How Yoshinoya Aligns Company Priorities Based on Guest Feedback

The Brand

Japanese-Inspired. World-Renowned.

Established in 1899, Yoshinoya (吉野家) is a Japanese multinational fast food chain, and the second-largest chain of gyūdon (beef bowl) restaurants.

The chain now spans across 10+ countries around the world.

• Integrations: Olo, Punchh, MENU
• Locations: 106
• Survey Completion Rate: 91.9%

The Problem

Anecdotal Feedback Wasn't Enough for Operational Needs

Prior to Tattle, Yoshinoya mainly relied on anecdotal feedback through emails or phone calls, and those were typically negative rather than constructive.

"We were looking for a way of using customer feedback to quantify the impact of the changes we were making, such as upgrades to our menu items, and level set where our guests think we do well," said Damon Thomas, VP of Operations at Yoshinoya.

In addition, the feedback through emails and phone calls was typically delayed, making it difficult to investigate issues or recover customers promptly.

The Solution

Uncover The Real Priorities & Empower Teams To Improve

Yoshinoya is now using real feedback to determine their operational objectives.

With Tattle, Yoshinoya is now receiving 600+ survey submissions per day. In turn, the platform digests all the data and recommends top improvement opportunities for each location, as well as the entire brand.

"One of the big surprises is that a couple of the things that we thought would be much higher priorities for us, were actually not as highly valued by our customers," said Damon.

One example is speed of service, which leadership thought was a key area for improvement. However, feedback showed that guests were already highly-satisfied there.

"The fact that Tattle could break down each improvement opportunity by day parts, days of the week, channels and more helps us pinpoint exactly what to focus on first," said Damon.

Tattle's data-backed insights helped get complete buy-in from unit-level teams.

"When you're able to put data behind decisions, it's much easier to get buy-in from the team," said Damon.

As data collected through Tattle filters down to the individual restaurant level, leadership can now leverage location-specific satisfaction data to align team members on priorities.

For example, Tattle data revealed that "Attentiveness," rather than "Friendliness," was the primary area for improvement under Hospitality.

This distinction helps cashiers and team members understand the difference: attentiveness involves staying guest-focused and avoiding distractions, a quality highly valued by customers.

The Partnership

The Tattle partnership is just as beneficial as the Tattle product.

"It truly feels like a partnership," said Damon. "We get a lot of value out of that — not just the data, but also insights from Tattle's team about exactly what to do with the data."

The Tattle customer success team adopts a hands-on, consultative approach, offering concierge services from survey configuration and integration to touchpoint strategies and staff training.

"My advice to those restaurant brands who are still hesitant to bring on a guest feedback platform like Tattle — just do it," Damon said. "If you honestly want to improve, you need data from the source and a willingness to make adjustments."