Creating clarity across a fragmented digital ecosystem

Client context

Seeking to outpace its competitors, Culver's embarked on an ambitious digital transformation program including the creation of a new loyalty program. The company required a strategic partner that would define the digital roadmap as well as provide the hands-on expertise needed to deliver measurable results to its Board.

The challenge

Amidst a rapidly transforming QSR industry, Culver's leadership faced a critical challenge: launch a new loyalty program that meets the expectations of its users and franchise owners, all under the constraints of a fixed budget and an accelerated timeline.

“Culver's is deeply committed to delivering an exceptional customer experience and we knew Zilker Trail shared that passion. Their deep product and technical delivery expertise has been critical to not only delivering the right loyalty program but also delivering on our significant growth goals.”

The approach

Culver’s engaged ZilkerTrail because leadership believed that our data-driven and first-principles led approach would provide the most efficient path to staying centered on user’s needs and delivering business outcomes. We delivered the following:

• Deployed a digital product pod to define, build, and iterate on the digital experiences. 
• Implemented and optimized the product analytics and experimentation platform,
• Leveraged qualitative insights throughout the process to connect user insights to the priorities,
• Built the digital experiences required to support the program,
• Ran cutting edge practices including a no-dev experiment which drove 1%+ CVR growth

The outcome

• 2.5x YoY features released
• 2M loyalty program signups in first 3 months
• 500k incremental orders in the first 3 months

“The complexity of a national loyalty program rollout requires more than just code—it requires a partner who understands the intersection of guest behavior, data, and technical scalability. Our partnership provided the strategic North Star we needed to navigate our digital product evolution and launch a loyalty program that truly resonates with our loyal customers.”

— Senior Director Digital Experience, Culver’s