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When Burger King President Tom Curtis gave out his number to customers, he didn’t expect to get banished to the porch by his wife while taking call after call from customers.
Curtis ultimately took 1,500 calls from Burger King fans around the country, and the company has fielded 64,000 total so far this year, according to Restaurant Business. But what started as a marketing campaign turned into something with more concrete results. When one Montana customer complained about a broken sign at his local restaurant, Burger King used AI to identify 81 restaurants with broken or missing signs, and many have already been fixed.
The company is now using these customer calls to plan product innovation and menu improvements. “Consumer research is wonderful and it can give you broad trends,” says Patrick Doyle, executive chairman of Restaurant Brands International. “But there is nothing like speaking to somebody directly.”