Dine Brands serves up a better social care experience for guests

At Dine Brands, the guest experience is upheld to the highest standards. Social media customer care is no exception. But to elevate how they interacted with guests online and to maintain the same high level of quality service on social channels compared to phone or email, they needed help.

With no integration of direct messages into the Guest Relations team’s workflow, the team was forced to manage guest feedback received through Facebook direct messages for both brands (Applebee’s and IHOP) within the native platform. As a result, they would have to copy and paste guest information and responses into their CRM, leading to slower response times and high handle times.

Lack of integration also meant social care efforts weren’t being measured on par with other communication channels. It was difficult to hold the team accountable for something that wasn’t tracked or measured, so responding to guest questions on social media often fell to the bottom of the priority list.

This challenge presented a real opportunity to create positive change.

Social care integrated seamlessly alongside other channels

The Guest Relations team at Dine Brands had been using Emplifi Agent, the customer service engagement CRM, to manage cases across their communication channels – except for social media. Adding Emplifi for social media management has allowed them to seamlessly integrate direct messages into their regular queue and workflow.

Direct messages are now automatically routed to the agent queue and are resolved the same way as any other channel. No more constantly switching screens and duplicating work.

Not only has this improvement led to shorter average handle times and quicker response times, but it has also provided a better guest experience and allowed Dine to accurately track and measure their social care efforts. And when Fuzzy’s Taco Shop recently joined Dine Brands, adding them was a piece of cake (…or as easy as eating a taco.)

Faster response times, better data, less stress

With Emplifi, the Dine Brands Guest Relations team has been able to reduce their average handle time on social cases from five minutes to only one. They are now also able to prioritize social media cases every day of the week, just as they would any other type of case.

Plus, better tracking of social cases allows the Dine team to measure their success and capture valuable guest data. Emplifi’s software supports the unique needs of restaurants, enabling Dine to accomplish their goal of making sure guest feedback is heard while passing feedback back to their franchisees quickly, and gathering all the necessary case details, such as restaurant location, date, and time of visit, check number, and so on.

Recently, Dine Brands began to slowly roll out replying to Google Reviews as a test with two of their brands. With the help of Emplifi, over 10,000 guests have responded. Since the feedback all flows into Emplifi Agent, the Guest Relations team was able to stay in one platform to accomplish this.

In the future, Dine is looking to use Emplifi to add guest support on even more channels. They’re also focused on continuous improvement, with ideas coming from team members as well as leadership. Because of the configurable nature of Emplifi’s solutions, the team was able to apply many of these right away.

The Dine team also appreciates that Emplifi has listened and implemented many of their product feature enhancement suggestions.

The takeaway

With the Emplifi product suite, Dine Brands can capture guest feedback and enhance their experience. They also have access to valuable insights to accurately track and measure their social care efforts.