Restaurant franchisees are navigating an increasingly competitive landscape where customers are willing to shop around for the best deal. But leading operators know: winning on price alone isn’t a winning strategy.

The real opportunity? Delivering value in a way that protects your margins, strengthens your brand, and drives sustainable growth.

While one-size-fits-all discounts or bundled value meals can boost foot traffic and earn more visits, they also hurt profitability and could be losing propositions in the long run. “Quick wins” like these often reward existing customers and cannibalize revenue, rather than attracting new or incremental visits. 

Today, leading restaurant franchisees already use Upside to drive sustainable growth.

How one Taco Bell franchisee is growing with Upside

Tacala Companies is a QSR franchisee with more than 370 Taco Bell locations in its portfolio. In order to hit its lofty growth goals, Tacala partnered with Upside to win more visits from value-conscious customers — and it saw immediate results. 

So how does Upside deliver results like these — and why does it matter for your business? It all comes down to creating a smarter strategy that builds lasting growth — not just short-term gains.

Creating long-term value instead of quick wins

Upside is a digital marketplace that connects retailers with nearby customers via personalized promotions. These offers, which are unique to each Upside user, profitably incentivize customers to visit our partners’ stores and spend more when they do.  

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From the beginning, we primarily target new, lapsed, and infrequent customers. We call them “uncommitted customers,” because they prioritize maximizing value on each transaction over loyalty to any particular brand. (Our offers also might reach your devoted fans, but our methodology accounts for that. More on that in a second.)

By reaching over 35 million American consumers, Upside gives you access to a vast audience of uncommitted customers — along with personalized offers that bring them through your doors, without adding to your marketing costs.

Unlike value meals or one-size-fits all discounts, Upside’s dynamic offers can change based on individual needs, available margin, and even the time of day — adjusting to drive more sales during off-peak hours, for example. These promotions motivate customers to change their usual behavior. (And we know that the right cash back offer can motivate customers to travel up to 10 miles out of their way for a meal.) 

These personalized, one-to-one offers find the sweet spot — enticing enough for the consumer, profitable enough for the retailer (because they don’t over-incentivize loyal customers). Our platform does this for every customer, at scale. 

That makes all the difference in the restaurant industry, where competition is fierce and customers can only eat so many meals in a day. By helping your restaurant win more visits from uncommitted customers, Upside can serve as a competitive advantage over rivals who aren’t on the platform. It’s exclusive real estate that helps you win more wallet share from the millions of customers who use the Upside app and our network of partner apps to decide where to eat.

And so what happens when you’ve got more customers eating more meals at more stores? With additional opportunities to make positive impressions, your business can fuel its loyalty program with more members. By increasing transactions, Upside can serve as a pipeline that fuels loyalty and makes it stronger without sacrificing profit. 

Now, remember earlier when we said your devoted customers might use Upside, too? Our incremental methodology accounts for their pre-Upside spend, so if they start claiming Upside offers but don’t alter their order size or frequency in any way, Upside will fund those promotions in their entirety. Unlike traditional marketing and discounting strategies, our incremental measurement ensures that franchisees only pay for true lift.

Upside drives more engaged customers to your restaurants — increasing visit frequency, boosting lifetime value, and growing your business sustainably.

By delivering customers when and where you need them most, Upside helps you maximize meal-turn rates and make every location more profitable.

Ready to grow smarter? Connect with our restaurant experts to get started.

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