Restaurant Loyalty Is Won on Consistency

Download our new report, Earning Restaurant Loyalty, for a deep dive into the key drivers of loyalty outcomes for restaurants and beyond.

While inflation itself has moderated, consumers are still recalibrating to make their budgets work. Even fast food isn’t immune to consumers’ cost cutting. Restaurant brands (and all brands) need to understand what keeps their customers loyal to retain their share of wallet.

To identify the most impactful drivers of brand loyalty, Morning Consult studied six well-known national quick service, fast casual and casual dining restaurants to identify the common attributes that have made customers loyal to them. The brands tested were blinded for publication.

Loyalty can be measured in many ways. In the consumer survey underpinning this analysis, we evaluated the power of brand attributes against several outcomes that describe ways customers can be loyal to a brand. In this analysis, we focused on customers who indicated a brand is their first choice when dining out, as well as customers who indicated a restaurant is their favorite in the category. 

For each of the 14 attributes tested, Morning Consult used a random forest algorithm to model the effects of the drivers on these outcomes. Using a permutation-based variable importance approach, Morning Consult identifies the most important variables and ranks them. The rankings produced in this analysis illustrate the power of each attribute to improve restaurant loyalty on a scale of 1 – 14, with one being the highest or strongest driver, and 14 being the weakest. 

Consistency and taste drive restaurant loyalty

The most consistent drivers of restaurant loyalty are inherently table stakes for any diner: that the food consistently meets expectations, and it tastes good. 

First-choice and favorite status are both driven by: 

1. The brand’s ability to maintain consistency across all restaurant locations. No matter where in the country a customer is, they should be able to order the same item and get exactly what they expected. 
2. Perhaps the most obvious in the group, but taste is key to keeping customers happy. Innovations that appeal to a wide range of palettes, like the spicy chicken wars of late, help to maximize loyalty.

Additionally, “the restaurant shares my values” was a strong loyalty driver for most restaurants in this analysis. Shared values means that the diner feels connected to the brand based on what’s important to them. That will vary based on the individual brand – a health-focused restaurant might prioritize impact, a QSR could emphasize fun menu items or low-cost family meals.

Favorite restaurant status is earned through correct orders, innovation and service

Becoming a customer’s favorite restaurant requires ensuring orders are consistently correct. There are few things more disappointing than pulling out of the drive-thru only to see that dishes are wrong, or sides are missing. It’s hard to earn repeat business without being reliable. This attribute was a stronger driver for fast casual restaurants than QSRs and casual dining, where customers often can observe their food being made behind the counter.

Beyond reliability is innovation: restaurants that create new menu items give customers new reasons to love their food and expand the types of items they’ll order. 

Good customer service rounds out the drivers that contribute most to favorite restaurant status, no matter the restaurant type. That doesn’t mean there isn’t some room for error in customers’ minds, just that when something does go wrong, it’s important to know that someone will help resolve the issue.

Rewards programs are key to earning transactional loyalty

At their best, rewards programs encourage and reward loyal customer behavior. More often they’re a slightly more complex couponing scheme. A standard rewards program offers select promotions and discounts to customers who hit visit or spending thresholds, or complete other challenges like ordering through an app. These incentives will motivate customers to return more often, engage across more channels, try new items and increase their order value. 

Of the brands included in our analysis, a rewards program was a strong loyalty driver for four brands, all of which have well known programs with strong enrollment. Quick service and fast casual restaurants are a rich environment for rewards program engagement as customers visit more often than they would a hotel or specialty retailer. Rewards programs were the top ranked first choice driver for the two fast casual restaurants in this analysis. 

The impact of rewards programs is primarily on first choice as an outcome, given their transactional nature and primary offer of discounts. The transactional lift is of course the chief benefit to managing rewards programs, but the data gleaned from the behavior these programs track is also immensely valuable. Brands should analyze this data to help to improve their customer understanding and experience for everyone, in rewards programs and beyond.

If you’re interested in a detailed methodology for our drivers analysis, reach out to [email protected].