When Jersey Mike’s Subs first opened in Point Pleasant New Jersey in 1956, exceptional subs and a friendly face behind the counter were enough to deliver a top-notch customer experience (or, what Jersey Mike’s refers to as A Sub Above). Now 65 years later, as one of the fastest growing chain restaurants, the Jersey Mike’s team knew they needed to double-down on digital in order to continue building and retaining loyal, sub-loving customers. 

Harnessing the Power of Mobile Ordering

In 2019, Jersey Mike’s partnered with World Wide Technology to revamp and relaunch its mobile app. With nearly 2,000 retail locations worldwide, scalability, speed-of-ordering and a personalized customer experience were top of mind. 

“Our franchisees and our crew members do a really great job of engaging customers in-store—they banter back and forth, they remember people’s orders and first names—we really wanted to bring that personalized experience into our online, digital experience,” said Kelly McGee, Director of Digital Marketing at Jersey Mike’s. 

The launch of the new app in August of 2019 introduced a plethora of new user event data. Activating this newly accessible data, however, required the right marketing technology stack and deep organizational alignment to continually prioritize its digital experience.

Enabling A Sub Above Experience

When building the martech stack around its new mobile app, Jersey Mike’s introduced Segment as its customer data platform to unify online and in-store data, Amplitude to understand and manage in-app behavior and Iterable to engage with customers through their preferred channels. This combination of tools unlocks engagement data and enables the personalized end-to-end digital experience customers expect.

“We’re able to use the data we’re getting from our app to send more targeted, relevant messages. We’re able to see what channel people interact with the most. We currently use push and email with Iterable, and we’re able to engage with our customers where they want to engage with us,” said McGee.

For example, during its annual Customer Appreciation event, Jersey Mike’s ran a loyalty campaign to incentivize members of the MyMike’s loyalty program to place an order and earn bonus points, while non-members were encouraged to join the MyMike’s program. The push notifications were built and sent through Iterable, based on cohort data sent to Iterable from Amplitude. The member cohort saw a 13% lift in orders placed when compared to the control group, while 38% of non-members converted and became members of the MyMike’s program.

Agility Driven by a Modern Marketing Stack

While Jersey Mike’s is still investing heavily in the growth of its in-store, dine-in experience (even going as far as paying for franchisee remodels), its mobile experience has become critical to Jersey Mike’s exponential growth.    

Proactively investing in its mobile app experience enabled them to pivot and capitalize on the rise of digital ordering driven by 2020’s COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic accelerated consumer adoption of technology for meal ordering. At Jersey Mike’s, online ordering more than doubled in the last year, with customers appreciating the ease of use, ordering speed and contact-free options. While the mobile app itself manages the influx of orders, the marketing touchpoints that surround the app (enabled by Iterable, Amplitude and Segment) ensure loyal customers come back for more. 

Automated email and in-app campaigns like welcome, birthday and re-engagement campaigns were in place to nurture and engage new customers, which allowed Jersey Mike’s digital marketing team to focus on responding to the ever-changing landscape and regulations of 2020.

Looking Forward

While technology is certainly an enabler of today’s most powerful mobile customer experiences, Jersey Mike’s also credits strong cross-functional prioritization and planning. 

“We do a really good job of aligning our priorities as a company. Marketing works very closely together with our IT and operations teams to make sure we’re all on the same page–that the products we’re pushing out are what our customers want and need,” said McGee.  

Looking ahead, Jersey Mike’s plans to build on the success of it’s mobile app, continue to grow the MyMike’s loyalty program, expand in marketing channels to include SMS, and most importantly, listen to customer feedback. 

“I don’t think we would have built the app the way we did, had it not been for customer feedback. To this day, we continually look at app reviews to see if the features we’re launching are resonating with our customers. It’s really important to take that feedback into account if you’re going through a digital transformation.”