Case Study
How Hooters Evolves Its Iconic Brand To Collect 277x More Guest Feedback
Through Tattle, the 39-year-old brand is now acting on real-time guest feedback for omni-channel experience improvement.
“We’re reaching out to tons more customers than we did previously.”
Chip Davis
Director of
Operations Services
Hooters
ABOUT HOOTERS
Modern Restaurant Operations Meets Classic, Beloved Brand
Founded in 1983, the iconic fast casual brand is not just known for its wings and Hooters Girls, but also for its constant evolution to meet today’s operational challenges and consumer demands.
They quickly identified Tattle as the modern guest feedback solution in their transition away from the traditional CX strategy.
Brand Overview
Integrations: Olo, Punchh
Locations: 317
Partner Since: 2022
THE CHALLENGE
Retaining New Customers in New Sales Channels
When COVID hit, Hooters switched from 90% dine-in services to 100% delivery and takeout within 48 hours. The successful shift kept the brand above water, but also introduced new challenges.
Hooters was opening itself up to a whole new customer segment that had never visited a Hooters location before. What are their expectations? Would they come back again? Can they become long-term dine-in customers when the pandemic is over?
“Post pandemic, we found a lot of customers that came to dine-in with us who actually tried our food for the first time through delivery providers,” said Chip Davis, Director of Operational Services at Hooters. “Reaching out to those customers after they dined with us was very important.”
And Tattle was exactly the solution they were looking for.
THE TATTLE SOLUTION
Real-Time Feedback & Quick Responses
“With Tattle, we get real-time feedback from customers that weren’t just complaint logging,” said Chip. “Restaurant staff love the positive feedback and it was something we had never gotten in the past. And we didn’t have to wait months before hearing their feedback.”
Chip described Tattle’s automated survey as a way of “opening the door and saying ‘have a great day’” to their customers. Through an integration with Olo and Punchh, Tattle automatically surveys Hooters’ customers 90 minutes after their experience. The intuitive survey design collects up to 55 data points per survey at a whopping 93.4% completion rate.
In addition, hearing first-hand from customers immediately gives Hooters the opportunity to win back any dissatisfied guests.
“Quick response is key, and we are able to do that through Tattle,” said Chip. “If our response is not quick enough, the leadership will also be notified. We can also track which customers have come back again, as well as if customers are satisfied with our responses.”
THE TATTLE SOLUTION
Success Measurement & Operational Optimization
With Tattle, Chip and his team can dive into customer feedback data by day of the week, day part, ordering channel, geographical location and more. Knowing that the dine-in experience is their unique advantage, Hooters aims to have every dine-in guest feedback be 4 or 5 stars.
“Our managers use Tattle to know that if say, Tuesday sales are down during lunch, now we know it’s a guest satisfaction issue, and we have the data to look into exactly what’s causing the issue — Is it the Hooters Girls? Is it the food not being ready in time? We can zoom in to find out exactly why sales are down on a particular day or particular shift,” said Chip.
Meanwhile, Hooters is also embracing today’s off-premise challenges through operational optimization with Tattle’s help.
“We’ve since reduced our menu because some items take too long to make. If you aren’t fast, there are so many other options within ordering apps like Doordash or UberEats,” said Chip. “We’re re-evaluating the menu and improving certain processes that we were following for 39 years.”
THE TATTLE SOLUTION
Parting Ways With the Traditional Methods
Prior to Tattle, Hooters was mostly handling guest feedback and complaints through phone calls.
“We were paying the call center by the second to take that phone call, listen and transcribe, and then send it to us via email — whereas now we could just directly connect with the customer using Tattle!”
Not only are call centers costly, but also the feedback acquired wasn’t constructive, actionable, or scalable. The complaint-logging rarely led to any operational improvements, and ultimately damaged employee morale.
“The easiest way to change is just ripping the bandaid off,” said Chip. “We believe in investing in our people, which includes giving them the right tools to make their job easier.”
The Results
%
Survey Completion Rate
%
Increase In Guest Feedback
%
Percentage of Customers Responded To
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