Fast-food burger chain Burger King (NYSE: QSR), has recently announced that it will attempt to start a new loyalty program in five markets in the United States. Following closely behind a similar move made by rival McDonald's (NYSE: MCD), it is expressing the need and interest to become more digitized and for customers to take advantage of this particular opportunity.
Being Restaurant Brands International's most popular chain, a portion of Burger King that will take advantage of rewards programs in order to promote or heighten sales to their maximum goals. Other loyalty programs from companies such as Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) and Chipotle (NYSE: CMG) in the past have enabled the companies to propel forward in terms of customer loyalty and consumer popularity. This particular rewards programs from Burger King could especially be helpful and significant in boosting "more frequent visits" and "reaching the next level of its own loyalty program tests."
"It's been something that we've been working on for a while, that we've had in several different versions of beta tests," said Ellie Doty, Burger King's North American chief marketing officer, according to CNBC. The plan is for Burger King customers in Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, New Jersey, and Long Island to be able to accumulate rewards points for each dollar that they spend.
Burger King's loyalty program will additionally add free daily perks, including the upsizing of members' drinks or fries, and providing double the amount of points to members of the loyalty program whenever they have birthday months. McDonald's has also planned a loyalty program that has begun testing in Arizona and Nevada this past November. Around 900 McDonald's locations are currently being tested for this particular program.
Similar to the Burger King's program, the MyMcDonald's rewards program makes it easy for members to 100 points for each dollar that they spend. Members can also utilize the cash and mobile app options in order to purchase their food and to stock up on reward points. The McDonald's and Burger King's loyalty programs will not only benefit the customers, but also the employees. Employees will be able to stack up rewards points and to thus make it much easier for them to pay for their items. It will make the experience more personalized and less robotic.