Editor’s Note: This article is a recap from a panel discussion — you can watch the full recording by clicking on the thumbnail below.

The popular 112-unit QSR smoothie brand used to rely on mystery shopping to understand what’s going on at each store, but quickly saw its many weaknesses on full display.

In this live panel, Mike will discover how they rolled out the scalable, high-velocity and reliable guest feedback strategy that:

• Ensured a smooth and swift transition from mystery shops
• Directly impacted operations, guest experience and revenue
• Routinely uncovers and closes operational gaps at a store and brand level

Why was mystery shopping insufficient for Robeks?

Mike: Mystery shops only provide a snapshot in time of how each store does, but it’s not actionable because it doesn’t represent the overal trends or show us whether we’re consistently performing every day. As a result we don’t have enough information to provide assistance to franchisees—as our goal is to add value to franchisees.

Also, mystery shoppers don’t represent our demographics. So we were really looking for tools to better provide recommendations and benchmark location performances. And that’s how I found Tattle.

Alex: The common problem with mystery shops is that the report only represent one instance. You’re in fact blind to the overall guest experience across different guest journeys. Especially in a franchise organization, franchisees tend to become aware of who the mystery shoppers are and how to identify them. The information you have at hand might be skewed.

What was the most surprsing finding you discovered with Tattle?

Mike: We used to have a huge emphasis on order accuracy, but Tattle actually showed us that accuracy wasn’t our biggest improvement opportunity—hospitality was. We were spending a lot of time on something that wasn’t our top priority. So that was something both surprising and enlightening.

How do you use Tattle for menu item-level insights?

Mike: We recently revamped our entire menu top to bottom, and we were able to use the benchmarking data in Tattle to benchmark individual menu items against their product mix to understand how they perform. So Tattle’s menu item-level insights were super timely and relevant.

Alex: I worked with the Robeks’ team on this menu revamp analysis using (https://get.tattleapp.com/blog/affinity-score-the-menu-item-metric-restaurant-leaders-cant-ignore/) which shows us the impact of each menu item on the overall guest experience. We were able to discover that when we use product images that were visibly green, they tend to perform better than other colors. That helped the team inform recipe and marketing decisions across the board.

Congrats on the 100-unit milestone! Any advice for restaurant leaders looking to grow their brand?

Mike: Listen to the guest. The restaurant marketplace is really competitive, and you stand out by selling that experience and emotions. We’re a hospitality business beyond selling smoothies and bowls, which is why we’re very focused on hospitality—our brand standards are centered around that. We teach hospitality first and foremost, before even teaching franchisees how to make the actual products. Find your brand identifier and really use guest feedback to guide you in understanding whether you’ve hit the mark or not.

Did you have any concerns before bringing on Tattle?

Mike: The biggest things were backend setup (how complex it is), franchisee adoption and ROI measurement. Most tech solutions out there might promise a turnkey operation but turn out to be anything but that. However, Tattle’s tech and Customer Success team have been nothing but wonderful. We had a frictionless onboarding and the platform is super easy to use. Kelly, our account manager at Tattle, has been a true partner and made the whole experience very pleasant.

What would you say to restaurant leaders out there who are still unsure about whether to dedicate resources to having a guest feedback strategy?

Mike: Guest feedback data gives you credibility in front of your leadership team and franchisees when you provide any feedback or make any decisions, because it allows you to see the business from the guest’s perspective. Who wouldn’t want to know whether an LTO is performing the way you expect, or whether the guest experience is slipping during certain time periods? All these insights allows you to operate more efficiently and drive greater profitability.

Alex: CX platforms and similar software ypically are funded by either franchisees, or corporate, or the marketing’s ad budget. But the good thing is that a VoC platform can influence every facet of the organization. Besides operations, marketing can also use it to to see how well marketing campaigns are working, and guests’ value perception of LTO or promotion.

Want more?

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