Frozen dessert chain Tasti D-Lite has a menu of 100 flavors, but only four to six are served daily. Until last year, that meant customers had to call or drop by one of the 50 stores to see if their favorite flavor was on tap.

To make life, and frozen treats, easier for guests, Franklin, Tenn.-based Tasti D-Lite created a technology platform that lets guests sign up for e-mails or text messages describing the day's offerings at their favorite location.

About 2,000 guests use the alerts to keep track of what's being served. “They have fun with it, too,” says BJ Emerson, director of information and social technologies for Tasti D-Lite. “People sometimes respond to e-mails and say, 'Woo hoo, Cake Batter is on the menu,'” he says. The technology investment companywide, he adds, ranged from $5,000 to $10,000.

Technology that spots gaps in service and then helps fill those gaps provides a crucial competitive edge. “Anything a retailer or restaurant can do to add some kind of convenience is essential,” says Kate King, a lecturer in marketing at Butler University in Indianapolis. “Saving them time is important, making things simpler in terms of effort is important, saving them energy is important,” adds King, whose research specialty is consumer behavior.

King cautions that technology can only be part of a service strategy. “The customer-facing moment is the moment of truth,” she says. She cites her own use of technology: King is a fan of Chipotle's smart-phone ordering application, “but if I go into Chipotle and they treat me badly or my order's not ready, all the technology is for naught.”

All Together Now
The Melting Pot, a Tampa, Fla.-based chain of 145 full-service fondue restaurants, is stepping up its survey efforts to improve the customer experience.

Melting Pot responded to customer surveys by streamlining its menu; customers responded with an 8 percent increase in top service scores.

In January, The Melting Pot will merge two sources of customer surveys—its Web site and a site operated by [Mindshare] its survey provider—to more efficiently collect and process information.

Merging the sources “will incorporate all our guest feedback into one system,” says Mike Lester, vice president of operations. One system will make less work for franchisees and also save the time it takes to compile data from two sources, he says.

The merge cost $1,000, basically the cost of a new, shorter survey, Lester says. The new survey is based on one that The Melting Pot launched at the end of 2007, at the cost of about $4,000 and a per-restaurant subscription fee of $40 a month.

Both pose questions about food quality, service and whether the guest plans to return or recommend the restaurant, and asks guests to rate each aspect of service on a one-to-five scale. The Melting Pot received 76,000 completed surveys last year, most of which revealed that pace of service and taste and quality of food are most important to customers' dining experience.

“When guests rate both of those with the highest rating possible, they are 98 percent likely to recommend the restaurant and 96 percent likely to return,” Lester says.

The Melting Pot has changed both service and the menu based on guest suggestions. For instance, guests complained that the menu, which formerly offered three fondue options, was difficult to navigate and that it took servers too long to explain. In a test in its four Tampa-area company restaurants, it removed one of the fondue options. As a result, the number of “5” scores on service pacing jumped by 8 percent.

The company also replaced a ravioli dish, which Tampa guests decidedly did not like, with another dish before rolling it nationwide, Lester says. “Our guests are logging in and telling us, 'We liked this; we didn't like this,'” Lester says. “It gives a gauge of what we need to do before we launch nationally.”

Another Option
In May, fast-casual Mexican chain Costa Vida made it easier for customers to provide feedback by creating an
iPhone application.

Costa Vida customers can provide feedback on the food and experience via an iPhone app.

“iPhone is a platform that has people really excited about technology—there's novelty to it,” says Nathan Gardner, CEO of the 22-unit chain based in Salt Lake City. “It's one more access point that the customer has to give us feedback.”

The survey, hosted by a third party [Mindshare], asks guests to rate satisfaction and other generic items on a one-to-five scale. When customers rate an aspect of their experience lower than a “4,” the survey asks for details.

Those details revealed an issue with service: Once customers ordered and paid for their meals, the service aspect stopped. To remedy this, each restaurant now has an employee patrol the dining room to get drink refills “and have more of an interaction with guests,” Gardner says.

Survey data also prompted some retraining on the food makeup line. Employees now look up at guests when they're preparing food and are encouraged to communicate more, for instance asking which type of beans they'd like.

Gardner is so pleased with the iPhone results that he's applied for an iPhone application for online ordering. The application is awaiting approval; he expects it to be functional by the end of this year.

Customers in Control
Vapiano, a European chain with six U.S. locations, uses chip-card technology to reinforce its service angle: control.

“The customer controls the whole stay by himself,” says Martin Luible, managing partner at Vapiano's Fort Myers, Fla., location. “That's the overall idea of a chip card.”

The upscale, fast-casual concept features pasta, pizza, salad and dessert stations, which customers navigate on their own using a zero-balance chip card.

Employees at each station load the card with the dollar amount of the customer's purchase. At the end of the meal, the customer presents the card at a checkout counter, pays and leaves.

The chip card has been a Vapiano fixture since the first restaurant opened in Hamburg, Germany, in 2002. The card is part of the POS system; hardware and software together costs between $60,000 and $80,000 per store, Luible says. Vapiano is experimenting with the idea of offering a prepaid card to regular guests. If it pans out, the loaded cards will launch within the next 12 to 18 months, he says.

The only drawback? Hostesses must explain the chip card to new customers, Luible adds. However, “if you explain, they understand fast,” he says.

About Mindshare Technologies
Mindshare drives operational improvement. Using Mindshare, companies improve operational excellence, foster consumer satisfaction, build customer loyalty, and support employee retention. Our industry experts guide clients in building comprehensive enterprise feedback management (EFM) solutions. Mindshare's proprietary survey technology captures the voice of the customer in real-time and immediately transforms it into actionable intelligence through powerful and incisive reporting. Mindshare serves more than 25 different industries including travel, hospitality, restaurant, financial, salon, automotive, and retail. For information, visit www.mshare.net.