| | | | CLIENT LOGIN |
 | |
|
| |
 Previous
|
Next 
|
|
Featured Articles:
A Tale of Two Brothers:
This growing Winnipeg research firm builds strong client relationships thanks to two supportive siblings.
Spotlight on Business:
Beyond Comment Cards
Stories of Success:
Celebrating Leadership in the Prairies
|
Operators use Multi-Technology Service to Bridge Operator/Customer Communication Gap
8/10/2005
Nation's Restaurant News
Wayzata, Minn. -- Executives of Carisch Inc., based here, knew one of the company's 41 Arby's restaurants was doing a poor evening business. However, they didn't know the reason until more than one customer named the culprit: low-caliber customer service.
That discovery was made via the Tell Us About Us telephone survey and reporting system from Tell Us About Us. Inc. As a result, Arby's devised a plan for rectifying the situation and is 'well on the way' to doing so, said Jill See, Carisch's vice president of operations. Tell Us About Us Inc. is based in Winnipeg, Canada.
Carisch first deployed Tell Us About Us, which relies on interactive voice response, Internet communication and computer telephony technologies, in its North Dakota units about 10 months ago. In doing so, the Wayzata enterprise joined operators of other restaurant concepts, including Sbarro, Boston Pizza, The Keg Steakhouse & Bar and the Palomino Euro Bistro brand of Restaurants Unlimited. 'The North Dakota stores were really troubled; sales were down, and hiring qualified staff was difficult because of the low unemployment rate,' See said. 'Although we had had feedback from mystery shoppers, we wanted another perspective about what was going on.'
In short order, See and her colleagues not only pinpointed the nighttime customer service snafus at one unit but also ascertained that diners at other locations had 'issues' with overall cleanliness and speed of food preparation. Incentive programs for reversing the trends were put into place and, based on what See calls 'drastic' improvements, a company-wide rollout of the Tell Us About Us program was undertaken.
Like other Tell Us About Us users, Carisch pays approximately $100 per month per store for the service. All of its Arby's units randomly distribute cards encouraging customers to dial a toll-free telephone number to participate in a three-minute survey about their dining experience. Callers rate service, store environment, food quality and the like by punching a number from one to five into the telephone keypad. They also are given an opportunity to add their own comments and leave their name and telephone number in a message for the store manager.
After participants have completed the survey, the system automatically 'utters' a special code redeemable for a free appetizer, complimentary dessert or meal discount on a subsequent visit to the restaurant. If a patron's concern merits attention, Tell Us About Us Inc. immediately e-mails or faxes the comment to See or the appropriate regional manager. All comments are burned onto CDs, which the executive and her regional and unit managers receive along with weekly and monthly feedback-analysis reports sent by fax.
Tell Us About Us reports also are available in e-mail form and on password-protected, private Web pages at www.tellusaboutus.com. See said Carisch would avail itself of the latter option once she becomes convinced that employees will not abuse Internet access introduced in stores so that managers can view survey results in cyberspace.
For Carisch, the key benefit of utilizing the system is the ability to validate assessments of why individual Arby's outlets are not performing up to par in one or more areas. 'We can now go back to a manager and say, 'Here's what 150 of your customers told us about this or that; what you need to address is obvious,' See explained. 'Just as important, we can determine exactly when individual problems are occurring, for example, at dinnertime on weekends, and we can come up with a targeted remedy, like adding staff to speed up service.'
She also likes the fact that feedback comes from real customers. 'With mystery shoppers, we can never be certain different people are actually being sent to our restaurants each time, or that anyone is really going at all,' she asserted. 'The Tell Us About Us responses are a lot more credible and represent the viewpoints of a wide range of consumers.'
George Knollmeyer, director of operations at OSF International Inc. of Portland, Ore., corroborated See's comments. He said his company, which deployed Tell Us About Us in 10 of its 33 Old Spaghetti Factory restaurants during August and September, already receives around 20 times more completed telephone surveys than it does paper comment cards.
Every night 50 cards are handed out at each OSF outlet where the program has been put into place. The reward for participating in the survey is an order of garlic cheese bread on the house. OSF signed up with Tell Us About Us because it was 'looking for a way to get general information about our concept and our quality that we could not get from comment cards or mystery shoppers,' Knollmeyer stated. 'Most customers will fill out comment cards only when they are extremely happy about or disappointed with something, so potentially actionable data never have a chance to reach management,' he added.
To date, such information has included answers to custom-tailored survey questions. One asked callers to name three chains they consider Old Spaghetti Factory's major competitors; another solicited an evaluation of the value offered at Old Spaghetti Factory restaurants.
From the reports, which are accessed via the Internet for the sake of expediency, OSF management learned that they need not take drastic steps to improve the chain's value proposition; perceived value was far greater than had been envisioned. Customer feedback about the competition soon will be enlisted to devise new promotions and marketing strategies, company officials indicated.
'As we come up with new types of customer input to solicit, Tell Us About Us will become even more valuable as far as shaping our long-term plans is concerned,' Knollmeyer said. He added that expansion of the program to additional units would be considered after the fourth quarter of the year.
Julie Ritzer Ross is a free-lance technology writer based in Glen Ridge, N.J.
Source: Nation's Restaurant News
Date: October 30, 2000
Byline: Julie Ritzer Ross
Section: Tackling Technology
2000 Lebhar-Friedman, Inc.
|
|
|
View Full News Archive
|
|
|
|