Further to last night’s conversation about the role social media played with Chipotle customer experience: This one takes it up to a whole other level.
@jonserranoo Chipotle Burrito only $3? #chipotle
But here’s the thing–Chipotle caught on, thanks to social listening. And they took action.
Read this article to find out what Chipotle did in response, and share in the comments:
- What would you do if you were part of the marketing team at Chipotle?
- How have you seen other brands respond to social media “hacks” of their products or services?
Personally, I love finding hacks on TiktTok especially if it is for one of my favorite restaurants. I like the marketing team should always be on top of what is happening on social media especially when it comes to their business. I do not think this hack is hurting the business at all. You are simply just getting more for your money and in this day and age everyone is trying to save money. I live in a small town in Delaware County PA and I do not think that the Chipotle workers would even know that this is a hack if I ordered it. I think the corporate team is more aware of it then the actually employees at every location. I think that since this is such a huge trend going around on TikTok that the employees should know what’s going on and what is on trend at all times.
I love the idea of encouraging the ground workers to be aware of these trends or hacks as well as the corporate team. I find that large businesses struggle to meet the needs of each of their locations when they are not constantly on the floor like their store employees. Building the relationship with employees at most locations not only opens the door for honesty and loyalty but also to quickly find these hacks and use them (either in a good promotional way or to cease their existence like Chipotle chose to do). Now with social media, it is easier to find what the public opinion says in relation to your brand however for those companies with not well established social listening, employees should be your main eyes and ears.
I don’t spend any time on TikTok, so I hadn’t seen this. It’s definitely a clever money saving hack! I’m not surprised that Chipotle shut it down though. They listened, evaluated, and acted. This viral hack may have potentially encouraged more business, but they were losing a drastic percentage of the money they would have made on those full price meals. It adds up. And these days, the cost of basic ingredients has gone up significantly. I’m not suggesting we should feel bad for Chipotle, but I can see why condoning the hack didn’t make sense to them! That being said, perhaps they should have added a less expensive option as a “compromise” instead of completely removing it! If I were part of the marketing team at Chipotle, I would have supported the decision to disable the single taco ordering. I think it’s bad for business overall (and creates a huge amount of plastic waste).
Completely agree with your thoughts here Hilary! At the end of the day, Chipotle is a business and has a bottom line that they have to keep in mind, but it would’ve been brilliant and fun to see them join the conversation instead of completely shutting it down. I think disabling the single taco ordering was a necessary action from a business standpoint, but from a marketing/PR perspective it would’ve been an interesting approach for them to implement discounted meals/deals or play around with the menu items under the guise of sharing their own “hacks” – almost like their take on the secret menu trend. Doing this would’ve shown that they are actively listening on social media AND that they are open to interacting with these communities and (to your point) offering a compromise that is beneficial to both parties. At the very least, it would’ve increased engagement for the brand online, keeping the conversations about Chipotle going and the positive sentiment flowing.
The article, for me, was behind a paywall — so I snagged this one:https://www.foodandwine.com/news/chipotle-ends-3-dollar-burrito-hack-tiktok which I’m assuming tells a similar story. While it hasn’t been mentioned yet, so I’m not sure if it is the focus of the fortune article, the idea of “shaming” people into ordering a hack in person, rather in the relative anonymity of online ordering, is, to me, a very clever way for Chipotle to work against this action and not have to change its menu or retaliate really very much.
It’s another example of the divide between online and in person action. While we see people willing to be quite shameless when online and relatively anonymous (never read the comments), it’s another matter when they are face to face with the people whose lives are being made harder by a “hack.” I mean, you could make a latte by ordering hot water and adding milk and sugar for free from the Starbucks side board, but that doesn’t seem like a “hack” because you’d have to do it in front of the barista and other customers.
I wonder if this is (at least partially) why it is so crucial to take social media complaints to a personal one-on-one channel rather than try to answer them in a public forum. The forum offers a kind of safe space for someone with a complaint to act callously, in a way they probably would not if they had to deal one on one with a customer service representative. It’s also something to consider when a company is looking to replace customer service with a chatbot or automated system — would a customer complaint be as bad if they just had to face another human being? Might MORE personalization (say customer service via zoom instead of over the phone) actually result in improved resolutions?
I will like to say shout out to J for finding another article to read about the situation because the first one was behind a paywall.
I did know about this hack prior to the article! I am an avid user on TikTok and thought the hack was a genius idea to save some money during this inflation. I have never used the hack because I am not a big fan of burritos., but I don’t blame anyone that does. This is a great trend for Chipotle to be a part of and if I was apart of their corporate marketing team, I would be taking advantage of this hack. This is a great time to go along with the hack and use it to their advantage and advertise Chipotle. It is just a trend overall. Trends come and go. It’s not a trend that will last a long time. Chipotle shouldn’t have shut it down. It wasn’t hurting them but rather gaining them an audience and more customers. Customers that may have been wary of trying it before may have tried it with the $3 hack. However, I am not surprised that Chipotle did shut down the idea. In their eyes, they are losing money. They weren’t looking in a marketers eyes. They lost a great advantage and instead came off as a villain too many during this inflation. People liked the anonymity of ordering this hack online.
Hilary’s comment regarding the waste that this hack produced, both for our environment and for the employee’s time, is enough of a reason for Chipotle’s team to take action to prevent this hack from happening.
