Shoeless Joe’s Limited, a Canadian restaurant chain that opened its first location in 1985, started making plans back in 2008 to open new locations in Toronto and other locales. But first, management wanted to find out how those plans would sit with Shoeless Joe’s current customers. What would they be looking for in Shoeless Joe’s new eateries?

Instead of sending out email or printed surveys to customers, the company decided to use new wireless technology to survey customers while they were dining. According to a case study from Pitney Bowes that you can read online, “Like other companies in the restaurant industry, Shoeless Joe’s traditionally relied on the time consuming and challenging process of using pen and paper to conduct customer surveys. The restaurant chain needed to find a method that would make capturing consumer data a more accessible, efficient process.”

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The surveying process included these elements:

• Shoeless Joe’s used a new mobile customer-survey system called FACES (Faster, Accurate, Current Economical Surveys) developed by Pitney Bowes Business Insight (PBBI) and LandPoint Systems Inc., a Canadian marketing consulting firm. FACES let the restaurant gather customer data “on the spot” while patrons were waiting for their bills to arrive or at other quiet times during the dining experience. The chain felt that conducting immediate surveys was “less intrusive” than distributing on-paper survey forms.

• In the first phase of gathering information, Shoeless Joe’s polled diners in only four locations and asked 10 simple questions about where the diners lived, where they were going after leaving the restaurant, what they had ordered from the bar and kitchen, and how often they dined at Shoeless Joe’s restaurants. On busy nights, the restaurant assigned one or two staff members to go from table to table to ask questions.

• Questions were revised as the survey continued. Another benefit of gathering data electronically was the ability to change questions while the survey was in progress instead of waiting until the results of an on-paper survey arrive and then realizing that better questions could have been used.

As a result of the profiling data gained, Shoeless Joe’s refined its theme to emphasize its bar offerings, and is now operating at 32 locations. The survey also helped the chain develop an evolving, data-driven “market optimization model” to be used in further expansion.

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