Medallia : Adapting Quickly Crucial to Noodles & Company’s Success

It's no doubt that 2020 has been a year of constant change. Regardless of the industry, businesses and organizations alike have had to pivot and adapt to changes in operations and new safety protocols to make sure customers and employees are kept safe.

In the restaurant and food service industry, corporations like Noodles & Company are no different. With over 450 franchise locations, Noodles' was faced with temporarily closing in-restaurant dining services and shifting to a delivery, curbside and quick pickup model to continue serving guests. While facing these obstacles, Noodles' did what they do best: look at customer insights to help them make critical decisions.

To better understand the ways Noodles adapted to these changes and prioritized guest satisfaction during these challenging times, I sat down with Kayley McMahon, Consumer Insights Manager at Noodles & Company:

What do you like most about your current role?

My favorite part of my job is being able to see the insights live on a daily basis and quickly analyze what we're hearing. From there I can immediately update the team of easy optimizations that could be made to better meet our guests' needs. I love working in an industry that is always innovating, whether with new flavors on the menu or technology improvements.

What are the biggest challenges with customer experience today?

Keeping up with what our guests' biggest concerns are from week to week in the pandemic environment. It has also been important to react quickly to their changing sentiment and make sure we are asking the right questions and in a timely manner.

What are the keys to providing an exceptional curbside service?

For curbside, consistency in the process & experience across all restaurants, clarity of instructions and timeliness of delivery to their vehicle.

What tips do you have for other restaurants regarding customer experience today?

Use the Medallia tools you have to their fullest potential to gather real time insights. We quickly added a safety expectation question to our general survey to make sure we are meeting guest expectations with our current procedures. This will be important to continue to monitor as dining rooms reopen. We've also deployed intercept surveys on our site to track guest sentiment changes over time.

Interested in learning more?Read the case studyand find out how Noodles turned to Medallia to utilize real-time guest insights to motivate their team and take in-the-moment action to better serve their guests, all while increasing their NPS.