The news: Taco Bell and Chipotle are confident in their ability to bounce back from the cyclospora outbreak, despite a near-term hit to sales.

• While quarter-to-date sales are down 2% YoY, sentiment toward Taco Bell on social media is already back to where it was “pre-issue,” and sales trends are improving daily, Yum Brands executives said on the company’s earnings call.
• Chipotle cited a 200 basis point hit to sales following the cyclospora outbreak but still lifted its full-year same-store sales forecast, expecting the current softness in traffic to abate later in the year. The company now projects a low-single-digit percentage increase, up from its prior estimate of flat growth.

Zoom in: Value is front and center in both chains’ efforts to stay relevant with customers and win back traffic.

• Taco Bell’s $1 Enchirito and Mexican pizza deals were the best-performing Tuesday drop promotions in brand history, enabling the chain to drive traffic as well as engagement from loyalty members.
• Chipotle’s emphasis on the quality and freshness of its food, coupled with menu innovations that incorporate popular flavor combinations (such as chipotle honey chicken) and address wellness concerns (like its snack-size protein cups), has helped improve the brand’s value perception across income and age groups.

Implications for the QSR industry: That people are willing to return to Taco Bell so soon after the outbreak’s start is a testament to its crisis management response and its brand-building efforts over the past few years. The determination that cyclospora is an industrywide, rather than restaurant-specific, issue has also worked in the brand’s favor—allowing diners to feel more confident about consuming Taco Bell’s lettuce-free menu items.

For a company like Chipotle that has been caught in the broader cyclospora fallout, clearly communicating that its restaurants aren’t a potential source of the outbreak will be critical to win back trust. In the short term, Chipotle and other affected chains may also need to rely more heavily on promotions to entice customers to return.

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