Fazoli’s Rewards - Interview with the developer of a fantastic app

Did you have any prior development or coding experience?

I didn’t, but we partnered with Punchh [https://punchh.com/], a team with a lot of experience developing loyalty apps for restaurant chains around the same size as Fazoli’s. They had also worked with many of our existing technology providers, and they were willing to meet an aggressive timeline: We launched the app about four months after signing with them. It was easy to pick them.

What was the most challenging aspect of developing mobile app?

Decision fatigue. There were so many different ways we could structure our in-app loyalty program, and it was challenging to make decisions quickly and set the program up to succeed from both a UX and an ROI standpoint. We had to consider how many points guests would get for every dollar spent. How to redeem points? What’s the threshold where they earn a reward? I spent a lot of time on competitive analysis, looking at how other restaurant apps had things set up.

_Fazoli's

The interviewee, Mr. Will Hanrahan, is the Sr. Marketing Manager, Loyalty Strategy at Fazoli's. He is the mastermind behind Fazoli's digital marketing strategy. As the digital team leader at America's largest premium quick-service Italian restaurant chain, Will is responsible for everything from web and social media to CRM and digital advertising. Since launching Fazoli's rewards app in 2017, Will has overseen the growth of Fazoli's Rewards Program to an impressive 1 million members and counting. Not only does he drive Fazoli's digital success, but he also leads the charge on their guest review response process and digital knowledge management. In short, Will is a crucial player in bringing Fazoli's delicious Italian dishes to the screens of food lovers everywhere.

Name a few of your favorite apps and reason you love them.

Alright, here are three I’m a big fan of:

● The Starbucks app: The big thing I like about this one is how easy it is to customize your order. I never do it in the store, but in the app, it’s easy to experiment without holding up the line. Starbucks also makes it easy to save and use gift cards in the app.

● The Delta Airlines app: Delta makes it clear in their app how close you are to the next level of status. When you’re traveling, they use in-app alerts to overcommunicate about the stressful parts of traveling — like when you need to board and when your checked bags make it onto the plane.

● The McDonald’s app:McDonald’s makes it a super seamless, self-serve process to redeem a deal — you don’t need to show it to a McDonald’s team member, which saves a ton of time. You get a lot of flexibility in picking up your order, too: You can do curbside pickup, in-restaurant pickup, or pickup in the drive-through.

How long have you been working on this app?

I’ve worked on the Fazoli’s app for five years. We started partner research in April 2017 and launched the app with Punchh in October 2017.

What need of the user did you have in mind when developing this app?

We wanted to make it easy for guests to collect points and earn rewards, whether ordered in the app or at the counter. We also wanted to encourage mobile ordering and make it easy and frictionless. The app works for all customers, but it’s easier.

In what way do you think your app is better than similar apps on the market? Please describe in detail what innovation you think you bring and what you are proud of in your app.

Our app in the Apple app store has 29.7K ratings and an average rating of 4.8, which is phenomenal. The average rating for the McDonald’s app is 4.7!

I think two things set us apart from competitor apps:

● The app was solid from launch day. We launched fast, but we did a lot of advanced testing to prove it. Sometimes a restaurant will be so quick to launch an app, and it’s a store locator. We released Fazoli’s app with many reliable features.

● We respond to private feedback promptly. We have a part-time employee monitoring app feedback, and franchisees can respond to feedback on experiences. That means we fix and de-escalate issues early.

What are your future plans and expected features of the coming new versions of this app?

There are three main things we’re planning to try out next year:

● Subscription offers: Panera’s drink subscription is a good example, where subscribers pay a monthly fee for bottomless coffees and fountain drinks. I think we could do something similar. Maybe we have a family pasta subscription, where you get a family-size pasta once a week, and you get billed monthly. People have gotten so used to the subscription model, and our developers can support it now — I’m excited to test it out.

● An in-app gift card wallet: Right now, guests can place an order with a gift card, but they can’t yet load it into the app. We ran into some technical limitations during the initial build, but we have guests asking for this capability. I want to make it happen in 2023.

● More SMS and loyalty app synergy: We do SMS marketing already, but I’d like to integrate it more with our in-app loyalty program. People should be able to opt into SMS messaging within the app signup flow while registering for their accounts. And vice-versa: Once the guest subscribes to SMS messaging, we should be able to convert them into becoming a loyalty member.

Assuming new users of your app are reading this page. What do you want to ask them to do (contact you about X, Share the app, etc.)?

Try out our offers and online ordering, and don’t forget to leave a review!