How Chipotle f*cked up their brand... and how to save it

While I haven't observed directly everything you bring up I think you make very good points.

It's funny, when I started reading this I immediately thought "They are doing just fine and their rewards program is quite nice" Then I realized I was thinking of Qdoba. I have completely stopped visting Chipotle because even if the food is not as high quality at Qdoba (Something you suggest Chipotle is slipping on) their customer service is leaps and bounds better.

I went out to eat with my Mom when she was in town last, we went to Qdoba and I swiped my rewards card. It turns out I had a free burrito and so it was used (Yes, I am aware you can turn on a "stockpiling" mode via the website that doesn't auto-spend your rewards points but I usually don't need or want it on). I tweeted about it jokingly, something along the lines of "Damn, it would be when my Mom was paying that I would get a free burrito" and I included a @qdoba in the message. Not 5 min later I got a reply back on twitter asking for me to DM my rewards card number to their main twitter account so they could credit me a free burrito.

They did nothing wrong on their end and I got a free burrito, by all counts (even mine) there was nothing they needed to do to "make this right" it was already right. I'm not saying Chipotle wouldn't have done the same thing but it's just something Qdoba did do that won them my loyalty.