Guest Feedback
Why Actively Collecting Guest Feedback Matters for Large-Scale Chain Restaurants
Gathering and leveraging customer feedback using a platform like Akira enables chain restaurants to uphold brand standards and safeguard their reputation.
For large chain restaurants, maintaining consistent brand identity and quality across numerous locations can be a challenge. Actively collecting guest feedback is a crucial tool to ensure you're meeting customer expectations and providing a positive dining experience.
Here are some reasons why guest feedback is so important for large-scale chain restaurants, along with illustrative examples, and how Akira, a guest feedback management platform, can be instrumental in this process:
Maintaining Consistent Quality
Feedback helps identify areas where specific locations may be falling short of expectations. For example, if customers at a particular location consistently mention lukewarm fries, the restaurant can investigate and implement changes, like upgrading equipment or retraining staff, to ensure fries are served hot and crispy at all locations.
How Akira Can Help: Akira's automated sentiment analysis can quickly flag locations with a high volume of negative feedback about food quality. This allows restaurants to prioritize these locations for investigation and focus their resources on areas that will have the biggest impact on customer satisfaction. You can see more on the importance of sentiment analysis in the restaurant industry in our blog about why reputation management matters.
Identifying Menu Preferences
Customer feedback can reveal menu items that are consistently well-received or unpopular. This information can be used to inform menu development and promotions. For instance, if a burger chain finds that a specific regional burger is a hit with customers, they might consider adding it to the national menu.
How Akira Can Help: Akira allows restaurants to segment feedback by factors like location, demographics, and even time of day. This granular data helps identify regional variations in customer preferences. For example, a popular breakfast item at one location might not resonate as well elsewhere. With Akira, restaurants can use this information to tailor their menus to specific locations or demographics. See how Taco Bell uses customer feedback to inform their menu strategy.
Improving Customer Service
Feedback can highlight areas where customer service needs improvement. For example, if customers mention long wait times or inattentive staff, the restaurant can implement training programs or adjust staffing levels to address these issues.
How Akira Can Help: Akira can automate the process of collecting and analyzing feedback about service. This allows restaurants to identify trends and areas for improvement across all locations. Additionally, Akira's built-in reporting tools allow restaurants to track their progress over time and measure the effectiveness of their efforts to improve customer service. See how Olive Garden leverages guest feedback to improve customer experience.
Innovation and New Product Development
Guest feedback can provide valuable insights into customer preferences and expectations. This information can be used to develop new menu items, beverages, or desserts that cater to customer desires. For example, if customers frequently comment on a lack of vegetarian options, a restaurant chain can use this feedback to develop and test new vegetarian dishes.
How Akira Can Help: Akira allows restaurants to solicit feedback on specific menu items or concepts. This targeted feedback can be invaluable for informing new product development. For example, a restaurant chain considering launching a new loyalty program could use Akira to gather feedback from customers about their preferred features and benefits.
Brand Reputation Management
Negative feedback allows restaurants to address customer concerns before they escalate into bigger problems. By proactively responding to negative feedback and taking steps to improve, restaurants can protect their brand reputation.
How Akira Can Help: Akira can send alerts to restaurant managers whenever negative feedback is received. This allows them to take swift action to address the customer's concerns and minimize the potential damage to the brand's reputation. Additionally, Akira allows restaurants to publicly respond to feedback, both positive and negative, which demonstrates to customers that their voices are heard.
Conclusion
Actively collecting guest feedback is essential for large-scale chain restaurants to maintain consistent quality, identify customer preferences, improve customer service, innovate, and manage their brand reputation. By leveraging a guest feedback management platform like Akira, restaurants can streamline the feedback collection process, gain deeper insights from their data, and take action to improve the overall dining experience for their customers. This will lead to increased customer satisfaction, loyalty, and ultimately, sales.
Need help with your feedback strategy, contact Akira.