Editor’s Note: This article is a redacted version of the conversation. You can view Carrot Express’ case study based on this conversation (https://get.tattleapp.com/how-carrot-express-transformed-operations-with-home-run-cx-platform/).

Guest featured:

• Michael Schatten, SVP of Operations at Carrot Express

What was your CX process like prevoiusly, and what brought you to Tattle?

Michael Schatten: I’ve tried many things, including SMG, Medallia and myster shoppers. My CEO actually approached me about looking into Tattle, and I was immediately drawn to its ease of use, the simplicity, the dashboard layout, and the deep dive into operational categories.

At that time I was using Medallia, but Tattle’s interface is easier to use, and checks off a lot of boxes in terms of things that I look for. I realized it was a home run for us and we should really be looking at this. I wanted to drive a more data-backed approach with our operations, and Tattle has been fantastic to use. I’m very pro-Tattle.

Can you walk me through how your entire organization uses Tattle?

Michael Schatten: We have an exec team meeting every Monday morning going through Tattle data. We’re in the hospitality space, so it’s all about great food and great service. Tattle makes it very black and white to measure both aspects, so that we have concrete data to bring to regional managers and general managers so they know what to work on. It’s invaluable.

At the operator level, I like to keep all our tech platforms simple. Tattle’s interface is super user-friendly: easy to navigate, to download report, I only need to click here and click there, super easy. When we first rolled it out, it only took 35 minutes to walk through the entire dashboard with our team.

Our execs have very jam-packed weeks. We have three mornings per week where we go over our Tattle dashboard for half to one hour. We look at the performances of our regions, individual restaurants, menu item-level insights, guest responses, and whether our GMs are working on their monthly objectives.

At the store level, our GMs receive daily recap emails from Tattle, which generates more involvement. atthe store level. We notice a lot more engagement from our GMs, and that creates a fun, competitive culture.

What are the top 3 things you look for when choosing restaurant technology?

Michael Schatten: I have 25+ years of experience in the industry, and have seen a lot of great softwares and tools. Unit and regional level adoption is key.

For example, Medallia’s reporting was not very special, but Tattle’s reporting allows us to interact with heatmaps, operational categories, responses etc. Having all that at my fingertips, I’ve never felt like there’s anything that Tattle doesn’t have that I want.

Also, the Tattle team is just wonderful to work with. Nicole (Customer Success Manager) is just fantastic. She always respond to my emails in a matter of minutes, and the replies are always phenomenal. She’s been a joy to work with.

What’s been your favorite thing about Tattle?

Michael Schatten: The deep-dive into operational categories, the advanced heatmap…within a matter of seconds, I can very quickly get a pulse on the restaurants to know where their performances are at. The weekly and monthly reporting has also been great.

Onboarding was also super quick and easy. After we said yes to Tattle, within 24 hours we were up and running. It’s the quickest onboarding — bar none.

What’s been your biggest surprise since using Tattle?

Michael Schatten: When we opened a new location in central Miami, within one day we started getting feedback through Tattle. We’d been open for only 4 hours and already getting guest feedback — how fantastic is that?

The amount of Tattle feedback we get was surprising. We don’t even actively promote it beyond just QR code stickers, and integrations (with Olo and Paytronix), and a website widget. We get almost 4,000 reviews in 5-6 months. Tattle surveys are short and concise but contains enough data points to capture the full guest experience.

What are some words of advice for other restaurant leaders considering CX platforms?

Michael Schatten: I’ve been telling a lot of my friends who’re C-level execs at big companies:“You gotta take a look at Tattle.” The simplicity, reporting, and granular level of data is extraordinary, and superior to any software I’ve used since the beginning of my restaurant career till today.

In this competitive space, if you don’t get direct guest feedback, how do you really know if you’re doing great? It can just be your perception. Let’s use some data and software to validate that.

For exmample, I used to think our online ordering process was great, but Tattle data showed us that it’s our worst-performing category! So our IT and guest service team will start fine-tuning things to our ordering platform and make it better.

You don’t know how things are until you measure it. If you want to grow your restaurant count, you need something to take to your managers and execs to make your operations better. If you’re serious about developing your business, you have to focus on CX.

Want more?

Watch a rapid demo of the Tattle platform!