Chipotle is not spared from the labor challenges impacting nearly every sector of industries, and asking employees to fill up the cups of side ingredients for free is counter to their fast, casual dining experience and will result in a huge drain of staff time if the hack would have continued to gain momentum.
Chipotle is also a company that takes up environmental stewardship as one of their top priorities by partnering with certain farmers and using only certain ingredients. The plastic waste from this hack is again completely counter to what the company stands for. and needed to come to an end. Of course Chipotle was likely worried about profit over anything else, because capitalism, however, there is an opportunity here to spin this as a way to further buckle down on the company’s environmental commitment.
These hacks are not really hurting the business. Even as an employee at these places there so much work already they would not have even notice. I still remember when my boss told me about the kid’s meal hack and would order it every day online that when he ordered it in-person the employees had no clue someone was ordering kids meals for themselves.
There are disadvantages to hack where it does change the flow of work and supplies for the restaurant, but I think those are opportunities to learn to how customers are interacting with your product. Obviously, people love their food that they are still willing to pay to just build a bowl themselves, so why not use that to make a promotional ad off it. I agree with Hillary that there should have been an alternative action to the hack than removing the option all together. It does come off a bit aggressive from the company end, especially, when people are just trying to save a couple of bucks on a place they like to eat.
Hi Kim, loved this video /post!
To answer your first question if I was apart of the marketing team I would lean into this hack. The reason I would do this is because it would acknowledge that our customer base is smart, witty, and creative and we can play off that as well as it’s creating free positive word of mouth between customers.
While it isn’t a hack for a while there was a meme going around of people sharing they would get a cup for water at chipotle and fill it with a different drink that was not water. This became so popular that chipotle even started meme-ing about it and made new rules around it. I bring this up because it does not exclusively happen at Chipotle yet chipotle was one of the only brands to really comment on the situation. How the company drcidrd to comment got a lot of people talking in a negative way about how chipotle was being stingy / strict about drink servings and as a multi million dollar company that has faced food sourcing concerns- they have bigger fish to fry.
So overall, I think I would use this hack to my advantage and start posting as if this was our plan all along and acknowledging our smart and creative customers. We could even do a “can you create the cheapest meal” and find a winner and introduce their cheap meal. This would result in good press rather than coming across as only caring about profits.
@Jay for posting that article since I couldn’t find a way around that paywall.
I honestly think this TikTok hack isn’t the worst case for Chiptole. I know in a sense they may be losing money by not getting the customer to buy the burrito bowl which is slightly more expensive but if this TikTok went viral and now people are trying the trend, is TikTok gaining customers and revenue? I would love to see Chiptole’s sales numbers after this was released.
I would say Starbucks has a few people and some who are huge influencers who post “hacks.” Now these hacks may not save you money per say but they show different ways to make drinks that aren’t on the menu, it may be a healthier option for a drink or a creative way to make a fun new flavored drink. I personally think this helps Starbucks gain insight on what people like, but also draws in customers to use the APP for customization and place more mobile orders which causes less crowds in the store at once. I personally love seeing these hacks and have used them to create really tasty drinks, it draws me to place two orders sometimes. I will order my normal drink that I like and try one of the “hacks” I saw on Instagram so see if I like it. If I do, I save it under my favorites and if I don’t, no big deal! Overall I think “hacks” can bring good revenue and media attention towards the brand.
I remember seeing this Tik Tok on my feed and reading through the comments. It was actually pretty surprising to me how many people were just annoyed at the poster for getting this option removed from Chipotle’s menu rather than getting angry at Chipotle (not that i think anyone should be getting mad any anyone for this). Usually people are quick to jump on corporations when they’re upset, but I’ve been seeing more and more of these Tik Toks featuring “life hacks” or “secret spots” in cities where commentors get mad at the creators of the videos. I remember this also happened a while back with Olive Garden’s kid meals hack: https://www.the-sun.com/lifestyle/4121909/how-to-get-more-food-olive-garden-for-cheaper/. I never did follow up on the story on whether or not Olive Garden removed this option from people’s online ordering experiences- but I think these stories are a great example that shows that companies do in fact listen to us to find out what their customers are doing and feeling about their products.
Hi Professor Jaindl,
If I was on the Chipotle marketing team, I would incentivize employees who are willing to share how it affects them. As a $41 billion corporation, customers probably wouldn’t be moved by seeing the profit losses they have caused with their “hacks”. However, many people can put themselves in the shoes of workers and sympathize with feeling overworked and underpaid.
There’s been so many Starbucks hacks similar to this. I worked at Starbucks for 3 years and I saw some of them myself. Customers would come in and ask for a couple of espresso shots in a Venti iced cup. They would proceed to fill up the cup with milk at our free milk station. Paying for an espresso, instead of a latte saved them money but as employees we were having to take more time to keep the milk station stocked.
Here’s a few other Starbucks “hacks”:
https://fortune.com/2022/09/26/starbucks-worker-begs-customers-stop-ordering-hacks-pumpkin-spice-latte/
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/starbucks-hack-free-drink-ice-b1971604.html
how i can vote this ?
I remember when this blew up on TikTok and I am kicking myself right now that I never got the chance to order it. I am all sorts of a Chipotle fan, I pretty much eat it ~3 times a week, so I definitely had chance I just never acted on it. I definitely think that Chipotle should’ve just turned a blind eye to the hack (I’m only saying this because I still want to try it), but as Chelle said, they’re a $41 billion dollar corporation, are they really losing that much money from a $4 burrito?
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