When Grant Williams joined Bojangles as the Charlotte, N.C.-based company’s new vice president of digital and omnichannel marketing this month, he knew that he would have different focuses than a traditional restaurant marketing executive. Williams’ tops priorities? Improve guest consistency across multiple channels and turn customer experience into long-term guest loyalty.
Although the 800-unit fried chicken chain does not have a digital loyalty program, Williams said that creating one is a long-term goal as the company begins to ramp up its digital presence across both web and mobile.
“Omnichannel is absolutely intentional in terms of really thinking about every channel and every guest experience, and how we can connect the dots across each of them,” Williams said. “Just knowing that a guest can come in through one channel on one day and through another on another day, we have to make sure the cross-channel consistency is seamless, and that every single digital capability that we have is making the experience better.”
Williams said the channels he wants to focus on are mobile, web, third-party delivery, and catering, though “the sky is the limit.” When it comes to creating a robust digital presence moving forward, Williams said he does not feel that Bojangles has to do something totally unique from other successful restaurant operators.
“In the digital and loyalty space, there are so many best practices in the industry already, so you don't have to reinvent the wheel,” he said. “It's more about, ‘how do you take those best practices and put our brand lens on it?’ When we think about what’s important to us as a brand, we want to create the best experience and really deliver hospitality through the digital channel. So, how does that become an extension of our brand? How do we layer on communications that feel very personal?”
Another crucial element to building up Bojangles’ digital presence is driving the balance between providing discounts (which are crucial, he said), but also by providing brand value that goes beyond just a discount popup in a loyalty app. The long-term goal is to engage with guests in ways they have not been able to do so in the past, he said.
“We recognize that everyone is playing in the value space, but we’re taking a bit different of an approach,” Williams said. “We feel we owe it to our guests to deliver value beyond a discount… .It comes down to, ‘what is that bigger guest journey where we can add value in other ways, like experience and new products?’ We want to show them we’re listening to what they want and that we're providing as many options for as many occasions as possible.”
Contact Joanna at [email protected]
