Chipotle’s Tressie Lieberman on The Restaurant Evolution

Rob Goodman:

Hi everyone, and welcome Now What?, the podcast from Wix about how technology is changing…everything. I'm your host, Rob Goodman, and in this series we're talking all about evolution in business, design, development and beyond. Over the past couple of years, business and creative leaders have had to evolve to meet the challenges that come with this overwhelming amount of change. Here at Wix we're interested in ways the creative people are evolving to build new businesses, grow beyond their limits and shape the future of the web. So, we thought: what if we got a bunch of our friends together, leaders in design, development, eCommerce and the agency world to talk about how they're dealing with all this change and how it's affecting their careers, teams and industries. This is a place for you to prepare for tomorrow's ever-changing world and apply those lessons today.

Rob Goodman:

In this new season of the show we're diving into customer experience. As the world has rapidly transformed, customer's expectations, behavior and needs have adapted with it. Paired with the emergence of new forms of social media, digital currency, the metaverse and so much more, navigating what this means for you and your organization can be a lot. So, we're bringing you fresh interviews and new insights from leaders that are reshaping business today to better prepare you for what's ahead.

Rob Goodman:

In this episode, we're joined by Chipotle's Vice President of Digital Marketing and Off-Premise, Tressie Lieberman. Tressie is responsible for driving customer engagement and digital ordering growth at the global fast casual chain. Did you know that Chipotle's digital ordering now counts for 46% of their overall sales? At Chipotle, Tressie oversees a team dedicated to building relationships with the brand’s community through the metaverse, social media, with influencers and through the Chipotle Rewards Loyalty Program and CRM.

Rob Goodman:

In this episode, I speak with Tressie about the future of the restaurant industry, how to bring customers closer to your brand, the 24/7 job of culture hunting, metaverse burrito parties and creating frictionless experiences for every kind of guest no matter where they are. You're in for a great conversation with my friend Tressie Lieberman. Let's get started.

Rob Goodman:

Welcome to Now What?, Tressie.

Tressie Lieberman:

Thanks for having me.

Rob Goodman:

Absolutely, so talk to me a little bit about how the restaurant industry has completely changed over these past one, two years.

Tressie Lieberman:

You said it best. It has completely changed. I think the last few years have been huge momentum in digital and we've seen customers change behaviors like we never could have anticipated. I think fortunately for Chipotle we already had doubled down on digital, so when the moment came we were ready to move. We already had separate digital kitchens in all of our restaurants where we're able to service our customers separately and we had delivery set up and our mobile pick-up shelves established. So it was really a matter of marketing it widely and letting people know it was there, but it's been wild to see the change across every single restaurant in terms of what customers needed overnight.

Rob Goodman:

Are there new technologies that you infused into the system, into your marketing, into ordering over these past one, two years that really helped kind of meet the moment of what your customers are needing, demanding in this moment?

Tressie Lieberman:

Fortunately we had the system in place with our digital kitchens and we were ready for scale. I think a big part of it was how we were communicating with our guests. CRM being a big part of our strategy, we really worked on making that more and more sophisticated to reach customers where they are in their journey with Chipotle. So, getting all the right partners in place to build that with the marketing tech stack.

Tressie Lieberman:

Another big piece of it was having more delivery partners. We did expand our delivery access with Uber Eats and Grubhub as things shifted, continuing to push on our own app as well, but adding partners certainly helped.

Rob Goodman:

I'm really curious about CRM and personalization and how you evolved that over this time. How do you think about marketing to individuals who are Chipotle fans versus the group, the larger audience that you're trying to reach?

Tressie Lieberman:

Our strategy is definitely to supercharge the super fans. I think when you work at a brand like Chipotle where people are so passionate about your product and what you stand for, you want to lean into that. We start by deeply understanding who our consumers are, but as we get our scale right, we have over 24.5 million members. We are also trying to expand the fandom for people who are signing up, maybe aren't as close to the brand. So, that's where it comes to, making our guests feel known and valued and having the right message to the right person at the right time.

