News

Cowboy Chicken updates app to give customers more control

January 25, 2018

Dallas-based Cowboy Chicken has updated the mobile app that it first launched in March 2017.

"Our passion for excellence extends far beyond our food, and we want our mobile technology to challenge the status quo just like the quality of our ingredients do," Sean Kennedy, Cowboy Chicken's president and CEO, said in a company press release. "We added app features and consolidated screens to give guests more options while also saving them time; ultimately, we want Cowboy Chicken's guests to know just how valuable they are to the company."

Cowboy Chicken has tapped LevelUp, a Boston-based mobile engagement solutions company and creator of the Cowboy Chicken app, to further enhance the digital extension of the restaurant's brand.

"Cowboy Chicken is implementing an entirely custom rewards screen designed to optimize the user experience for its guests," Allyson Klineman, LevelUp's director of agency services, said in the release. "Coupled with our contemporary home screen navigation style, Cowboy Chicken's next app is very unique from a development standpoint."
 
The updated app includes:

• Custom Rewards Screen: The loyalty and available rewards are combined onto a single screen, and users are able to click into a status level screen rather than "swiping left."
• Facebook Login and Customer Registration: Facebook registration provides app users with an alternative method for registering for the app using their existing Facebook credentials.
• Location Screen: A new location screen features a full map view with location indicators and a list view of locations, so users can tap into details for a location to view hours, place a call, get directions or begin an order. Users can also search for locations by entering a zip code, city or state, or find locations sorted in order of distance for the search query result.
• Two-Touch Loyalty and Payment Toggle (Loyalty without Payment): Two-touch Loyalty functionality allows users to accrue and automatically apply loyalty discounts on purchases regardless of payment method.
• Custom Preload and Reload Functionality: The option for users to preload funds (preload amounts are customizable up to $100) into the app and have value automatically reload (users can set their own threshold) has been added. Customers have the ability to request a refund of their preloaded balance at any time.  
• Home Screen Navigation: The app's navigation style has been switched from a bottom navigation style to a home screen style, providing a more contemporary and customizable navigation experience. 
• Claim Banking: This feature allows users who have unlocked rewards to save them for a future transaction by tapping a switch in their rewards list. Each reward, as well as gift cards and preloaded value, can be banked or unbanked independently, providing flexibility to customers to redeem claims when they prefer. 

Once these updates are downloaded, app users can expect cleaner navigation from the home screen, more flexibility for billing preferences, more control when using Cowboy Chicken Rewards and increased comprehension of rewards and promotions available, Klineman said. 

"Merchants introducing app changes similar to the updates that Cowboy Chicken is implementing have seen increased customer satisfaction and higher app utilization," she said.
 
Additionally, these updates allow Cowboy Chicken to track more guest data than ever before, including purchase history, frequency and location of visits, promotion redemption, digital advertising efforts and how preloading/reloading funds affects customer retention, Klineman said.