Toppers Pizza Invites Customers To Join “The Upper Crust Society” With New Loyalty Program

Toppers Pizza, the pizza franchise with nearly 70 corporate- and franchise-owned locations in 12 states, was founded with a focus on fast, tech-driven pizza delivery and customer service. Now, as the pandemic continues to create major demand for tech-powered convenience in the pizza delivery segment, the brand is keeping pace by rolling out innovative new customer-facing programs.

Most notably, the brand recently launched a new loyalty program called “The Upper Crust Society.” The program is designed to reward the brand’s best customers with deals and savings on “Toppers addictive pizza and Topperstix™.” The program also has referral and birthday rewards for customers throughout the life of their membership.

The Upper Crust Society is a loyalty program like many others in the sense that customers can earn points with each purchase and redeem those points for discounts on Toppers products. The program is wholly unique, however, in its attitude and understanding of exactly who its customers are. The Society is for those who don’t typically join exclusive clubs and understand that the finer things in life don’t need to be expensive. 

“We are very excited to launch The Upper Crust Society for our passionate and loyal customers.” said Greg Wold, vice president of marketing at Toppers. “The program’s tongue and cheek tagline ‘Rewards Exclusively for Everyone’ is meant to make members feel like they are a part of something welcoming and fun without all the crap that typically comes with an exclusive club. And they get rewarded for eating something they love.”

In conjunction with the rollout, the Toppers team is also developing a marketing strategy to help franchisees boost brand recognition and customer loyalty in their particular market. Toppers Pizza will be using its loyal fans and select influencers to promote The Upper Crust Society and build excitement for the program through social media. One of those influencers is Jonathan Taylor, NFL running back for the Indianapolis Colts and Toppers Pizza franchisee. Taylor and other social media influencers will use their platforms to promote the program with videos, incentives and challenges.

“Toppers Pizza fans are very passionate about our product and order it over and over again,” said CEO Scott Gittrich. “This program is built to show those folks how much we appreciate and value them. It just makes sense for our brand AND our customers. It’s also just very Toppersesque to juxtapose an exclusive club with QSR pizza. It should be a lot of fun!”

The loyalty program rollout is the latest example of how Toppers’ robust I.T. department is able to help franchisees quickly adjust to all of the ever-changing wants and needs of customers. From the early days of the brand, Toppers has been committed to providing convenience to customers through advanced technology, which includes a proprietary e-commerce platform and digital POS system. Those commitments have created a strong infrastructure that allowed the brand to adapt during the COVID-19 pandemic and the unprecedented landscape. 

As the competitive pizza delivery landscape continues to evolve, Tony Ellis, VP of information technology for the brand, says this already established tech infrastructure places Toppers in a league of its own. 

“Pizza definitely leads the pack in the restaurant industry when it comes to using technology, and we are in an interesting position because we are not a huge behemoth nor a small mom-and-pop brand,” said Ellis. “This means we are both nimble and advanced for our size. So many pizza brands our size want to do something but can’t because there is a tech-limiting factor. Our robust IT team and proprietary systems allow us to eliminate that factor as a hindrance to business and franchise growth. For the last half of 2021, we are completely focused on customer features and functionality because we know that is what will allow us to compete in the future.”

Looking ahead, Gittrich predicts 2021 will see the Toppers franchise network continuing to grow as the brand stays ahead of customer expectations. “The opportunity for us to grow our concept is as strong as it's been in my career and certainly in a long time,” he said. “High-quality, hand-made fresh food delivered with an incredible e-commerce experience is exactly what today’s consumer is looking for, and we are here to give it to them.”

The investment range for a Toppers Pizza franchise is $314,075 to $530,000, with the initial fees coming in at $10,000 to $30,000. For more information on franchising with Toppers Pizza, visit: https://www.toppers.com/franchise/.