Founded in Austin, Texas in 2005, P. Terry's Burger Stand set out to bring back the classic burger stand experience with a simple menu, high-quality ingredients, and genuine hospitality. With 37 locations across Texas and a menu built around all-natural, made-to-order burgers, hand-cut fries, and hand-spun milkshakes, the brand has built a devoted following by keeping things simple and doing them exceptionally well.

The Shake of the Month program has been part of the P. Terry’s playbook since before Zane Donahoo, VP of Technology and Digital Marketing, joined the company six years ago, and has become a fan favorite that keeps guests coming back month after month.

Every month, P. Terry's introduces a new limited-time shake flavor. To determine whether or not a flavor was successful the team would look to revenue share. If a shake hit their target, it stayed in the rotation.

The problem with that threshold, as Zane quickly realized, is that revenue share alone could skew the results. A shake that drove strong sales in a high-revenue month could look like an underperformer simply because total sales were up across the board. More importantly, revenue share said nothing about who was coming in, whether they came back, or what the LTO was actually worth to the business over time.

"We were just looking at revenue. That's a good telltale sign something worked, but you can't really pinpoint how it's impacting our guests’ lifecycle."

When P. Terry's started working with Bikky, Zane saw an opportunity to finally understand the impact of their Shake of the Month program. "One of the reasons you do LTOs is to acquire new guests, get a new person to come in and try it," he explained. "But now I can look at the full scope of what a shake is worth, rather than just its impact in that one month."

Using Bikky, P. Terry's ran a comprehensive analysis of the Shake of the Month program, judging each shake on five metrics: revenue, new guest acquisition, lapsed guest re-onboarding, frequency of visits, and 30/60-day return rate. Across 30 shakes, the program brought in over 218,000 new guests, validating the team's assumption that the Shake of the Month was consistently expanding the customer base.

Beyond acquisition, Zane was particularly interested in what happened after that first visit. "Most first-time restaurant guests never return, but a guest who comes back multiple times early on is far more likely to become a regular," he noted.

"If I can see a shake bring somebody back multiple times in the first couple of months, I know those guests are on their way to becoming regulars."

Across 30 months, the average 60-day return rate was 53% and the same-month repeat rate was 26.5%, proof that the program was building lasting guest relationships and not just generating one-time visits. 

Reese's Peanut Butter, Nutella, and Mexican Vanilla emerged as the program's clearest anchors, while others that performed well on sales showed weaker guest stickiness, and some that looked modest on revenue turned out to be strong acquisition drivers.

The analysis gave P. Terry's a new way to think about their guests, their marketing, and their LTO calendar.

During the analysis, Bikky identified a missing size variant for the Mexican Vanilla shake that, once included, made it the single biggest Shake of the Month on record. Combined with consistent guest feedback across social media and reviews, the complete picture gave Zane’s team the confidence to make Mexican Vanilla a permanent menu item.

Bikky’s lifecycle data revealed which guests actually came back, separating the shakes that drove one-time trials from the ones that built lasting frequency. P. Terry's is using those insights to inform how they plan the Shake of the Month calendar, timing flavors to specific seasons and audiences, then following up with proven high-retention shakes to build frequency.

On the marketing side, Bikky's segmentation tools have given P. Terry's the ability to build audiences based on what guests have ordered, how recently they visited, and where they are in the guest lifecycle to run more effective and targeted campaigns.

"We don't want to send a Veggie Burger promo out to a guest who has never tried our veggie burger, because we know the cost per acquisition is going to be much higher than if we send it to the people that always order veggie burgers."

For P. Terry's, the Shake of the Month has become a defining and beloved part of the brand experience. With Bikky, they now know exactly what it's worth, from which flavors drive new guests, which ones bring them back, and which ones build lasting frequency. The same approach is already being applied beyond shakes, with an upcoming breakfast LTO on the way.