OVERVIEW
THE CONTEXT
Jordbærpikene wanted to get closer to its guests - not through annual surveys or review sites, but through feedback captured while the experience was still fresh, the kind a café can actually do something with.
"Foodback gives us fresh insight while the experience is still fresh, and that's the kind of feedback that's actually useful to act on."
Christian Heger, Head of Marketing, Jordbærpikene
But there was a gap: response rates were low. And the leadership team was clear-eyed about why. The issue was not guest willingness. It was that guests were not being invited well enough, or often enough, in the moment.
THE CHALLENGE
When running 43 cafés, each with its own team, its own rhythm, and its own habits, the challenge is greater than just rolling out and running a survey. The challenge is getting an entire portfolio to invite guests consistently - and to truly want to.
THE APPROACH
Two things happened in parallel.
They removed the friction. Earlier in the year, Jordbærpikene rolled out new table stands that bring the QR code for both ordering and Foodback into one place. Guests no longer had to hunt for the survey - it was already in front of them, at the moment they were forming an opinion. This is the single biggest factor behind the rise in volume, according to Head of Marketing Christian Heger.
They gave cafés ownership. Through May, every café competed on Foodback rate - responses measured against dine-in orders. The winning café each week received a cash prize. Results were published in the internal newsletter, Jordbærnytt, every week, and regional managers followed up directly with café owners along the way.
Instead of measuring raw volume, the competition was measured on rate: how well each café converted guests into responses. That kept the focus where it belonged - on the quality of the invitation.
"Seeing the ranking in black and white, and knowing everyone else could see it too, created real drive."
Christian Heger, Head of Marketing, Jordbærpikene
THE SHIFT
The clearest sign that something had shifted was not the numbers. It was what cafés started doing on their own. One café built a checklist at the register, ticking off every guest they had asked. Another gathered the whole team around a shared phrase to use with guests. Cafés began trading these tactics with each other, without being told to.
"It became a shared project, not just a task from above."
Christian Heger, Head of Marketing, Jordbærpikene
Regional managers took a more active role too, making Foodback a standing topic in their conversations with cafés. Participation had moved from head-office instruction to something teams were building themselves.
"Most teams read their response rate as a verdict on whether guests care. It isn't - it's a measure of how well you invite them. Jordbærpikene proved that. They didn't ask guests to do more; they made it easier to take part and gave every café a reason to ask. Once they owned the invitation, the volume followed."
Steinar Lomeland, Head of Customer Success, Foodback
THE OUTCOME
From April to May, Jordbærpikene saw an increase in responses of more than 600%. It was not one strong café carrying the rest: 32 of the 43 cafés improved.
Two levers drove it. The table stands removed the friction that had been suppressing volume. The competition and the transparency around it gave cafés a reason to invite every guest, and the means to learn from each other and improve while doing it.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT
The team wants every café to continue to see Foodback as an essential everyday tool - and they're planning to use the entire suite of features available in the system to dig into specific topics they want to understand better.
"We want each café to see Foodback as a useful everyday tool, not something they do because head office says so."
Christian Heger, Head of Marketing, Jordbærpikene
The next chapter is turning the month that proved it into the way the portfolio works and grows moving forward.
