EXPERIENCE
¿POR QUÉ QUESADILLAS? Written By:
THOMAS BUTTA Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer, Airship
Quesadillas might seem like a strange thing
So, to protect the customer experience
For Chipotle, the digital payoff is plentiful —
to highlight as an amazing digital experience
and introduce more people to its app and
higher-frequency and more loyal customers,
innovation for 2021, but stick with me and
mobile ordering, the only way to order its
and better margins. Chipotle’s new digital
you’ll see how the ingredients can create an
top-requested quesadilla item is through the
imperative is indicative of what we’re seeing
app-vantage for your business too.
Chipotle app or Chipotle.com.
across multiple industry categories, age
Recently, Airship held its annual global
Chipotle is treating its app as a preferred
forum, Elevate 2021, for customers and
destination for its customers. Customers get
everyone interested in mastering mobile
a convenient, seamless, and easy experience,
app experiences. Great stories were shared
made possible by operational investments in
by leading brands, but none were as
digital kitchens and “Chipotlanes,” where
compelling as Chipotle’s decade-plus digital
there is neither a menuboard nor intercom,
transformation story.
as these are dedicated exclusively as drive-
According
to
Nicole
West,
VP
Digital
Strategy & Product, and as reported in its
Clearly, quesadillas as well as the market
latest earnings call, the brand now has 24.5
launch of a smoked brisket offering, which
million Chipotle Rewards members, a 40%
Chipotle Rewards members could order two
year-over-year increase, and its highest
days before anyone else, are just a couple
margin transaction, digital pickup orders,
of the tasty ways the brand aims to expand
now represents slightly more than half of
its digital engagement with existing and
digital sales in Q3 2021. It’s clear Chipotle
new customers. Chipotle also revamped
has more than a few things to teach everyone
Chipotle Rewards, its app-centric loyalty
about innovating the consumer’s digital
program introduced in 2019, to now give
experience.
customers more choice in how they prefer to
After years of being the top-requested menu item, it was just this year that Chipotle actually added quesadillas to its menu. It turns out that quesadillas are a timeintensive item to prepare in-restaurant, which can slow down throughput.
58
thru pickup lanes for digital orders.
engage and be rewarded. Chipotle has even gamified the experience for the first time with bonus extras.
groups, and geographic markets.
