Ponti's delivers Italian hospitality by asking their guests: how are we doing today?

Italian restaurant chain, Ponti's Group that operates Ponti's Italian Kitchen and Cafftalia, has implemented a customer experience programme.

The programme, provided by Empathica, was put in place to help ensure that Ponti's delivers consistently excellent Italian hospitality, makes improvements based on real customer feedback and to drive brand advocacy via social media. Ponti's joins leading brands in the UK including Mitchells & Butlers, Zizzi, and Caffè Nero by implementing a CEM programme from Empathica.

This concept has been several years in the making, as Stefano Ispani, CEO of Ponti's, points out: "When I took over the running of the business in September 2007, it was clear that the business model was outdated and we needed to catch up with modern catering. While we've gained some insights into our customers and operations since then, we felt we needed to take the objective of getting closer to our customers to the next level and start talking to our actual customers on an ongoing basis to understand what makes a great dining experience for them and drives their loyalty as Ponti's customers."

Printed invites are being actively handed out by Ponti's staff and till receipts issued to customers at random intervals to invite them to complete an online survey, with incentives – including an instant win of an iPod and ten chances to win £1,000 in a daily prize draw – designed to tempt high levels of customer feedback and thank customers for their time. The company's marketing team is already reaping benefits from the programme, with Ispani noting, "We're getting a real understanding of what our customers want and more importantly, what makes them happy."

Ponti's has  employed Empathica's GoRecommend application, which allows companies to leverage the power of social media  and encourages consumers to recommend the restaurant chain to their networks via Twitter, Facebook and email.

Ponti's says that Twitter and Facebook pages have already proved a tremendous success, with users able to share their experiences and feedback with both the company and their friends and followers straight away, whilst also being able to stay up-to-date with news and promotions from the restaurant chain.

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