Jimmy John’s Rewards: Does It Deliver Loyalty?

How quick the Freaky Fast Rewards is?

Businesses can use loyalty programs as attractive activities to encourage clients to return. Additionally, brands can use their consumer data sooner if they run quickly, which benefits both the brand and the members.

Known for its “freaky fast” delivery, Jimmy John’s attempts to speed up service even further—at least for its most devoted clients. In 2019, the company launched Freaky Fast Rewards, its first national loyalty program. Following a successful 8-month trial in 45 locations, the program currently has 12 million participants.

Let’s take Jimmy John’s as a case study of running a successful loyalty program attracting many members. The “Sandwich Vampire” helps the members order online and pick it up in the store or Jimmy’s freaky delivery. Now, let’s swim in the pool of sandwich deals – Jimmy John’s rewards!

Decode the success of Jimmy John’s Rewards

Instant gift back – as fast as its name

Empathize customers’ feelings when they first sign up for membership–gifts await them. So Jimmy John’s Rewards introduces a free registration by offering an 8-inch sandwich right after the first order. In the trend of expensive subscriptions to be a loyal member, Jimmy John’s does not require a membership fee and welcomes everyone to come and join. Furthermore, the target market is young adults and employed people looking for a fast and healthy meal, an alternative to fast food. The segmentation is clear and easy to reach and appeals to them to join in.

CMO John Shea shared with PR Newswire: “We have amazing customers at Jimmy John’s, and we are committed to rewarding them for their loyalty. The best-in-class program, Freaky Fast Rewards, makes earning rewards quick and simple.” Mr. John Shea showed that Jimmy John’s understands its client profile clearly and knows how to run the program for loyal customers.

Point-Earning Playground

After being a member of Freaky Fast Rewards, the members can have the perks Jimmy offers. From exclusive benefits like Special offers, Birthday gifts, or New menu items to convenient options such as Pay with customer phone or Faster delivery – as its feature. 

Jimmy John’s also introduced achievement badges that customers can obtain by performing tasks like finishing every sandwich on the menu. For instance, The Gauntlet, which a consumer obtains after they buy all 25 Jimmy John’s sandwiches, is one of the initial achievements being introduced. A Jimmy Chips beanbag chair will be given to the first person to unlock this point, adding exclusivity and gamification into challenges. Added achievement in 2023 might be connected to pickle or turkey-focused, or even to individuals who enjoy eating late at night.

Jimmy John Rewards’s earning rule is really easy; after registering and having an account on Jimmy John’s system, customers can buy online or in-store and rack up points on the system. Make sure you are signed into your Jimmy John’s account. Use your Freaky Fast Rewards Pass in-store or give the phone number linked to your account when purchasing over the phone or in-person to earn more benefits!

Freaky Fast Rewards’ useful app

Shea stated that in collaboration with Paytronix, Verifone, Apple, and Google, Jimmy John’s program guarantees a seamless experience from sign-up to earning, redemption, and payment. Additionally, it makes the speed of each transaction faster than average. For example, the previous card reader took around 4 seconds longer to process transactions than the Verifone card reader now. Additionally, loyal members can check the status of their orders via the app and website, and they may use Apple Pay or Google Pay to earn rewards.

In 2019, Forbes reported that Jimmy John’s is growing faster with its new loyalty program; the top 25% of restaurant customers usually account for more than 70% of sales. Here, Jimmy John’s is aiming precisely for that. Shea has said that the brand always looks for the most creative way to express gratitude to customers. With Freaky Fast Rewards, members may enjoy the speed, security, ease, and real advantages they desire. This is an extension of innovation and technology to catch up with changing consumer habits and engage with customers everywhere, every time by smartphone.

Jimmy John’s can do better on Freaky Fast Rewards

App Accessibility

As the most well-known sandwich brand throughout the US, the number of visitors who want to enjoy fresh, fast, and gourmet sandwiches increased for various age ranges of customers. The program also depends on smart devices and smartphones, but no real action is to be taken in real life. Heavy dependence on smartphones is not a good idea when many people do not have smartphones (Pew Research Center reported), especially those aged 30-49 and 50-64 years old, the amount owning cell but not smartphones is up to 17%. Therefore, many potential customers are not reached just because they do not use smartphones.

This is a limit of Freaky Fast Rewards when it still does not apply any omnichannel experience for loyal customers. The other brands, as known as the competitors such as McDonald’s or Tim Hortons, push the experimental service, provide unique experiences, and help the relationship between customer and brand closer by joining a lot of activities, both online and in-person. The main purposes of the loyalty program are to expand brand awareness and encourage customers to buy again to increase revenue. 

