cDonald’s Corporation has turned itself around and shown strong revenue growth in the last three years under Jim Skinner’s leadership. In a recent Wall Street Journal interview, Skinner offers tips for managing a turnaround, saying it is essential to face the facts, and listen to your customers. Most restaurant owners and managers look at facts mostly in terms of daily covers sold and cash collected to determine performance. They watch payroll and food and beverage costs to arrive at profit margin. But if looking at these hard numbers is facing facts, anyone could do it. The key is to go beyond those numbers to find the causes driving them.

In the restaurant business, there is no common understanding of what it means to listen to customers. Communication is often one way— from restaurant owners and managers to customers, with no information coming back from the customers. Restaurant owners and management of chains can take steps to get that valuable feedback, to face facts, and to listen to customers by implementing web surveys.

With most Americans having access to the Internet, a customer paradigm has emerged at a cost unthinkable just a few years ago. Usually, with no additional investment in hardware or software, at a fee of $2 to $3 per day, restaurants can invite customers to visit their websites and take a survey. When it is completed, reports can be generated almost instantly and made available on a password-protected website.

I previously wrote about what a web survey tool can do to help restaurant chains and independents. With a grant from ARAMARK, the University of Delaware’s School of Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management created a web survey tool and tested it at Vita Nova, our student-run fine dining restaurant. After a year of testing, we are delighted to report that the web survey tool is faster, better, and cheaper than traditional methods and works very well to help us effectively face facts and listen to customers.

Frederick J. DeMicco, Ph.D, is professor and ARAMARK chair of Hotel & Restaurant Management, the University of Delaware. Contact Dr. DeMicco at fdemicco@udel.edu.