Ask Italian, the 126-strong, Gondola-owned chain, has launched a new customer feedback programme to evaluate and shape the brand’s continued evolution.
The chain said that the 'My ASK Italian' programme, which has been developed in partnership with customer experience management (CEM) company Empathica, was a “key part of the brand's journey towards bringing Italy to life throughout all aspects of its business”.
Replacing a long-standing mystery shopping programme, the new CEM initiative has been designed to assess the customer experience in each of ASK Italian's restaurants across the UK, and within only two months of the launch had provided the business with feedback from nearly 2,000 customers.
My ASK Italian enables diners to provide honest feedback via a short online survey, which can also be accessed via mobile devices such as smartphones. Customers are invited to complete the survey at the bottom of their bill with the opportunity to be entered into a free monthly prize draw to win £250 of ASK Italian vouchers.
Based on customer responses, the Empathica system generates an alert to recognise exceptional front of house service and another to recognise the chefs. In the first two months, ASK Italian received almost 1,000 and over 600 of those alerts, respectively.
Steve Holmes, who was recently appointed managing director of the chain, said: “We've been making significant changes to ASK Italian, introducing a brand new menu using quality, fresh ingredients which reflect our passion for authentic Italian food. We have a new Milanese-inspired restaurant design, and a new warm service proposition which showcases the characters of the individuals in our teams.
“As part of these changes, we've launched the 'My ASK Italian' programme which enables us to listen more closely to our customers, to understand better how they feel about our brand and, most importantly, to tailor our offer going forward to enhance their experience and build customer satisfaction and loyalty.
"The audit-style approach provided by our previous measurement tool simply didn't fit with our vision as we work to better understand our customers' needs and deliver a natural and genuinely friendly experience. Casual dining is an ever-changing, highly competitive marketplace and it's essential for us to have our finger on the pulse of what our customers think and feel so we can maintain our edge and key points of difference.
“Our new CEM programme has already helped us to move beyond static measures, giving us valuable insight into how real customers engage with and perceive our business on a daily basis. Through the data we've received since launching 'My ASK Italian', we've already had lots of great feedback from our customers on what matters most to them and this will help us evolve our brand proposition going forward.
"The new programme is at the heart of a cultural change that has reinvigorated our entire workforce as it allows customers to highlight where they have received exceptional service and feed back to individual members of our team. The insights also feed into our employee reward scheme, with all our staff incentivised to deliver great customer experiences at all times, not just when 'spot-checked'."