If Jimmy John’s is still running the loyalty program without any updates in the future, its rewards program will not bring as much benefit as the brand expected. Because there will be no excitement the members spend on the program, they will leave without regret. The new things are the key things.

Membership Level Troubles

For a big brand like Jimmy John’s, the business sector is Food and Beverage, which has various items (products) that can be recommended to clients. However, Freaky Fast Rewards is a based-purchase program with no tiered membership to increase customers’ purchasing ability. Is a free sandwich of signing up at first enough motivation? Can a free sandwich retain members for the long run?

Lacking of membership levels could be a huge mistake. Customers will remember the brand when they want to eat sandwiches, not fast food. Likewise, in other F&B businesses, sandwiches or fast food are fast-moving consumption products, the clients can choose one on one day and another for some day. It is not sure that customers will return after taking an 8-inch sandwich in Jimmy John’s store, but if there is a Tiered system, customer retention might increase effectively.

The lackluster of the initial badge offerings

It was brilliant to start with the Gauntlet to get media attention.  But after the excitement, it is difficult for seasoned members to accept that the first major challenge is to “buy 25 different sandwiches.” It means that customers will need to order 2-3 fresh sandwiches a week on average because The Gauntlet will be announced and concluded in two months. With sandwiches costing about $10 each, members must spend about $250 to receive the prize.

In addition, there are badges for paying $75 all at once, placing your first purchase, and receiving a free sandwich, which is a long-standing benefit. However, they are making it difficult for users to get out of bed over these badges because the $75 “Super Host” challenge only lasts for a little over a month.

Jimmy John’s always pushes boundaries with the Freaky Fast Rewards is encouraging. There are still many problems to work out as they determine which challenges to offer after using the lessons learned from the first achievement badge tasks. But the benefits of pickles and turkey aren’t limited to them, are they? While other fast-food brands push more valuable items to their loyalty programs.

From Jimmy’s Kitchen to Your Counter: Recipe for Success

Tailoring Your Treats

Now, ignore the weakness, and pay attention to the strong areas of Jimmy John’s rewards program. The brand’s treatment of loyal members somewhat, to an extent, makes them different from the normal customers with birthday gifts, offering the top 10 Jimmy John’s sandwiches, and special first-taste new products that not everyone can taste.

Jimmy knows exactly what its features are and which ones can attract newcomers to become its members. The “big-size sandwich which cannot be found anywhere” must be the things you should apply to your business program. Highlight your products and services in the program so that customers hard to find them outside. Let’s be outstanding! Let customers feel they are the special ones!

Expert in Gamification

“We see an important opportunity to drive frequency and loyalty with personalized offers and challenges,” says Nathan Louer, vice president of brand marketing. Although gamification may not be the “must-have factor” in rewards programs in the future, it will be vital for the rewards system.

According to the brand marketing president, who has shared professional advice, why don’t we just follow that? Gen-Z is the major client profile for many businesses in the world, especially the F&B industry. However, they are still young and need motivation to continue engaging with the business through challenges and games to maintain the excitement with the program. Advice for store owners to keep the heat of their loyalty program by adding new things and joining games and missions online or in-store are the choices for increasing the quality of customer experience.

Reward Roulette

According to Nation’s Restaurant News, businesses will begin to integrate with the metaverse, and it will draw inspiration from rewards programs. This is a wise move because it benefits both the company and the customer. Jimmy John’s just launched a metal sandwich sandwich design contest in early 2022 to test the waters of the metaverse. It seems like essentially more involved with a loyalty program.

Jimmy John’s always finds new factors to differentiate its brand from others and creates more ways to encourage customers to join and earn perks. Your business may not follow a big system like Jimmy’s, but you should learn from the changing mindset of Jimmy John’s strategies. Prioritizing the member’s experience is what you should do with your business, make new things, and encourage newcomers to join in the program.

Omnichannel Order

Learning from Jimmy John’s, it utilizes the app as a main feature of the loyalty program. The earning rules and the app are the best parts of this loyalty program. From ordering online on the app and picking it up at the store or delivery to tracking how close to earning rewards is easy and seamless. 

See how straightforward the Jimmy John’s app is! Having an app for your business’ rewards program is one of the most effective communication tools. Talking with customers, and sharing what your brand has through the app are the app’s purpose, which is to connect with customers and collect various customer data.

Final thoughts

A large system like Freaky Fast Rewards is not easy to change immediately. Still, creating a structured rewards program, BON Loyalty Rewards & Referrals is a good unit to connect and build up your loyalty program on the Shopify platform. BON Loyalty is an expert in the Point program, Referral program, and VIP Tier. It has a clear structure and clarified steps on Shopify to make an effective loyalty program. Let’s start for free to experience the difference.