Chipotle is still fighting to get its customers back.
The burrito chain, which announced earlier this week its first-ever quarterly loss, is trying to make a comeback from the E.Coli outbreak last fall. Although the virus only hit a few dozen stores, the result of lost customers hit nationwide.
To aid its revival, Chipotle tested out a free burrito promotional strategy in February. Turns out people like anything labeled free, so the company has decided to extend the promotion.
Chipotle announced Wednesday its second effort to bring customers back with a plan to send out 21 million direct-mail free burritos vouchers, according to Eater. The coupon for free food will be good until May 15 and consumers should receive them in the next coming weeks.
“Free burritos – turns out it works. It brings people into the restaurants,” Chipotle CFO Jack Hartung in an industry conference Wednesday, according to the report.
In the first promotional try in February, about 5.3 million people reportedly downloaded the coupons and around 2.5 million redeemed them. Although sales still declined, the number of sales and transactions were up in relation to January.
The purpose of the promotion is more focused on getting customers back into the outlets and into the routine of eating at Chipotle, rather than increasing revenue, officials said.
If the first two promotional attempts do not work as well as planned, Chipotle will still continue with the strategy to see the return of customers, the company said.