CASE STUDY

Challenges

• Unstructured feedback
• Lack of clarity about pricing strategies
• Lack of focus for training objectives

Overview

Before they started using Yumpingo, Pacific Catch used feedback data from third-party review sites or in-house surveys and found that the amount of data wasn’t enough to make any business decisions.

Steve Kelly, Chief Marketing Officer for Pacific Catch said the data from previous feedback channels was very sporadic and not structured in any way that you could make use of. “We'd not been able to use that data as actionable within the restaurants because it's just too small a sample size.”

Pacific Catch used Yumpingo to:

• guide their learning and development drives,
• grow consistency across their estate,
• adjust menu prices to manage margins,
• develop new marketing strategies.

Steve said they invested in Yumpingo because of the volume, detail and quality of the data they saw coming in from the 1-Minute Smart Surveys. “The major motivation for rolling out Yumpingo is; there's no other tool or method out there to be able to capture the sheer volume of data that you can get from this platform.”

“I would extoll the virtues of the platform, but then also challenge people; if you don't have this tool, how the heck are you doing it?” - Steve Kelly, Chief Marketing Officer at Pacific Catch.

“The data that we get is going to have a massive impact on our ability to improve at an individual level, at a GM level, at a location level and a brand level.”

The structured data that Yumpingo gives, through the easy-to-understand reporting, gives users actionable insights. “Because it's structured, quantitative data, you can actually rely on it. We can get feedback on specific menu items.”

Steve said the data allows you to ask critical questions about staff and venue performances, along with guest perception of value and presentation, or portion size.

The Pacific Catch culinary teams were able to make decisions based on thousands of data points versus one or two positive or negative reviews that used to come in through other sources.

How feedback data develops training plans

Yumpingo’s easily understood insights allowed Pacific Catch to see whether dishes were being executed consistently across the group. “There may be a dish which has amazing scores in 12 out of 14 locations. But there's an issue with portion or value or perceived presentation in two of the locations and that allows us to focus in and go, ‘is there a training issue there?’, ‘Is there a prep issue there?’” Steve said.

“By asking specific questions we can identify which stores, which shifts, and even  which servers are adhering to standards. And if they're not, then it gives the GM an opportunity to coach at an individual level.”

Steve Kelly, Chief Marketing Officer at Pacific Catch

Being able to understand that data and take specific actions that have a direct impact on guest experiences is crucial to how they use the platform to shape training.

“The other thing for us is, coming out of the pandemic, we were in a very reactive mode. We’d been doing a lot of off-premise trade and the four walls environment hadn't been at the level that we wanted it to be.”

“[To remedy that] we're having an increased focus on training and basic steps of service and hospitality. By asking guests specific questions we can identify which stores, which shifts, and even down to which servers are adhering to those standards. And if they're not, then it gives the GM an opportunity to coach at an individual level. We can rely on the data in that it has credibility because we have critical mass. And then it's so specific.”

That critical mass of data gives them the opportunity to create individualized plans within the restaurants to improve overall hospitality or improve their service or food quality.

“All of those small things add up to an improved guest experience that becomes repeat custom and greater sales. So that's why we are excited about the platform.”

Pricing challenges made simple

“Yumpingo has informed how we plate certain dishes and it's also informed how we're going to train teams moving forward,” Steve says.

So I think the early signs from a few months of using the platform are that it's doing exactly what we hoped it would do.”

“Because it's structured quantitative data, it means you can actually rely on it. So we can get feedback on specific menu items.”

Steve Kelly, Chief Marketing Officer at Pacific Catch

Steve goes on to give some examples of the value Yumpingo is delivering: “The best example is where you've got a high-selling item. It's high-scoring and guests are seeing the perceived value as high, which means there's an opportunity to increase the pricing of that item.”

When looking for items to increase the pricing on, the feedback they get with Yumpingo means they can be confident there won’t be problems with that increase. “We've got more room to potentially take price on an item [that scores highly] than an item where the overall guest perception is that the portion is too small or the value is not great or it's being executed inconsistently.”

Developing marketing strategies

There's the opportunity to gain feedback specifically about limited time offers (LTOs) or specials that they’re running. And for the marketing team that Steve leads, there's an opportunity to gather data about marketing campaign attribution.

“It can be challenging from a marketing perspective, sometimes, to understand what's motivating a guest to visit that day. So being able to ask a question when they're in the restaurant and it's part of an overall feedback survey, it's another data point that we can pick up.” Steve said. “So we definitely feel like there's a lot of ways that we can use [Yumpingo] from a marketing perspective.”

“But in the short term, we wanted to get as much out of the platform from an operational perspective because we feel like there's so many insights that we can use and ultimately our greatest marketing is giving people an amazing guest experience and giving them great food quality so that they come back more frequently and they tell their friends and and all of our front of house team members are essentially brand ambassadors.”

“So the more we can help and coach them to become better advocates for the brand and deliver better hospitality, the easier my job is going to be.”

Encouraging others to try Yumpingo

We asked Steve what he would say to other restaurateurs who weren’t using Yumpingo to gather feedback data. “I would ask them, how are you going about understanding what's going on within your four walls?” And if they’re using old, traditional feedback like online reviews? “I’d ask them whether this sporadic, subjective feedback is giving them what they need to be able to produce actionable data and make meaningful changes.”

“I honestly believe that Yumpingo is the only tool I've come across that gives operators the opportunity to capture guest feedback at a scale which gives you confidence in the information you're collecting, and then to be able to take actions on that.”

Talk to one of our sales team today, to find out more about how Pacific Catch used Yumpingo to:

• guide their learning and development drives,
• grow consistency across their estate,
• adjust menu prices to manage margins,
• develop new marketing strategies.