Tressie Lieberman:

For example, when we launched quesadillas, we didn't show the chicken quesadilla to everyone. If we knew someone had an order history of vegetarian or vegan options, we would surface a fajita veggie to that customer. That's just one small example of how we try to get the right message, right place, right time with our guest.

Tressie Lieberman:

We also have our journeys that I mentioned. So, if someone's new to Chipotle Rewards we will hit them with a welcome journey, a series of messages that help them understand the brand more deeply and that connection, and also ideally result in a purchase. We can do the same thing if someone is lapsing out of the program and help hit them with the right message or offer to get them engaged. It's really about scaled communications, but trying to make it as personalized and one-on-one as possible.

Rob Goodman:

How much of that is AI-driven versus editorial?

Tressie Lieberman:

Everything in marketing is definitely the art and the science. I'm fortunate to work in a part of the business where we do have a lot of the science, so we are using data to deeply understand customer behaviors and that helps us get them the right content, but we're also thinking creatively about what we do. We launched a 20 million member celebration last year where we're able to use data points to help people understand their engagement with Chipotle and that was one of our most shared emails. It's really cool when you can see an email making its way to social because people are talking about how they've been shopping at Chipotle over the past year and what they've been eating at Chipotle.

Tressie Lieberman:

We try to think about how do we get people to care? You think about this with social media. You want to create that thumb stopping moment where people pay attention to what you're creating and you're trying to stand out amongst all of their friends and other brands and pop culture. It's the same thing with email or a push notification. We have an unsubscribe culture and we want to make sure that people keep engaging with Chipotle. So, always looking through that lens when it comes to communication planning to make sure that we are providing something that's valuable and will keep people coming back to our next communication.

Rob Goodman:

When you talk about supercharging the super fans, I love that. Talk to me about what's happening on social media for Chipotle and why social media is so important to telling authentic brand stories.

Tressie Lieberman:

Sure. I think when I started in marketing, a lot of what happened were brands creating big campaigns and you would do a few a year, maybe you could get by on that. Now we live in a world where the attention span is less than a goldfish. You've got a few seconds to capture someone's attention and then they're going to move on and think about something else. I think you got to show up every day. How do you get people talking about your brand? Be a part of that conversation and to do that you do things that are unexpected. We have been doing a series of work that has been unexpected, but also unique to Chipotle and tapping into our fan insights.

For example, just in December we launched cilantro soap. One of the big insights that we have with our guests is that people will talk about how cilantro tastes like soap. We could ignore that, but instead we're like, "Let's play with it and actually create the soap that smells like cilantro," which was a huge hit. It blew up on the internet in December, and obviously we sold out of those very quickly. We have been showing up in unexpected places like Roblox. So over Boorito, which is our annual celebration where people come into Chipotle to get $5 entrees, we made it digital this year. We decided it wouldn't be a good idea to have everybody lining up at the restaurant in 2021, but we said, "Let's make it fun. No one wants another virtual event. Let's do it in a way that is so unique to our consumer and Chipotle," and we went to the metaverse.

Tressie Lieberman:

We recreated the experience on Roblox where you could actually go through a Chipotle that looked exactly like a Chipotle. You'd dress up in costume like you would typically do at a Boorito event, but then after that you could go through a maze and discover virtual items. We were giving away free entrees. It was a huge event. We had over eight and a half million game plays of that, and also just created a ton of conversation. I think it was a really unique way to engage with Gen-Z.

Tressie Lieberman:

One more example, we partnered with e.l.f. cosmetics to create a limited edition makeup collection in March last year. Again, sold out in under four minutes. It had a huge media response, over three billion impressions in press, and it tapped into that fandom. People love both e.l.f. and Chipotle and we took our ingredients in the line and turned it into an eyeshadow pallet.

