If there’s one thing you could say about Chipotle’s run under executive Brian Niccol, it’s that the fast casual is far more agile in regards to restaurant trends. You could even argue it was stubborn under previous management. Queso. The drive thru. Menu changes. Chipotle’s outcast operating nature was both why it stood out in quick service, and then, in some ways, why it struggled to reenergize consumers once the food-safety crisis weakened brand perception.

Along those same lines is loyalty. In July 2016, Chipotle famously spent millions on Chiptopia—a program that was, in typical brand fashion, nothing like the standard points-based rewards platform you see from other chains. The virtual version of the classic punch card. Chipotle’s program instead was a three-tiered, summer-focused, three-month promotion tied to the number of times customers visited Chipotle. By the end of the first 30 days, it had more than 3.6 million participants and accounted for 30 percent of transactions. As September rolled around, Chipotle said more than 3.1 million people were registered and had used Chiptopia cards. About 1.2 million users signed up in August alone. And here’s where the program got dicey.

READ MORE: Chipotle in 2019: Call it a comeback now.

It was structured where guests earned free meals after their fourth, eighth, and 11th visits each month. So if they bought 12 burritos over three months (four a month), they were eligible for four free burritos. That 33 percent return rate was far from a long-term strategy for Chipotle’s bottom line. Additionally, the company ended up forking out roughly $20 million to more than 85,000 Chiptopia members who qualified for the top draw—a catering package for 10 worth about $240.

The question for Chipotle was, did the program actually inspire loyalty? Or did it just give away a bunch of burritos? Industry trends tracker YouGov ran the data at the time and showed that consumer sentiment was still suffering from a food-safety hangover on Chiptopia’s July 1 launch date, with brand quality clocking a paltry 9.4 on a scale of –100 to 100. On September 30, that rating fell to 6.8 after almost three months of staying around the same mark.

In an email to Business Insider at the time, a Chipotle spokesperson said, "Chiptopia was not a perception tool, though other programs have been having a positive impact on consumer perceptions.”

The big issues: Chiptopia seemed too confusing for the average customer and wasn’t sustainable long-term for Chipotle from a numbers perspective. It helped inspire already loyal customers. It didn’t really create new ones. Morgan Stanley wrote a research note that said it helped convince core guests to resume their prior frequency. It did not, though, impact the more casual customers, those who made up 75 percent of Chipotle’s base. While Chipotle’s most loyal diners accounted for 60–70 percent of its visits at the time, the brand needed to recapture the average consumer if it wanted to cross the perception gap created by the E. coli crisis.

As BTIG analyst Peter Saleh wrote then, this was troubling since Chiptopia was not the gift that kept on giving. “The program's end in September could alienate some customers just as they are getting accustomed to the rewards," he said.

Welcome to the present

From a stage-gate process, Chipotle’s long-awaited loyalty program has been in the works for a while. The announcement it was piloting the fresh platform came in September, with 2019 as the target for a national launch. In early tests, Niccol said, Chipotle saw light, lapsed, medium, and heavy users enroll, and that the brand was “most interested in that data we get on this,” and Chipotle’s ability “to then turn around and remarket Chipotle to influence people’s behaviors going forward.”