McDonald's begins roll out of global loyalty programme

Just months after pooling its operations into a new customer experience unit to put data insight at the heart of its worldwide operations, McDonald’s is launching trials of its loyalty scheme in the UK, before a planned roll-out later this year.

The company first revealed in July last year that it would establish the rather unimaginatively entitled “My McDonald’s Rewards” scheme in its top six markets by the end of 2022, with the rest of the world to follow soon after.

Trials have now opened in the North of England of the programme, which available via the My McDonald’s app.
Customers can earn points from every order, with 100 points for every £1 and can unlock different prizes based on the number of points they have accumulated.

To reach the 1,500 points threshold for small fries, for example, customers need to spend £15, 2,500 points is enough for a double cheeseburger, while 4,000 points is needed for a Big Mac.

The fast food giant has turned to TV personality Rylan Clark-Neal – who is already the face of BT TV and car portal Cinch – to launch the scheme on YouTube.

Initially being piloted at 10 locations up North in and around Liverpool, My McDonald’s Rewards will then be rolled out to 65 additional and undisclosed restaurants by the end of the month.

The company has not released details of how the data captured through the scheme will be used.

Since the launch of McDonald’s global mobile app, the company has added a raft of new services, including delivery, curbside pick-up, kiosks and table service.

It now has over 40 million active app users in its top six markets and millions more around the world. Over the past four years, it has gone from just over 3,000 restaurants offering delivery to now more than 30,000.

McDonald’s Corp president and chief executive Chris Kempczinski recently said: “My McDonald’s and the global app will become even more important to serving, interacting with, and delighting our customers around the world, and the insights generated from these platforms will help us further improve their experience.

“Our marketing power and scale will continue to be critical throughout this journey, turning the various customer touchpoints into a holistic and compelling brand experience.

“As we’ve evolved the experience, we’ve brought customers along on our journey through exciting and impactful marketing, led by the global marketing team.

“If we put our customers first, then our organisation structure needs to reflect the customer experience we want to provide – not the other way around.”