Tressie Lieberman:

So, doing the unexpected, getting people talking and having fun. We take our food seriously. We don't take ourselves too seriously and I think it's really important to meet customers where they are and bring in some joy. It's been a tough few years and that's a place our brand can play.

Rob Goodman:

Yeah, I love that about your social media. It's so, I want to say informal, that you're posting memes, you're changing your Twitter handle. You're showing up in all these really interesting unexpected ways, and you're also empowering influencers on your behalf. Talk to me about the creator class that you all set up.

Tressie Lieberman:

Sure. Most people don't know that Chipotle had the very first influencer program, or at least I think that they did. Back in the day we created the celeb card program for Ozzie Osbourne. He used to go to Chipotle all the time on The Osbournes show and the team sent him this unlimited Chipotle card and we've been doing that for a long time, but we wanted to expand that and think about how we could deepen our relationship with TikTok creators. TikTok has been a huge part of our brand journey over the last few years. We've had a lot of success there creating our own TikToks that have taken off, but also partnering with these amazing up-and-coming TikTokers who just genuinely love Chipotle and we're in a relationship with already.

Tressie Lieberman:

I thought, "Let's turn that up and make it official." We have been giving them incredible perks around the brand, free Chipotle, free catering and also access to have first dibs on a lot of our campaign work. We're even working with them in a consultant fashion where we'll go to them and say, "We have an idea. Here's what we're thinking. How would you approach it? How would you build on it?" It's been great to go all in on TikTok and continue to have Chipotle be a partner who creators want to work with.

Rob Goodman:

With digital experiences like Roblox, where is the line drawn between reaching fans and guests and people who love Chipotle and kind of hitting that barrier to entry with new technology and where is kind of that PR moment and that online buzz fit into all of that? I just think about all of these amazing new platforms we have, but many people aren't on them yet, even though they're so buzzworthy and just so interesting in terms of breakthrough technology.

Tressie Lieberman:

As a marketer, I have to bring up the three Cs because I feel like that's what marketers do. We like to put everything around a wrapper. I think about all ideas through the Cs. So, where we're at as a company, what are our values and how can we provide value as a company? I think about the consumer and they're passionate about and what are those insights? What do they love about Chipotle, but in general, where are they spending their time? What are they up to? And then we look at culture and have a lot of curiosity around how we approach culture. In fact, we call our team internally the Culture Hunters. The expectation is that we're out there seeing where the world is going and technology is always a huge part of that. Technology is what creates a lot of culture and shifts trends and consumer behaviors.

Tressie Lieberman:

So you kind of look across the spectrum and try to find the sweet spot of an idea that's going to tap into the culture, be only right for your company and really hit a win with the consumer. When you find those ideas you can go all in. Experimenting on TikTok doesn't take a ton of time and resources and building it into the roadmap. That's something where we can have an idea and jump on it in real time. If you have a concept like doing an experience on Roblox, that's obviously going to take a lot of the team's resources and you really need to be thinking about are you going to hit it at the right time?

Tressie Lieberman:

There's a concept called The Creative Curve. It's a book I read that I really enjoyed that just talks about hitting ideas in that sweet spot. Sometimes you miss it. Sometimes you're too early and sometimes you're too late. Try and get it as close in there as possible.

Rob Goodman:

Hey everyone, I wanted to tell you a little bit about Wix Restaurants. The platform to get your restaurant online and ready to serve. At Wix, we're always evolving to help you keep up with what's happening in the industry. That's why over 300,000 restaurant owners have chosen Wix to help them carve out an online presence. From fine dining to fast casual, Wix Restaurants offers industry specific website templates that make it easy to show off your vibe and create a unified experience online and IRL. You can easily build a menu with a customized look and feel, take secure online orders without paying any commissions and give your customers the convenience of curbside or counter pick up or delivery through DoorDash, also, always commission-free. For customers that want to eat in, you can offer 24/7 reservations and contactless dine-in experiences. Plus, you'll have a full set of tools to help you increase sales. Our built-in marketing suite includes loyalty program options, email marketing, social templates, SEO tools and much more. You can manage it all from a single dashboard on desktop or in the Wix Owner app. To learn more, visit wix.com/restaurant/website. That's wix.com/restaurant/website. Now, let's get back to the show.

