For large service businesses, consumer research is vital.

It helps companies fine-tune their products and services to stay ahead of changing customer tastes.

At Wendy’s, where I worked in communication, the company religiously tracked customer preferences in food, eating habits, pricing, and even how they preferred to pay.

The challenge, of course, was communicating those research findings throughout the 6,000-plus restaurant chain to everyone responsible for actually improving the customer experience.

So, every year, the company featured a major consumer research presentation at its big franchise convention. These sessions helped keep Wendy’s a leading quick-service restaurant chain for decades.

But guess what?

Turns out, research is not everyone’s favorite subject.

Research not everyone’s cup of tea

Despite the importance of the research …

Despite the big stage, and the animated PowerPoint slides …

And despite having one of the best research strategists and presenters in the business in then VP of Research and Strategic Planning, Emil Brolick* …

Some audiences found those research presentations tough sledding.

At one convention, our celebrity guest speaker was former NFL great, Terry Bradshaw. He had to wait in the wings during one of Emil’s longer research presentations. When he finally came on stage, Bradshaw’s first words were, “Jeeez, Emil! Next time put it in an email, OK?”

Terry Bradshaw

Not exactly the reaction we’d hoped for.

So, our communication team continually looked for additional ways to deliver the research information.

Our most reliable and effective tool was featuring real people – usually on video.

Audiences respond to real people – especially their own customers

If we needed restaurant operators to listen to a message and take action, it always helped when they heard it directly from people who looked and sounded like their own customers.

Don’t get me wrong, the operators respected and listened attentively to the Wendy’s execs. The corporate team did a good job of explaining the research and putting it into the context of our business.

But introducing real customers into the mix almost always strengthened the message.

Where the corporate leaders made a solid, logical business case, the customers added a personal and even emotional dimension to the argument.

And bottom line, for restaurant operators: The customer is the boss.

Two Examples from Wendy’s:

1. Customers break through operator resistance to electronic payment

Today, consumers use credit cards and “air-pay” for purchases of any size at almost any business.

But just 14 or 15 years ago, many Wendy’s franchisees were nervous about accepting credit cards in their restaurants.

They feared bank and credit card fees would eat up any profits the cards generated.

However, Wendy’s test restaurants showed that electronic payment presented a very lucrative opportunity.

• First, customers using credit cards spent significantly more at those restaurants than people who paid cash.
• Second, restaurants that didn’t accept credit cards risked losing whole groups of people. If just one person in a group had no cash, and needed to pay by credit card, then that entire group might go, instead, to a restaurant that did accept cards.

Real customers help the data make the sale for credit cards

Wendy’s knew there was significant upside for every restaurant if the chain began accepting credit cards. And the execs had the data to show that.

And that data was strongly supported by comments from Wendy’s customers taped during a busy lunch at a Wendy’s that was testing card payments.

These unscripted, unrehearsed, genuine comments from real customers confirmed exactly what the research had shown.

No doubt, our executives made a solid business case for the chain accepting credit card payments, but the emotional appeal of real Wendy’s customers, personally endorsing the idea, sealed the deal.

The franchisees approved the transition to credit cards, system-wide, shortly after this meeting.

2. Fast food “heavy-users” tell restaurant operators EXACTLY what they want

Restaurant chains continually need to reinforce “the basics.”

Companies like Wendy’s regularly present research to ensure operators understand what’s truly important to customers, and what restaurants need to do to earn repeat visits.

We built one convention around the theme: Do It Right, Performance Pays.

Again, we relied primarily on data from an extensive consumer research study of regular quick-service restaurant customers.

Our challenge was finding a group of these “heavy users” we could get on video.

Fortunately, it was an autumn meeting in Chicago, and we found a bunch of them at Soldier Field, tailgating prior to a Chicago Bears game.

We taped them talking directly into the camera, telling our operators why they might — or might not – choose a particular quick service restaurant.

It didn’t hurt that these tailgaters might have had a beer or two before their interviews. They were relaxed and they were passionate as they expressed their fast-food likes and dislikes.

And they echoed every finding from the formal research:

• “It’s a fast food place, so it’s got to be quick. I’m not waiting in a long line.”
• “I want a smile, and some eye contact at the counter. Let me know you know I’m there!”
• “The food’s gotta be fresh, good quality, and I want it hot!”
• “They’ve got to get my order right. I want them to double-check it before they give it to me.”
• “I want someone friendly, and paying attention, not ignoring me while they talk to a co-worker.”
• “Everything’s got to be clean, including the rest rooms.”
• “If the rest room’s dirty, I don’t risk eating there.”

The meeting’s presentations focused on how to operate restaurants at an exceptional level.

And we introduced each session with a video montage of relevant customer comments. Again, these were real customers talking directly to the operators.

Combining the operational advice from our executives with the more personal, emotionally charged comments from the customers definitely strengthened the overall communication.

An added bonus, the videos provided a vehicle for operators to take the customer comments back to their own restaurant crews.