Chipotle updates its app to ensure that customers won’t end up at the wrong store

• Chipotle’s app will now let customers know if the location they choose to pick up a order is incorrect.
• Customers often ask for a refund when they realize that they ordered or showed up at the incorrect store.
• Chipotle’s digital orders have declined since the pandemic, but they remain a growth source.

Chipotle’s problem is that its customers show up at the wrong restaurants when they pick up their orders online. Upon realizing their error, many customers request refunds. 

But the chain has just released a solution to its problems, said its CEO on Tuesday.

CEO Brian Niccol revealed this during the first-quarter earnings conference call. Customers using the Chipotle app on their smartphones will receive notifications if they appear to be ordering from the wrong place or are en route there to pick up the order. The new notifications are based on improved technology that determines customers’ locations when they order.

Niccol says that the new technology is a big step forward. Niccol explains, “as we receive many refund requests from guests who have arrived at the incorrect restaurant.”

“Since implementing this feature, we’ve seen a significant reduction in these refunds,” said he.

Niccol explained that the app’s location-based technology reminds users to scan their loyalty cards when they are standing in line to get their order at a restaurant. 

Chipotle has not responded to Insider’s requests for comment regarding the refunds and new feature.

Chipotle has seen its sales grow in recent years thanks to its e-commerce, which includes orders placed through the app. Digital sales for the Mexican-grill restaurant chain reached $3.4billion in 2021 due to improvements made to its app, and a surge in demand.

The company has also opened “Chipotlanes”, locations that only process digital orders. 

Since then, digital sales have dropped as more customers return to Chipotle stores to order and consume their tacos or burritos. Digital sales represented 39.4% in 2022. This is several percentage points less than the 46.2% recorded in 2020.

Chipotle operates just under 3200 restaurants in the US. According to a proxy filed earlier this month, it plans to open up to 420 new locations within the next 12-18 months. It said that it was aiming to increase its North American network of restaurants to 7,000, according to an earlier proxy filing.