Thanx and Ovation formed a new partnership to bridge the gap between loyalty and guest feedback. Early users say the combination allows them to get closer to their customers.
The two companies are now integrated, so when a customer leaves feedback with a restaurant in a first-party or third-party channel like DoorDash, the operator can respond and market to said customer. Then, if a customer leaves a nice review, Ovation, a platform best known for guest feedback, can spot it. From there, the operator can connect via Thanx, a platform best known for guest engagement.
According to the companies, this combination unlocks a lot of potential that could improve the whole business.
“With this integration, customers are prompted for feedback by Ovation for both digital and in-store purchases captured by Thanx enabling brands to aid in recovery efforts for negative experiences. Data captured from Thanx and Ovation can help operationalize feedback and uncover areas of improvement at the store level,” read a press release announcing the partnership.
Curry Up Now founder and CEO Akash Kapoor said he already used both platforms, but the integration takes the workflow a step further.
“Ovation has been a game-changer for us at Curry Up Now. We can interact with our guests through text, solve problems, or say thanks with a few clicks. And now with the Thanx integration, we can reach our guests who order online, as well. The Thanx and Ovation partnership is a big win for restaurant tech,” said Kapoor.
He expanded on that, saying he now has a solution to the potential “black box” of customers on aggregating platforms. That data has been a topic of major importance since the very early days of third-party delivery.
“We can now, almost in real time, see guest reviews for online orders and ,also, are now able to see third-party order ratings and respond to these guests and even know who they are and this allows us to market to these guests directly, now that they are leaving us direct feedback,” Kapoor told Food On Demand. “It’s huge win for us.”
He said it’s essentially another spoke in his marketing flywheel. He can say thank you, address concerns and also incentivize customers to come back either way without a lot of clicking around.
“We have never been so intimate with our guests and the marketing begins as soon as we get feedback,” Kapoor added.
Connecting together all the transformational micro services that flooded the restaurant space has been a mega-trend in the space. See Olo’s acquisition of Omnivore, DoorDash’s acquisition of Bbot and plenty of other integrations. Connecting the workflows has become even more important now that diners are largely comfortable with eating at restaurants as operators have less time to navigate the digital business.
