You would think that in an industry that has such a long and steady history as food service that big innovative ideas would be few and far between. I mean, how much innovation does it take to cook food and serve it? As I have learned in the past few months of writing this blog, this is not the case. To illustrate, I bring you a story of how technology can accomplish something as simple as increasing customer feedback. My sister, Sarah, and her BF went out to dinner recently at BD’s Mongolian BBQ, a chain restaurant based in Royal Oak, MI and she sent me a text after their dinner about the check presenter…it was an interactive survey! For as long as I can recall, every restaurant I have worked in has placed a paper comment card into the check presenter for the guest to complete. Often, a restaurant will receive more negative comments than good, as when you are unhappy with some aspect of your meal, you will be more likely to let someone know about it, even if it’s after you have left. The possibility of receiving a free coupon in the mail to make up for it may also be a reason for this type of behavior. For the most part, people who are happy about their dining experience are less likely to take the time to fill out the card, whereas an unhappy patron will take the time to let you know what upset them. However, offering a new, fun, interactive, digital way to respond to the proprietor may be a great way to increase the number of responses in general, and may also offer a way to gather a more representative sampling of the overall dining consensus.
Here’s the unit:
Photos by Sarah K.
Photos by Sarah K.
This model is made by LRS, or Long Range Systems. Based in Addison, TX LRS has been in the business of guest and staff management since 1995, and started out as a firm that designed coaster-pagers for wait-list management. They call this model an ECC, or electronic comment card, and they purport that with this system, the percentage of survey respondents reaches about 75%! Other features include the ability to program the system to let the manager know about an unhappy guest immediately upon completion of the survey, allowing the manager to salvage the experience with the diner before they leave…and tell 10 others about their bad time. This option may also save time and money over the standard secret shopper service, and it can be maintained in-house.
From what information I was able to find, BD’s implemented this system in 2006 to “increase customer loyalty and sales.”
And it’s pretty easy to use. Sarah said it took about 1-2 minutes to complete the survey and it asked approximately 10 questions on basic customer service; was the place clean, were the servers nice, the grill persons entertaining, were they greeted promptly, was the food fresh. Sarah also stated the survey was ‘not annoying’ to complete, as it was short and easy to maneuver, but she would have liked to have received a coupon for her next visit for completing the survey. This may be an idea that was utilized at the onset of the system’s integration, but if they are truly receiving the 75% response rate, then offering a coupon is not only not necessary, but would be expensive to implement. And as I have stated before, if a restaurant offers too deep of discounts and tries to incentivize repeat diners on a cost-only basis, then they will fall into a downward spiral of being forced to compete on price alone…a dangerous fate for many restaurants.
“The Concern: Consumers often go online to find reviews of products, but how do they know whether a blogger has received compensation for his or her review?” (Yao, 2009).
“The Proposal: New guidelines would clarify that the Federal Trade Commission can go after bloggers – as well as the companies that compensate them – for any false claims or failure to disclose conflicts of interest,” (Yao, 2009). This would be the first time the FTC has attempted this kind of control over bloggers and approval may take place as early as this summer.
I’m aware of blogs and reviews and how companies offer free trial products to influencers/consumers who will then write about them and tell either the company how they feel about them, or other consumers, or both. I have also seen blogs in which the disclosure is evident, in a ‘support these sponsors’ section, as well as blogs or reviews in which there is a disclaimer such as ‘no compensation has been received for this review.’ However, I am sure many bloggers provide no disclosure as they are not required to, considering these bloggers currently ‘self-police.’ One thing I was unaware of was the fact that bloggers can receive a lot of money or goods for their work. The ‘perks’ can be as little as a free product or be as expensive as “a free laptop, trips to Europe, $500 gift cards or even thousands of dollars,” (Yao, 2009).
In the offline world, this compensation is considered a standard practice in which I have personally been involved. I was part of large number of people who were invited to sample products and give feedback to the organization for both the free trial and compensation, but allowed to do so every six months. During the course of 5 years I answered surveys on diet soda, sampled Tyson sliced chicken strips (the pre-grilled stuff in the refrigerated case at the market), and was one of the first persons to use the Schick Quattro razor and give feedback on the aloe strip (which made me a brand advocate and is now the only razor I will use). I was not only able to try the Schick for 3 weeks straight, but I was also paid about $200 for my opinions. So from what I understand about the proposed regulations by the FTC, what I did in the past was fine, but I would not be able to write about it on my blog, or give my opinion unless I disclosed that I received the items for free to try, and also reported that I was compensated.
Currently, bloggers are self policing, much in the same way as search engines. I am a fan of regulating that bloggers disclose when they are compensated. This can be stated as simply as “the products discussed herein have been provided for free for this review,” or “free trial products and compensation have been provided for my opinion.” If this uniformity were made a law, then consumers would be in a better position to know who to trust, and who not to. I would rather read a review on a product that was provided for free without further compensation, than one where the reviewer was paid for their comments. I would feel it was more honest.
However, I am not a fan of the idea that previous violators be forced to pay restitution to persons who read their reviews and later purchased a product in which the blogger’s viewpoint had been tainted by compensation. This regulation has also been proposed by the FTC, (Yao, 2009). These bloggers should be ‘grandfathered in’ and a notation could be made on blogs before a certain date that compensation may or may not have been received for products reviewed before that date.
