All Smiles @menchies_ca #FroYo

I asked my son to go for #FroYo with me today, “I’d kinda rather hang out with my friends Mom” was the first response. So, I pull up the @menchies_ca twitter feed and pass him my phone. “Ooooh! I do want to go to Menchie’s though!” was his response after one glance at the header photo and a quick scroll down the Twitter feed. The scroll revealed a current promotional event “The Italian Festival” featuring three flavours: Nutella, Sweet Almond Amaretto and Iced Cappucino.  The moment we read about this festival of flavours, we were on a mouth watering mission to the nearest Menchie’s location!

The first station you come to inside a Menchie’s Frozen Yogurt shop offers little cups to try every flavour. If you wish, you can make a fully informed decision about what taste you want to spend your money and calories on. If you’re like my son, you try every flavour at least twice (shhhhh!) and self serve up a heaping portion of your favourites into the pay-by-weight bowl. At the last station, you can top off your concoction with any kind of candy or fruit you can imagine. My son ended up with a hodgepodge of crunchy, chewy, sour and salty toppings, tasted it and declared it “The bomb!”

As we sat and ate our “bombs” we commented on the wall of celebrity photos taken from various social media sites showing the most current faces in the entertainment industry being caught off-guard enjoying Menchie’s. We also listened to a Menchie’s soundtrack full of my son’s favourite songs, which he was later able to download from the internet. From start to finish, this Menchie’s experience is a perfect example of customer engagement. A reaction initiated by an image @Menchies_ca, quickly led to a connection with the Menchie’s brand through the promotional festival tweet, which led us to respond by going.  Once in the door, @MenchiesGuelph continued to engage us in-person to round out our brand experience and establish our loyalty.

A large part of this loyalty lies in the transparency of the Menchie’s experience. From the process of actually making the Frozen Yogurt, to maneuvering through the Menchie’s cafeteria-style process, you can watch it all on You Tube. Calorie counts and nutritional content of every flavour is posted on the www.menchies.ca website, along with pictures and bios of “The Flavour Team” and the opportunity to directly submit flavour suggestions.  Menchies is also listening to on-line conversations and welcoming user generated feedback both positive and negative and simply just fun. This “Oh @menchies_ca you get me!” tweet is the perfect example of brand loyalty, engagement and fun rolled into 26 characters and a photo. Negative customer feedback appears to be leveraged by openly taking responsibility in this “We’re sorry to hear about this…” tweet and the closing early tweet. Menchie’s Canada also has a Facebook page where there is a Visitor Post section. Here, questions like “How long does Menchie’s last in the freezer?” are responded to almost immediately.

Both the Menchie’s Canada Facebook page and local twitter feeds often engage with prize and special offers such as “It’s the last weekend to enter our Scratch, Win & Smile Contest. Scoop up your chance at a dream vacation!”.  Even more common than these, are posts about community involvement, fundraisers and local events: “Looking for a fundraising partner? Let Menchie’s help you out!” . The Menchie mascot was even tagged on Facebook at a visit to our local Ontario Early Years Centre Children’s Program. The Menchie mascot is commonly sighted at our local OHL hockey games and is one of the silliest participants of the annual Mascot Musical Chairs event all of which are documented and promoted on social media.

Lessons for Others

Obviously, Menchie’s strong social media presence is helping to boost company performance as it is now considered the largest self serve frozen yogurt franchise in the world. Often we underestimate the power of a simple smile. This Menchie’s quote from an aritcle on the franchise website sums it up: “Everything about Menchie’s is designed to make our guests smile — including our social media presence!”. Making customers smile when exposed to a brand is the best evidence of engagement, transparency and loyalty. We sure left Menchie’s smiling today and will certainly be on another #MenchieMission soon.

If you have concerns as to the accuracy of anything posted on this site, please send your concerns to Peter Carr, Program Director, Social Media for Business Performance.

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