GoRecommend turns fans into brand ambassadors

GoRecommend turns fans into brand ambassadors
Tags: CRM, Chicken, Operations Management, Professional Services
January 26, 2010 - Christa Hoyland

Most quick-service restaurants have experienced the value in engaging with their loyal customers on Facebook fan pages. Fans share comments about their love of the brand, respond to Wall posts and learn about new promotions.

But the love typically ends there, with few customers touting their brand loyalty on their own Facebook pages. A new tool from customer experience management-solution provider Empathica Inc. is helping to change that.

GoRecommend is a CEM solution that automatically drives retail location traffic by turning excellent customer experiences into a powerful marketing tool through social media.

Here's how it works: A customer completes a retail experience survey for a restaurant and those who indicated they were pleased with their visit are asked if they want to make an online recommendation on Facebook.

The results directly translate into significant positive brand impressions, as the location-specific content will automatically appear on the customer's profile page. Operators can also opt to have the content posted on the brand's Facebook fan page.

"GoRecommend engages customers for an interactive brand experience," said Andrew Datars, vice president of product management with Empathica. "It's an automatic way the brand can have sincere, fresh and relevant content on their site that participating customers find fun and rewarding."

Operators find value in the solution because it fosters brand awareness without their having to do additional marketing. It simply leverages a QSR's existing CEM solution and social media platform.

Story continues below...

"This solution is more effective than traditional marketing techniques because people trust and value their friends' recommendations," Datars said. "This leads to increased traffic and greater interest in the brand."

Popeyes' pilot program

Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen tested Empathica's GoRecommend solution in the latter half of 2009 and liked how it expanded the brand's reach during the trial, said Karlie Stanton, communications manager for Popeyes.

Two Popeyes franchisees with a total of 100 stores tested the solution and found they were able to reach about 20,000 people with the Facebook application. Because the company is only piloting the solution, Popeyes did not have the posts added to its Facebook fan page.

Stanton, who heads up Popeyes' social media strategy, said the company especially liked how the solution allowed for customers to express their love of the brand on their own profile as well as the brand's fan page.

"It's another way that we're able to reach more people," she said. "So that helps improve our relationship with our customers and also gets the word to their friends. It helps generate more word of mouth."

Popeyes has completed the trial and is now evaluating the data and return on investment before expanding the pilot to more stores.

If the chain would decide to implement GoRecommend systemwide, it would be just one more component in its social media efforts. Rather than having a separate social media strategy, those efforts are incorporating into all of the brand's messaging, marketing and guest relations.

For example, the GoRecommend pilot was part of the company's guest relations efforts. The chain also uses its social media sites, including its Facebook fan page and a Twitter feed, for its menu development, consumer insights, marketing, food safety and crisis management efforts.

Having a tool like GoRecommend allows them to leverage the guest relations component without developing a specific campaign. In 2010, the company plans to incorporate its social media icons in the chain's point-of-purchase materials and its advertising.

"Social media has given us a lot of bang for our buck, not having to invest a lot in social media and getting to try new things," Stanton said.

Smart phone solutions

Empathica also has recently released another CEM tool, the SMS-Text Survey, which enables customers to text answers to survey questions via their mobile phones. The solution prompts customers to answer questions about their experiences or send their e-mail addresses to companies through SMS-text messages while they are at the location.

For example, a restaurant can display a question as simple as "were you satisfied with the menu variety" via store signage, tabletop tents, invitation cards or receipts. The tool compiles customer responses into quantifiable results that give retailers valuable insight into customer likes, dislikes and emerging trends.

Once a customer texts in a response, the tool sends an e-mail thank-you, an "on your next visit" offer or instant coupon, and a Web-based survey invitation directly to their inbox. If the experience was negative, the customer receives an apology e-mail or an "on your next visit" offer.