Rob Goodman:

How do you move – as a company of the size of Chipotle – how do you move, as you've said it, at the speed of culture to produce these things so quickly and get alignment internally and work with your internal and external agencies to move so quickly that you ideally, as you're saying, kind of hit that moment as closely as you can?

Tressie Lieberman:

We certainly work to build the muscle. I think that's one. You have to, as an organization today where the world is moving in real time, create a structure that responds to culture. So, what is the expectation? Everyone's a culture hunter, this is how it's going to operate, and we want to win, we want to really break the internet, find those moments where we're going to stand out. Everybody has that shared mindset and we also created this system to work with legal very quickly, escalate ideas up through leadership when we need to. And everybody has that shared mindset that we are going to move fast because that's how the world works.

Tressie Lieberman:

When you do it enough, you start to build trust within the organization and people want to be a part of that. I've found that when you're doing great work and you're raising the bar and doing the unexpected, it just creates more advocates and more people wanting to join in because it's a lot of fun.

Rob Goodman:

When it comes to that idea of kind of moving things forward and joining in, I love that idea, like, "We're doing fun things. They're making an impact. Who wouldn't want to get on board with this party?" How do you think about kind of shifting a corporate culture internally, and especially over your past almost four years at Chipotle? What's been kind of the biggest pitfall for you there and kind of success that you've found coming out of this transformation?

Tressie Lieberman:

We talk a lot about winning today and creating the future. Our organization is built to win today. We've developed a very thoughtful stage gate process. All of our big initiatives are going through a testing phase before they get to national roll out. We have the structure in place to do that. As I mentioned, we also have that muscle where we're able to move extremely fast. And so, I think it's a balance of both. You want to have the big bets that you're placing and you want to have the small bets and all those things work together to really generate the tremendous impact that we've been able to achieve.

Tressie Lieberman:

You learn from everything you do, too. That's the other piece, and especially in a lot of our work we have the data or you get the real time customer response to know when you're winning and when you're not and when you miss the mark. I like to create an environment where people feel safe to try things, safe to fail, but we're always learning forward and it's a huge part of how we operate. So everything we do has a post-mortem. That might be happening in real time. It could be happening later after we've seen how customer behavior has evolved and looking at things like lifetime value. It's a mix of both. I think you can't choose as an organization today to do one or the other. I think there's a lot of power in uniting the big and the small bets.

Rob Goodman:

When you look at the future of restaurants, both in marketing, in how restaurants operate, even the jobs of the future around restaurants, what are the things that are coming to your mind, your imagination and even in the hard data that you get to see every single day?

Tressie Lieberman:

The restaurant industry is rapidly evolving and ultimately what it comes down to is meeting your guests where they are. So, people love to dine in in a restaurant and they still do. People love that experience and we have guests who are so passionate about walking down that Chipotle line and building their very specific order. Other people are seeking pure convenience and they don't want to ever walk into a restaurant. They only want the delivery mode. Then you have people who want convenience, but they still want to be a part of the restaurant. Maybe they're driving home and they want to order and just pick it up from our mobile pick-up shelf on the way there. Then we have Chipotlanes where you can order in our app or on the web and just drive through and pick up your order.

Tressie Lieberman:

We're constantly looking to see, "What are the needs of the guest and how can we meet them where they are?" The metaverse is one of those places that certainly stands out now. The passion that our fans had for experiencing Chipotle in this digital environment, even though they weren't getting real physical food in that situation. They were getting virtual Chipotle, but they love that experience, too.