What do you think?
References:
Yao, D. (2009, June 22). “I’m Blogging about a Great Fantastic Super New Product…That, Ahem, the Company Gave Me For Free…” The Virginian-Pilot. Retrieved June 22, 2009.
There’s a recent trend in eateries that equal savings to friends of the establishment. A sales promotion ran January in the LA restaurants Whist and Blue on Blue during the “Nine Days of 2009” that allowed free food and discounted drinks if you were able to show proof that you were a Facebook Friend. This also happens in San Francisco’s Zare’, Mermaid Café’ in NYC and Rocca in Boston, (Grayson, 2009).
The Publican in Chicago offers promotion via Twitter and the Philadephia pub McGillin’s recently “packed the house” with 350 RSVP’s for a Friday the 13thparty, by sending only 700 Facebook invites to fans of the pub. Their owner, Christopher Mullins, says “social network sites give us direct, two-way communication with guests and save us a lot of time and money…we know that they [fans of the restaurant] are engaged and interested…the response is so direct and so immediate, (Grayson, 2009).
And one of the coolest aspects of this jump by the Food Service Industry into the social networking world is that they are able to create business where there was none, and are not hurting the existing business. By inviting Facebook fans an invite to a party to be held when the restaurant is not normally open allows them to make money when the space is already available and non-fans would not be dining there. The events also can be planned and promoted very quickly and the addition of Twitter allows complaint resolution to happen even quicker; “We had a guest tweet on Twitter that he had had a bad experience at the bar. Within minutes of him posting that, we were able to contact that customer to apologize and correct the problem,” states Mullins, (Grayson, 2009).
The most important thing to remember is that these tools can be of great benefit to the establishment, but they also can hurt them. Your Facebook or Twitter page must “look professional and convey the image of the restaurant…The last thing you want to do is run off half-cocked and hurt the brand,” (Grayson2, 2009).
The Cheers magazine mentioned below is a restaurant industry trade magazine which is sent free to qualifying managers, operators, franchisers and owners.
P.S. Here’s a big shout-out to Anna…I found this article through FohBoh.com!
For two other interesting posts on the use of social media in the Food Service Industry, go to:
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: BBQ, BD's, check presenter, customer satisfaction, customer service, ECC, electronic comment card, Food Service, Long Range Systems, LRS, MI, Mongolian BBQ, response rate, survey, technology
You would think that in an industry that has such a long and steady history as food service that big innovative ideas would be few and far between. I mean, how much innovation does it take to cook food and serve it? As I have learned in the past few months of writing this blog, this is not the case. To illustrate, I bring you a story of how technology can accomplish something as simple as increasing customer feedback. My sister, Sarah, and her BF went out to dinner recently at BD’s Mongolian BBQ, a chain restaurant based in Royal Oak, MI and she sent me a text after their dinner about the check presenter…it was an interactive survey! For as long as I can recall, every restaurant I have worked in has placed a paper comment card into the check presenter for the guest to complete. Often, a restaurant will receive more negative comments than good, as when you are unhappy with some aspect of your meal, you will be more likely to let someone know about it, even if it’s after you have left. The possibility of receiving a free coupon in the mail to make up for it may also be a reason for this type of behavior. For the most part, people who are happy about their dining experience are less likely to take the time to fill out the card, whereas an unhappy patron will take the time to let you know what upset them. However, offering a new, fun, interactive, digital way to respond to the proprietor may be a great way to increase the number of responses in general, and may also offer a way to gather a more representative sampling of the overall dining consensus.
Here’s the unit:
Photos by Sarah K.
Photos by Sarah K.
This model is made by LRS, or Long Range Systems. Based in Addison, TX LRS has been in the business of guest and staff management since 1995, and started out as a firm that designed coaster-pagers for wait-list management. They call this model an ECC, or electronic comment card, and they purport that with this system, the percentage of survey respondents reaches about 75%! Other features include the ability to program the system to let the manager know about an unhappy guest immediately upon completion of the survey, allowing the manager to salvage the experience with the diner before they leave…and tell 10 others about their bad time. This option may also save time and money over the standard secret shopper service, and it can be maintained in-house.
From what information I was able to find, BD’s implemented this system in 2006 to “increase customer loyalty and sales.”
And it’s pretty easy to use. Sarah said it took about 1-2 minutes to complete the survey and it asked approximately 10 questions on basic customer service; was the place clean, were the servers nice, the grill persons entertaining, were they greeted promptly, was the food fresh. Sarah also stated the survey was ‘not annoying’ to complete, as it was short and easy to maneuver, but she would have liked to have received a coupon for her next visit for completing the survey. This may be an idea that was utilized at the onset of the system’s integration, but if they are truly receiving the 75% response rate, then offering a coupon is not only not necessary, but would be expensive to implement. And as I have stated before, if a restaurant offers too deep of discounts and tries to incentivize repeat diners on a cost-only basis, then they will fall into a downward spiral of being forced to compete on price alone…a dangerous fate for many restaurants.