Contrary to popular belief, your delicious menu items are not enough to keep your customers loyal. All it takes is a new brand with better items and a little advertising (word-of-mouth or otherwise) to lure a customer away.

A good loyalty program can help mitigate this kind of brand migration, but it has to do two things consistently to work to a brand's benefit.

First of all, a loyalty program must be easy to use. The best restaurant loyalty programs are those that are chain-wide - meaning you can earn and redeem loyalty points at any location. Each franchisee has agreed to be part of the program, understanding the importance of loyalty and how it is good for the brand and, therefore, good for the location(s) they operate.

Chain-operated programs tend to be top-notch as there is a lot riding on them. If the system is down brand-wide, you get a lot of very unhappy customers brand-wide. Their loyalty becomes weakened and it's possible that they may start considering other brands.

Burger fans love toppings. In fact, they love toppings so much that they pile them on their burgers and enjoy them each and every day on just about every continent (except maybe Antarctica). And while people do love toppings, they typically love fresh topping more.

But what constitutes “fresh” these days? We’re going to dig into this fresh topic (see what we did there?) so you can get a greater appreciation for truly fresh toppings and what the definition of “fresh” really is.

When it comes to hamburgers, there are two main groups of people out there: Those who like a traditional burger with traditional toppings that they can recognize, pronounce and, most importantly, enjoy. Then there is the second camp of burger fans who enjoy the crazy. The fun. The off-the-wall. These are the people who seek out new burger flavors and enjoy every last bite even if they don’t fully understand exactly what it is they’re eating.

For that second group, today’s post is for you. We’re going to dig into five wacky burgers that are actually available in U.S. restaurants.

Believe it or not, there is currently a downward economic trend in certain regions when it comes to quick-serve, fast casual restaurants. Some are calling it a restaurant recession while others are simply seeing contracted growth over the next 3 – 12 months depending on who you ask.

But as with every economic situation, there will be winners and losers. Yes, even in tough economic times, there are winners. But what are these winners doing in the restaurant game that keeps them from feeling the impact of the overall downturn? Let’s take a look at a few examples and see, shall we?

Growth in the quick-serve, fast-casual space is very fickle. All the signs of a strong brand can be present, yet when a brand expands beyond it’s current turf, failure can be swift and fatal.

For the record, size doesn’t matter when it comes to success. There are small brands (under 500 locations) and larger brands (some with tens of thousands of locations) that have seem amazing and profitable growth. An each brand has a different approach to how it works with franchisees. Chick-fil-A as an example has a rule where operators my only have one location whereas others encourage multiple units.