Tressie Lieberman:

Ultimately what it comes down to is trying to anticipate the needs of how that's changing and try and get there first. Be the brand to help show them that you value them and that you're creating this end-to-end experience that's going to create this connection no matter where you are. That means doing more and not less, because it's not like any of these modes of access are going away. We're adding on top and we're looking for new ways to remove friction and just create the very best experience there is.

Rob Goodman:

And you've talked about this idea that years ago there used to be: you'd have this marketing moment. You'd have this big giant campaign maybe once a quarter or however frequently it would be, and now it's a lot of little, small, medium type of activities. I'm curious, do you still think about it kind of strategically from a big campaign standpoint and then break it down into all these bite-sized pieces that are going to roll out over days and weeks and months and quarters or is it more about setting the vision, the strategy, building an overall plan and then leaving lots of blank space to kind of fill in the moments of that time?

Tressie Lieberman:

That's exactly right. First it starts with the strategy and the vision. Where do you want to go? Then you think about the best ways to get there. We'll build out a full marketing calendar that we believe is going to show the difference of Chipotle, drive sales, create those cultural moments. We build out that strategy and marketing calendar, you plan in advance, but you also want to check in more near time to make sure that it feels very relevant to the time, especially with needs changing so quickly today.

Tressie Lieberman:

Then we have what we call extra sessions where we are coming up with very real time or near-time ideas that we believe are going to help keep the brand in the conversation. So, you're balancing big calendar moments, the planned cultural moments and also the near-time ideas. Then you have to jump on real time ideas. BTS went to Chipotle over the weekend, posted a video about it, they had eaten Chipotle for the first time after the James Corden show. That's a gift. You wake up on a Sunday morning and you've got this amazing video from one of the best, hottest bands in the world talking about your brand. So you have to be able to jump on that.

Tressie Lieberman:

There's also crisis planning as a brand. It's not an easy job being a marketer.

Rob Goodman:

What happens when that BTS video goes out? Are you thinking for a while about, "Hmm, do we just watch it? Do we retweet it?" How did the idea to basically change the Chipotle Twitter handle kind of immediately come into place? How many gates did that have to go through before the switch happened?

Tressie Lieberman:

This is where we have built our organization to be able to respond very quickly. In that example, it was a very quick call. We sent out a number, get all the right people on the phone. Our social lead came up with the idea. We were all thinking about our response from every possible angle, and then sent a quick text out to get approval, and off we go. I think we turned the whole thing around in 30 minutes.

Rob Goodman:

That's incredible and it's a testament to the structure that you've built, as you said, to have that long-term strategy, but still be able to react at the speed of culture. I want to hear a little bit about Tressie's daily, weekly habits. I want to hear about what's a practice of yours that really helps you in your personal life, in your business life, that you think listeners might either get a kick out of or maybe they'll want to follow your lead? What has kind of helped you, especially over these really challenging couple of years, to really fire up your energy?

Tressie Lieberman:

If you're listening to this, you can't see me chuckling, but I am laughing because this is a huge passion point for me and I'm glad you asked this question. I could do a whole podcast on it so I'll try and keep it brief. The first, I will say, I will tell anyone that I work with, "Don't wait for the day when your life is going to be easy." I think a lot of times when you're growing through your career you think, "Well, if I had more people on the team then I'll have more time." You're always waiting for the, "Then I'll have more time." The reality is you have to set the boundaries for yourself. There's never a day coming where you have fewer emails in your inbox or fewer meetings or fewer big goals and dreams that you want to accomplish.

Tressie Lieberman:

I've spent a lot of time thinking about how I set my personal boundaries, especially working in an environment where social media doesn't turn off. Technology's not slowing down anytime soon and if you have this mindset of culture hunting in real time, you have to be able to turn it off as well.

