It started as a moment of terror and panic for the marketing team at Teriyaki Madness:
An errant keystroke resulted in the sending of an offer of free entrees for a year to 8,300 customers of the Asian bowl chain. The email was only supposed to go to five of them, though.
“It’ll be a funny story one day,” Teriyaki Madness CMO Jodi Boyce said.
Boyce and her team quickly did the math and realized there was no way the 111-unit, all-franchisee-owned fast casual could cover even the food costs.
“We wouldn’t do that to our shop owners,” she said.
About 20 minutes after sending that first email, Teriyaki Madness sent another (with the subject line, “Oh. Wow. We screwed up. Yikes!”) to the 8,300 loyalty club members, informing them of the error, apologizing, and giving them one free bowl.
But then the marketing team started thinking about how to turn the gaffe into a win or, as Boyce said, “how to turn these 8,300 valuable guests into raving fans.”
And the 8300 Club was born.
Teriyaki Madness created an ultra-exclusive rewards club for the group and offered them double points on all orders for the next year, as well as early access to new LTOs, opportunities for branded merch, special events and some as-yet-unannounced surprises.
“No one else can get into this club,” Boyce said. “It is very exclusive, and we hope to never have one again.”
The chain’s marketing team did hear from about 200 angry customers who really wanted their year of free food. They all received personal responses and seemed understanding once “they realized there were people on the other end of this,” she said.
Most of the responses Teriyaki Madness received, though, were humorous and understanding:
“Please give that poor soul that made the mistake a hug from me. To err is human,” one said.
“The whole family had a good laugh. Great way to keep customers happy,” said another.
“I am a fan for life,” proclaimed another 8300 Club member.
Teriyaki Madness started in Las Vegas in 2003 and has been growing swiftly in recent years. Boyce said the company is on track to open 30 restaurants this year and another 60 to 70 next year.
The chain’s loyalty program started in 2019 and has since grown to 360,000 members, she said, who spend 16% to 19% more than diners who aren’t in the rewards program.
With such rapid growth, the company has been looking for efficiencies wherever it can find them. Such was the case of the marketing employee who was showing a colleague how to push out five “free bowls for a year” emails at a time, rather than just one, when the offer got sent to 8,300 customers.
“Our organization is very forgiving,” Boyce said. “We run really fast. We do a lot of crazy things.”
Teriyaki Madness franchisees were reimbursed for the free bowls given away, Boyce said, and some even asked for names of their customers who were now part of the 8300 Club so they could reach out individually.
“It turned out to be a positive though it was not a very good day,” she said.