Concept and Customer Experience

Manager Interview
Interviewed by Bianka Berge and Isa Jaiteh
Manager: Bibiana
Time: 30 July 2008 at 2pm

During the interview with the manager of the restaurant in Tempe/Phoenix we found out more about the concept and working procedure of Wendy's.

Wendy's exist now for almost 40 years and they hardly changed their logos or their slogans. Since a couple of years you can see a trend towards living healthier. Due to this fact Wendy's launched some salads and their famous chili to their product range. In the restaurants nutrition information can be found. Wendy's is well known for the fact that they never use frozen meat. They only use fresh ingredients and meat to gurantee high quality.

Besides the fact that Wendy's only uses fresh ingredients it is also famous for offering families quality time together during their meals. Therefore the restaurants have no playgrounds for children and in the children's menu there is a dvd which is educative and fun for the whole family. With these concept they support the idea that the whole family spends time together, has a nice meal, and gets the chance to talk about their day.

The employees of Wendy's play an important role. All of them get a training before they can start working in the restaurant. Wendy's staff is always friendly and treats the customer well; they are trained to be nice.

The customers mainly come back because they know what they get at the restaurant, since Wendy's almost never changes its offer. It is also recognized that the customers mostly order the same products. The most famous product for which Wendy's is known for is its Frosty ice cream. It is made out of fresh milk and is therefore in line with Wendy's vision and mission of offering high quality products. The portions are bigger than for instance at Mc Donalds and that is also recognized by the customers.

Wendy's main target group are young people, mainly stundents during the semesters, and families with children. Still are many other people visiting the restaurant where quality food is guranteed. They also have regular customers who come nearly every single day not only because of the food, but also because of the friendly staff. The peak times are everyday between 10.30am and 2pm.

Due to the fact that Wendy's is a big fast food chain they have national advertising compains. The resrtaurants are not able to make advertising on their own. Of course there is a chance that they promote themselves during big sport events. E. g. last year during the Super Bowl they handed out coupons to potential customers and the employees were dressed in a Wendy's outfit.

Though Wendy's is one out of many fast food chains they are able to keep visitor numbers high. This is due to the fact that they offer high quality products made out of fresh ingredients, the well trained employees who serve every customer within 90 seconds, and the fact they offer qualtiy time for families eating in the restaurant.

Customer Interviews
Interviewed by Mandy, Jamie, Bianka and Isa
Time: 30 and 31 July 2008 between 12am and 2pm

Since the Wendy's restaurant in Tempe is mainly depending on the ASU students it was quite difficult to perform our interviews. Nevertheless, we conducted eight interviews with totally different customers. The customers in Wendy’s vary from students to business people and even homeless people visit the restaurant. We conducted interviews with two female students from the ASU, with one business man, with one homeless, with a whole family, and several youngsters.

The main reason why customers visit Wendy’s is because they think it is better than most other fast food restaurants. This is because of the food which is freshly made, the special shakes such as the Frosty, the sizes, the chili and the quick service.

Though the majority of our interviewees eats in the restaurant they stated that if under time pressure they also take away. Since most of them do not eat alone they like to sit in the restaurant and enjoy the time with their friends or family. It is also a nice distraction for them to be away from the working pressure which they have during the rest of the day.The average customer visits once a week.

Furthermore they think the restaurant is very clean and nicely decorated with a nice atmosphere, though there are even bigger and nicer restaurants existing. The staff is experienced as friendly and the service is good. The prices are similar to other fast food restaurants, which means it is cheap, but they think the quality and portions are better. This is also a very powerful strength for the restaurant.

When we asked what could be improved they could not really come up with something, they thought it is great, just the way it is. As Dave said: Cheap, easy and delicious!