Food for Thought

Waffle House relies on its Facebook fans to provide solid feedback

by The Marketing Team,  Constant Contact Customer Success Stories

Who doesn't like waffles? Indeed, you would be hard-pressed to find a breakfast-loving person who doesn't enjoy those tasty treats. And that's partly why the Waffle House has enjoyed great success. The company provides its customers with a great customer experience, and that has allowed it to expand and become one of the most popular franchises in the southern United States.

Waffle House customers like the restaurant so much that some fans started their own group on Facebook. According to Katherine Wrobleski, director of social media, Waffle House seized this opportunity to interact with customers who were already sharing their thoughts. "We wanted to get involved,"she recalls, "not to regulate it, but more to monitor it and help it grow." Today, the company has an active social media presence, with more than 413,000 Facebook fans and more than 5,725 Twitter followers, both of which support the restaurant's Regulars Club.

To keep track of all the things customers are saying -- both positive and negative -- Katherine says she logs on at least three times each day, and "responds to everyone. Besides, the posts are usually pretty entertaining, and I enjoy reading them. Our strategy since we started social media has been to engage our Regulars and not necessarily market to them, so my job is easy: I just try to keep the dialog going."

In the past, Katherine's team has asked the Facebook fans -- who they call "Waffle House Nation"-- what they think of ideas for limited-time offerings and other menu items before they were launched. Response to a question about Peanut Butter Waffles was so positive that the waffle flavor will be added to the menu later this summer. The team has also generated debate when it polled the Facebook fans about their preference of a T-Bone Steak over a Ribeye Steak.

Of course, customers have opinions about everything. For example, when Katherine's team posted a QR (Quick Response) code on the Facebook wall without fully explaining it, there was a lot of negative feedback. But Katherine is turning that into something positive. "Our Regulars are definitely not afraid to offer honest feedback," she says. "We are considering including a QR code in the marketing for our recently launched  iPhone application, so we will be sure to caption it with an explanation of the technology and the associated link."
 

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