Web site offers an opportunity for diners to serve up online feedback

Quick-serve customers have a new forum in which to voice opinions about the fast-food chains they frequent: planetfeedback.com, a Web site devoted to gathering consumer input.

Based on the Web site's data, restaurant companies, such as Hardee's, Wendy's, Burger King and Steak'n Shake, are among the chains eliciting comment from customers.

"Restaurants are the most popular category [for comments] on planetfeedback.com," said the company's founder and chief executive, Pete Blackshaw. "They are the brands consumers really want to connect with and express s their positive and negative feelings about."

Describing the site as "a hub for consumer affairs and a consumer feedback service," Blackshaw said planetfeedback.com attempts to "simplify the process of writing a letter to a company by providing letter templates and a database of more than 20,000 company addresses."

Planetfeedback.com accepts correspondence concerning any and all corporations and boasts that the company will "do everything we can" to get those letters to their appropriate destinations "using e-mail, fax or postal mail."

Consumers using planetfeedback.com when they are writing to companies also can opt to vent frustrations or bestow blessings publicly via a post in the shared letters section of the site, Blackshaw said. In addition, they can forward copies to all of their friends and acquaintances, he stated.

For the purpose of aggregating consumer feedback data, planetfeedback.com divides restaurant companies into three segments: fast food and takeout, fine dining, and family and casual dining. Top-line summary information on the aggregate data is available to anyone visiting planetfeedback's site, but detailed information on the data and analysis can be had only via a subscription to planetfeedback's Brandpulse business intelligence tool, Blackshaw said.

Subscriptions range from $50,000 to $100,000 dollars annually, depending on the level of detail provided and the number of companies and industries monitored. Advertising agencies, stock analysts and corporations are among the subscribers, Blackshaw added.

According to Blackshaw, quick-serve and casual-dining chains account for 17 percent of the site's overall volume of 10,000 letters generated each week.

And what do these Web-savvy diners say about their restaurant experiences? A brief visit to the site reveals that the fast-food industry has earned on average a grade of "C" from the 15,000 people who have taken time to write letters to companies in the segment. Complaint letters account for more than 65 percent of the total letters generated, while complimentary letters make up 19 percent of the total volume. Food quality is the catalyst urging consumers to write in with either a complaint or a compliment; 25 percent of the complaints address issues of food quality, while 41 percent of consumers who write complimentary letters do so to commend the quality of their meals.

Family- and casual-dining restaurants fared better, earning a "B" average. Approximately 36 percent of all letters to operators in that segment were complimentary, while 53 percent of letter writers wrote to complain. Once again, food quality was the most popular topic for both complaints and compliments.

As the Internet hits its stride, information on customers' attitudes and experiences that once was closely guarded in operators' corporate offices now is posted in cyberspace for all to see. As Blackshaw explained it, "The Internet has put word of mouth on steroids."

The foodservice industry always has maintained that the customer is king. Now, thanks to the Internet, it is about to discover just how opinionated the average "monarch" can be.

COPYRIGHT 2001 Lebhar-Friedman, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group