Tressie Lieberman:

So, a few things: one, I try to get out in nature, take a walk, take walking meetings, get away from the screen, put my phone down, especially a walk in the morning without my phone at all, just to be very present. I think that goes a long way, to get fresh air. I also prioritize my sleep. I'm like a biohacker, I have a bunch of different devices, my amber glasses I'm wearing at night and my aura ring to track my sleep, and I pay a lot of attention to it because I know that personally helps me to feel my best. Then little hacks like setting social app timers on my phone, so I don't get lost in looking at social media and really use it effectively and don't let it run my life. Use it to stay in touch with friends and see what other brands are up to and what's happening in culture, but setting those boundaries, and then setting the rhythms with my team.

Tressie Lieberman:

We have Webex as our Slack and let's not be on that at night. If we need something on the weekend, let's call each other so we don't need to be checking in on email and phone, setting up think time. On Friday afternoons we have a Fri-yay meeting where we just get it together from 2-5 so that we don't have to check email and catch up over the weekend, and just really try and respect that life is about a lot more than just work. I really want to help myself and others live their best lives.

Rob Goodman:

Amazing. That's incredible to hear and great boundary setting, I think, for a good life which leads to great work. I want to wrap up with possibly a gotcha question. I don't think it's a gotcha question, but I have to ask, what's your go-to Chipotle order?

Tressie Lieberman:

Right now – it changes a lot – I eat Chipotle all the time and I'm obsessed with it. In fact, one of my early jobs in advertising I worked in a building with Chipotle in the bottom floor. That's when I first found my love of Chipotle, but right now I'm obsessed with the new plant-based chorizo.

Rob Goodman:

I saw that. I saw that. I watched the video. I was like, "Man, that looks really good."

Tressie Lieberman:

It's amazing. We've had it in the test market here for a while. I'm addicted to it. I love that on a salad, which is really not normally my go-to, but I love it on a salad with pinto beans and the fajita veggies and guac and then little honey vinaigrette in every single bite. It's heaven.

Rob Goodman:

Oh my gosh. That's going to be my next order. Tressie, thank you so much for joining the show. Such a pleasure and a joy to speak with you, and really appreciate all your insights and everything you're doing at Chipotle.

Tressie Lieberman:

You're the best, Rob. Thank you.

Rob Goodman:

Thanks so much for tuning in. I really hope you enjoyed this episode with Tressie Lieberman. Here's just a few of the things that really stood out to me from today's chat.

Rob Goodman:

This idea of supercharging the super fans. Meaning: when you have those die-hard customers, feed them as much content, rewards, love, opportunities, to get closer to your brand as possible. You're building a relationship with the folks that are most passionate and usually most vocal about your brand and they're surely sharing their experiences with their fans and followers, too.

Rob Goodman:

I also love what Tressie said about the right message at the right time to the right people. It's been said before, but it can't be said enough. That example she shared of not showing a chicken quesadilla to folks who had previously ordered vegetarian. It's a small thing, but such a thoughtful way to show customers that you're paying attention to them, that you know what's important to them, which is ultimately going to build trust, and at the same time you're driving sales by showing up in the right ways for them.

Rob Goodman:

My ears really perked up when I heard Tressie describe the agility that her and her team and company stakeholders have built as a practice to move, as she says it, at the speed of culture, and to be able to react and be a part of, and often lead the conversation of the moment online and in social. In today's world, that moment is fleeting and if you can catch it and ride it, your brand could see spectacular results.

Rob Goodman:

You can check out more about Chipotle at chipotle.com. Follow them on all the social media platforms to see their best practices in action and enjoy more interviews and insights from the brilliant Tressie via our show notes at wix.com/nowwhat.

Rob Goodman:

This is Now What? by Wix, the podcast about how technology is changing…everything. Be sure to subscribe and follow the show wherever you're listening to get new episodes first, and please rate, review and share this show with your friends and colleagues too. Now What? podcast is produced and hosted by me, Rob Goodman, Executive Producer for Content at Wix. Audio engineering and editing is by Brian Pake at Pacific Audio. Music is composed and performed by Kimo Muraki. Executive Producers from Wix are Susan Kaplow and me, Rob Goodman. You can learn more at wix.com/nowwhat. We'll see you soon.