Toast Releases Suite of New Features to Enhance the Guest Experience

Toast Guest Feedback empowers restaurant owners to collect and immediately act on reviews before negative ratings impact revenue 

Boston, MA—March 5, 2019 - Toast, the fastest-growing restaurant management platform in the U.S., today released a suite of new features focused on the guest experience; the Company unveiled Toast Guest Feedback, the first multi-channel guest feedback platform built exclusively for restaurants. Toast Guest Feedback empowers restaurant owners to collect and act on guest reviews in real-time via Toast Digital Receipts and Toast Go™.

“We’re committed to helping the restaurant industry apply technology to increase revenue, improve operations, and delight guests,” said Steve Fredette, president and co-founder of Toast. “In an industry where online ratings can dramatically impact revenue, reputation management is more important than ever for the Toast Restaurant Community. We developed Toast Guest Feedback in response to this trend; restaurateurs can better manage their online reputation, perform service recovery, attract new diners, and retain guests.”

Introducing Toast Guest Feedback
With Toast Guest Feedback, restaurateurs can collect positive or negative reviews from dine-in guests when checking out with Toast Go; they are also able to collect feedback from diners ordering food to-go through Toast Digital Receipts. Restaurant managers can elect to receive an SMS notification every time a guest leaves a negative review.

Real-time feedback empowers restaurant operators to show their commitment to the guest experience by immediately addressing negative reviews. Timely responses to negative ratings are more important than ever – a Toast study found that 65 percent of one-star Yelp reviews were posted within one day of a poor dining experience. The Toast Guest Feedback report summarizes all reviews, providing restaurants with invaluable information that they can use to coach their staff, adjust their menu, and improve the guest experience.

“At SuViche, it's crucial that every single guest has a perfect experience; Toast Guest Feedback is our last line of defense in ensuring our guests leave happy. The majority of our diners are non-confrontational - but they still want to be heard,” said Ryan Egozi, director of operations for SuViche Hospitality Group. “Before Toast Guest Feedback, we would sometimes find guests wouldn’t feel comfortable sharing a negative experience in-person, so they would instead leave a negative review online. Now, we’re able to reach guests before they leave to make it right.”

Advancements to Toast Kiosk
Increasingly, guests are looking for ways to spend less time in line or order their favorite meal from home. Toast’s self-ordering kiosks simplify the guest ordering experience and improve throughput in high-volume restaurants. New Toast Kiosk features include:

• Payments and tipping: Guests have the option to tip when placing an order on a Toast Kiosk. Toast’s data shows that adding tipping to the checkout flow increases tips, on average, by 30 percent;
• “Order is ready” text notification: When paired with Toast KDS, Toast Kiosk can automatically send guests an SMS message when their order is ready; and,
• Brand management: The Toast Kiosk start screen is now customizable to incorporate brand colors and images. Restaurateurs can also highlight add-on items to incentivize guests to bolster their orders, or choose to hide menu items that they do not want to offer on a Toast Kiosk.

Restaurant owners and operators can learn more about Toast and schedule a personalized demo here.