DALLAS The feedback channels of the restaurant industry have long been relegated to the pages of Yelp and Google, but a Dallas-based company wants to change that.
A new “gratitude and recognition platform” called Grata, which gives service industry workers a public space to receive recognition for their work, is entering the Dallas restaurant industry this week with a rollout at all Mesero locations.
The platform functions as “the LinkedIn for service industry workers,” says Grata founder Mark Bunting. Customers can leave “gratas” or stars along with written feedback for employees by scanning QR codes with their phones at businesses that use the platform. That customer recognition then goes onto employees’ individual Grata profiles, which they have full dominion over and are visible to the public.
“There were no tools for these people who do great work every day to be recognized and appreciated,” says Bunting, who had a several-year stint as a restaurateur when he owned Dodie’s on Greenville Avenue. “A culture of gratitude was really lacking in the [restaurant] business. That really frames a lot of this.”
The big picture vision, Bunting says, is for restaurant workers to have a visible catalog of recognition for their work, for employers to get direct feedback from diners about the work their employees are doing, and for diners to be able to see which employees are recommended by other diners.
He envisions Grata being used by restaurant workers to highlight their experience in job interviews, by employers giving out bonuses and internal recognition, and by diners looking to build relationships with servers and bartenders at their favorite restaurants.
While Bunting leans into positive feedback as the goal of the platform, there are provisions made for customers to communicate criticism or concerns. Customers can select an option to contact a manager about any issues with their service or experience.
Trey Dyer, president of Mesero Restaurants, says he was looking for a way to get customer feedback through a more productive channel than online reviews or emails that get lost in his inundated inbox. He came across Grata and decided to implement it at Mesero’s seven locations in D-FW.
Dyer says his company rarely makes external hires. Instead, they opt to promote from within whenever possible. His hope is that Grata will be a useful tool for identifying employees who might be ready for promotions and new roles, and for uplifting employees who don’t often get the recognition they deserve.
He says he also hopes the platform will give the restaurants the opportunity to address customers’ issues immediately rather than learning about them in online reviews after the fact.
“99% of the time, if the issues were identified at the time they happened, they could be corrected and handled,” Dyer says. “I think [the platform] will help identify issues as they’re happening.”
Grata is designed to have applications in all customer-facing service businesses from hotels to hardware stores, but it is particularly suited for restaurant workers, Bunting says.
Currently, Grata’s core market is Dallas and Austin, but it’s being used in Miami, too. Bunting says they’re aiming for it to have widespread use throughout the country.
“It’s about institutionalizing gratitude for those front line people who always get the short end of the stick,” he says. “In restaurants and all front line-facing jobs, the top determinator of satisfaction is recognition of good work. We are bringing gratitude and appreciation back to the industry.”
