college for this, right, this has been absolutely like experience over experience, additive in terms of like what, how I'm inspired and what I learn and how I get to use that.
Speaker 3:Okay, and what do you typically think about at the end of the day? What I'm cooking for dinner. There you go.
Speaker 2:And last question how do you want to be remembered by your friends and family? I think, simply put, I guess I would hope that I blessed other folks in some meaningful way. What I'm doing is actually helpful to people.
Speaker 3:Excellent. Well, jay, thank you very much for taking the time to speak with us today. It was good to see you again, getting to know a little bit more about you, some of your interests, but also getting an update on the church's Texas chicken customer loyalty program. You guys did well and congratulations and all the wins, the conference and and thanks for you know the focus that you can place on customer loyalty yeah, I know, it's an exciting time for us and really, really glad we got to, you know, participate in the conference this year.
Speaker 3:Certainly look forward to to more ahead excellent and thank you, everyone else, for taking the time to listen. Make sure you join us back every Thursday for additional episodes of our Leaders in Customer Multiseries. Until then, have a wonderful day.