Case Study: Shake Shack achieves stronger LTO performance and faster product decisions with Qualtrics

How Shake Shack builds products and experiences customers crave

Shake Shack, the fast-casual restaurant chain, needed a better way to launch limited-time offers and new menu items after some products underperformed because the messaging and naming did not resonate with guests. Working with Qualtrics and its customer and product research platform, Shake Shack sought faster, more reliable insights to guide product concepts, marketing, and menu decisions.

Qualtrics helped Shake Shack centralize customer, product, and market insights, enabling quantitative and qualitative testing across teams. The results were strong: a renamed lemonade product went from the lowest to the highest-performing beverage, outselling alternatives two to one; the Hot Ones Chicken Sandwich delivered Shake Shack’s largest visitation rate from new and lapsed guests for an LTO; and, overall, Shake Shack doubled the percentage of category units sold for its average LTO while continuing to improve year over year.

Shake Shack

Charles Frankievich

Sr. Director Consumer Insights and Action