Pizza Hut’s ongoing commitment to delivering a superior customer experience pays off; the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) results rank Pizza Hut No. 1.
Toronto, Ontario, Canada – July 12, 2011 – Empathica Inc., a leading provider of Customer Experience Management (CEM) solutions to more than 200 of the world’s most respected brands, congratulates Pizza Hut, Inc., on their American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) scores.
Pizza Hut achieved the highest customer satisfaction score (81) in the “Limited-Service Restaurants” category, which focused on 10 popular chain restaurants. This ranking is on par with customer ratings in the “Full-Service” category as well, where the highest score achieved was an ACSI score of 82.
A Nation’s Restaurant News article reports that, “in quick service, the four largest pizza chains continued to outpace larger rivals from the hamburger segment. Pizza Hut improved its ACSI score 4 percent to 81 and overtook the No. 1 ranking from last year’s top performer, Papa John’s Pizza.”
Pizza Hut has worked jointly with Empathica since 2009 to execute a customer experience management program, geared to improving operational performance across its more than 5,000 locations. The program helps Pizza Hut deliver a continuously improving experience by determining drivers of guest loyalty, and acting on opportunities to strengthen all aspects of the guest experience by daily monitoring customer feedback at each and every location throughout the enterprise.
Focused on listening and responding to the voice of the customer and developing processes to help poor performing locations improve their guest experience, is done through Pizza Hut’s C.H.A.M.P.S. program. This promotes Cleanliness, Hospitality, Accuracy, Maintenance, Product Quality and Speed.
“Delivering C.H.A.M.P.S means giving our customers a superior experience that consistently surpasses their expectations,” said Pat Murtha, Pizza Hut COO. “Customer experience technologies allow us to recognize excellence in product and service delivery, while also identifying opportunities. It is really about motivating and focusing our team members to take actions that will delight our customers on every occasion.”
Empathica’s custom-designed reporting suite also plays an instrumental role in tracking the program’s success. The suite focuses on six different dimensions of business, providing store managers with real-time alerts to help identify and react to any customer issues.
“Pizza Hut recognizes the importance of delivering excellent service and an excellent experience for its customers, yet is still striving to find ways to make it even better,” said Empathica CCO Gary Edwards. “A lot of companies can learn from Pizza Hut’s example in the marketplace. We’re living in a time when service quality can make or break a customer’s desire to return to an establishment and recommend it to others.”
About Pizza Hut, Inc.
As the world’s largest pizza restaurant company with almost 6,200 restaurants in the United States and more than 4,000 restaurants in 100 other countries, Pizza Hut, Inc., is a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE: YUM). The company’s 49-year legacy of leadership and innovation has made it the recognized leader in the $37 billion pizza category. Those hungry for more information can go to the official Pizza Hut Website at www.pizzahut.com.