Customer story
Guzman y Gomez
The Mexican Kitchen chain increased sales by 40% by deploying four new digital messaging channels and centralizing every conversation in one place.
Sector
Quick-service restaurants
Channels
Headline
40% increase in sales
The challenge
Phone-first communication that couldn't keep up with a pandemic.
Guzman y Gomez Mexican Kitchen is a casual restaurant with more than 150 locations in Australia, Singapore, Japan, and the United States. Known as GyG, it built its reputation on fast, friendly service and authentic Mexican cuisine — and took orders and communicated with customers primarily by phone.
That dated method quickly proved inadequate with the onset of the pandemic. As online ordering and delivery requests escalated with COVID-19 lockdowns, slow, sporadic communication by phone, email, and SMS created additional burdens for a lean workforce. Customers needed answers about menu items, delivery times, and ingredients in the moment — or GyG risked losing them.
“We were relying on manual responses from a very lean workforce, and that wasn't sustainable.”
Josh Bell, Principal and GM, Guzman y Gomez
To accommodate the pandemic-related changes, Guzman y Gomez knew they had to:
- Centralize communications using digital channels and automation.
- Reduce reliance on human interaction that was slow and time-consuming.
- Reduce or repurpose marketing spend for a digital audience.
- Expand messaging channels to meet customers on their platforms of choice.
The solution
A centralized digital strategy across four new channels.
With Bird's guidance and suite of digital automation tools, Guzman y Gomez implemented a comprehensive, centralized digital communications strategy. Bird helped them integrate all new messaging channels with their existing software. Alongside phone orders, team members could rely on Google Business Messages, WhatsApp Business, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram messaging to better meet increased demand.
Guzman y Gomez took these steps to support their new digital strategy:
- Added four new communication channels to give customers their preferred messaging methods.
- Consolidated all incoming messages into Bird's Inbox to manage every support ticket in one place.
- Implemented automation with Bird's Flow Builder to deliver instant answers to customer questions and increase conversion rates.
- Moved onboarding and applicant communications onto the new digital channels to streamline hiring.
Bird also created an intent recognition model to triage incoming messages, automatically differentiating between emergencies and run-of-the-mill complaints. High-priority messages are now escalated to the general manager, the head of operations, and the manager of that specific store. Built with Flow Builder, this depth of automation let Guzman y Gomez further reduce their reliance on phone calls and other outdated means of communication.
The results
Immediate, seamless, and simple at scale.
Within days, Guzman y Gomez's new digital communications strategy began to yield results. By giving customers the ability to communicate via messaging channels, GyG increased sales by 40%, improved CTR by 50%, reduced marketing spend by 34%, and saw a 10x increase in customer-initiated chat conversations.
40%
Increase in sales after deploying four new digital messaging channels.
34%
Reduction in marketing spend by reaching a digital audience.
10x
Increase in customer-initiated conversations across the new channels.
Bird's Flow Builder automation enabled instantaneous delivery of answers to customers' questions — improving conversion and, in turn, revenue and profitability.
“Pre-Bird, our communication was slow, clunky and sporadic. With the implementation of Bird, our responsiveness is immediate, seamless and simple.”
Josh Bell, Principal and GM, Guzman y Gomez
Carry-forward reference from bird.com. Metrics and named quotes reported by Guzman y Gomez.
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