News

A&W Canada adds mobile app, kiosk for real-time customer feedback

October 22, 2013

A&W Food Services of Canada Inc. has added the Loop Mobile Customer Engagement solution by Benbria to monitor real-time, location-based guest feedback.

According to a news release, A&W considered several options to mine customer feedback, and chose Benbria's solution because it is can collect comments in real time, while guests are still in the restaurant.

"We were looking for a solution that would make the process of providing insight fast and simple for our guests," said Nancy Wuttunee, senior director Operating Excellence, A&W Canada. "Our store managers and staff also needed the ability to monitor and act on satisfaction levels in real-time during each guest visit and be able to take the necessary steps operationally to get the ratings back to our high standards."

Loop rates customer satisfaction levels by asking guests three questions:

• Was your meal delicious?
• Were we fast and friendly?
• Were the facilities clean?

Feedback can be provided either through a mobile web-based app or on an iPad-located kiosk in-store.

"As part of our multi-channel strategy, these kiosks are an optional component of the Loop solution that we decided to invest in to make sure our guests had more than one option for entering their ratings," Wuttunee said.

The Loop solution also includes an electronic scoreboard, which gives staff the ability to watch consumer ratings live in each category as they're entered.

"Our experience to date shows that this kind of instant and live guest insight is instrumental in motivating our staff to improve the guest experience in real-time while creating a deeper personal connection between our staff and customers," Wuttunee said.

Ronald Richardson, co-founder and VP of Sales at Benbria, said the live scoreboard offers staff members a chance to immediately take corrective action if there is an uptick in negative ratings for a category. Response rates also tend to be higher if the scoreboard is made visible to guests. Awareness of being measured adds an element of gamification and encourages participation, the release said.

A&W customers also have the option of commenting on specific aspects of their restaurant experience. Loop relays this feedback to a restaurant manager via text or email, allowing the manager to respond quickly.

The solution manages metrics over a specific time period, such as shift, day or week, to help operators identify when ratings are unusually high or low.

More than 15 percent of A&W customers are using Loop to provide feedback, the release said.

Read more about customer service/experience initiatives.