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CASE STUDY

IDENTIFYING A MISSING INGREDIENTAllrecipes, part of Meredith Corporation, is the world’s largest

digital food brand, with 19 web and mobile sites and 3

mobile apps serving 23 countries in 13 languages. Since its

launch in 1997, the Seattle-based social media site has served

as a dynamic, indispensable resource for cooks of all skill levels

seeking trusted recipes, reviews, grocery savings, how-to

instructional videos and practical cooking tips. Allrecipes sites

receive more than a billion visits annually.

Historically, the Allrecipes community has been very willing

to partake in surveys to help the company understand how

it is doing towards meeting their everyday cooking needs

and expectations. “We had frequently performed our own

customer satisfaction studies,” says Vice President, Consumer

Brand and Strategy Esmee Williams, “But we recognized that

while we were very successful securing feedback from our

most passionate fans, we were finding it increasingly difficult

to connect with other key customer segments, especially

millennials and home cooks engaging with the brand using

mobile devices.”

Confirms Allrecipes Director of Engagement Marketing

Marney Freeland, “We wanted a more comprehensive,

objective approach to capturing customer experience data

from cooks with all levels of engagements and brand histories.

We also wanted to be sure the research could be successful

at galvanizing our internal teams around our community’s

feedback. Lastly, we want to be able to benchmark our scores

against both comparative and competitive sets so we could

truly understand how the Allrecipes experience compares

against the web’s largest, most successful brands.

ForeSee Helps Allrecipes Cook Up Great Customer Experiences

W W W. F O R E S E E . C O M ► C U S T O M E R E X P E R I E N C E A N A L Y T I C S

No matter how sophisticated your internal

research team and survey methodologies are,

using internally created measures never carries

the same credibility as an industry standard.”

The company chose to work with ForeSee,

based on the strength of its customer

experience measurement methodology

and its history of working with a large set

of industry-standard brands. ForeSee goes

beyond traditional customer feedback analysis

and simple customer satisfaction metrics to

provide a cause-and-effect framework that

quantifies the impact individual elements

of the customer experience have on overall

customer satisfaction, customers’ likely future

behaviors and the company’s bottom line.

TASTING SUCCESSOne month after implementing ForeSee,

Allrecipes team members participated in

their first Satisfaction Insight Review (SIR),

the formal presentation and analysis of

results delivered by their dedicated ForeSee

CX Analyst. “Our new vice president of

product attended the presentation and

was flabbergasted that the captured data

showcasing opportunities for improvements

aligned perfectly with what he was already

thinking,” says Freeland.

“Our teams had strong intuition regarding

areas where improvement was most needed;

it was amazing to have it validated in such

a pointed way,” continues Freeland. “We

can now use this validation to quickly and

efficiently focus our resources to rapidly

design and employ improved brand

experiences. The data helps us understand

where our time and resources investment can

best pay off.”

In addition to gaining insights through their

scheduled SIRs, Allrecipes can access and

analyze its customer experience data at will

through the ForeSee Analytics Portal. “From

an analyst perspective,” says Allrecipes

Research Manager Tiana Marie, “I really like

how strong ForeSee is as an analytics tool. The

analytical engine allows the research team

to focus on insights rather than preparing

analyses. It’s fantastic to be able to see, in an

automated way, the impact key improvements

to the Allrecipes experience across devices and

platforms have on audience satisfaction and,

ultimately, future behaviors. We can segment

by millennials or women and see what impact

feature improvements are having on the

satisfaction scores of very specific audience

segments, versus having one static data point.

The portal is one of the major benefits of

using ForeSee.”

Adds Freeland, “All of the teams within the

company use satisfaction data to inform

their work, which we can now provide with

confidence. For example, our content team

might have questions related to the types

of recipes a certain audience segment is

seeking and whether they are having a high

level of success with our brand. We also

can review the verbatims (i.e., customer

comments) to understand the language

our community uses to express their wants

and needs, so we can more effectively craft

messaging to engage with them. We want

to communicate with our community as we

would with a friend, in their own voice.”

SPICING UP THE EXPERIENCEMillennials (18-34 year-olds) are of

particular interest to Allrecipes. “They’re

the most likely audience segment to post

reviews, recipes, videos and photos,”

says Williams. “Millennials also tend to

be the most farsighted and most open to

adopting newer forms of digital resources

and tools to help meet their everyday

interests and needs. As the leading

food-focused social site, it’s critical that

Allrecipes deliver strongly against

their expectations and behaviors.”

CASE STUDY ►FORESEE HELPS ALLRECIPES COOK UP GREAT CUSTOMER EXPERIENCES

“If we just ran typical surveys, we’d likely discover what our visitors liked yesterday. We use ForeSee because we’re much more interested in the types of experiences they’ll be seeking a year or two from now.”

ESMEE WILLIAMSVICE PRESIDENT, CONSUMER BRAND AND STRATEGY, ALLRECIPES

W W W. F O R E S E E . C O M ► C U S T O M E R E X P E R I E N C E A N A L Y T I C S

CASE STUDY ►FORESEE HELPS ALLRECIPES COOK UP GREAT CUSTOMER EXPERIENCES

ABOUT FORESEEForeSee, an Answers solution, continuously measures satisfaction with the customer experience across customer touch points and delivers critical insights on where to prioritize improvements for maximum impact. Because ForeSee’s superior superior technology and proven methodology connect the customer experience to the bottom line, executives and managers are able to drive future success by confidently optimizing the efforts that will achieve business and brand objectives. The result is better business for companies and a better experience for consumers. Visit us at www.foresee.com for customer experience solutions.

CONTACT FORESEETo learn how we can help you gain comprehensive insights into the impact and value of your customer experience, please contact us at 800-621-2850 or sales@foresee.com

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Continues Williams, “Home cooks are

connecting with us multiple times throughout

their cooking cycle across multiple devices.

As we build web experiences for different

screens — everything from smart TVs to

watches — we have to ensure each site

experience is optimized perfectly for each

particular use case.

While understanding who is visiting the

site is important, so is understanding what

drives the behaviors of different segments.

“If we just ran typical surveys, we’d likely

discover what our visitors liked yesterday,”

says Williams. “We use ForeSee because

we’re much more interested in the types of

experiences they’ll be seeking a year or two

from now.”

Based on what they are learning about

their visitors, the Allrecipes teams are

preparing to make big changes to the

business’ brand experience. While there is

strong opportunity for growth, the teams

recognize that it’s a delicate balance to

introduce new experiences for site visitors

without losing what their fans already love

about the social site.

Says Williams, “That’s why it’s important to

monitor satisfaction and future behaviors

on an ongoing basis. Typically when we

introduce a significant change, our audience

takes some time to adapt their behaviors.

As such, our satisfaction scores may dip

during the first couple of weeks, and we

might get negative feedback. But if they are

the right changes, over time we see those

scores rise, ideally above the original levels.

ForeSee gives us confidence in our decision-

making and is helping us gain alignment

and focus throughout the organization as

we undertake new initiatives.”

Each month, the Allrecipes Marketing team

shares month-over-month results, high-level

changes and benchmarks with the entire

organization. It also distributes the high-level

results via email to keep the measures top

of mind.

“Another benefit of using ForeSee is our

access to benchmarking data,” says Marie.

“Previously, we had a data point in space

(NPS) but didn’t have context. Now we have

an accurate score that can be benchmarked

continuously against competitors and

leaders in other industries.”

By continuously measuring and improving

the customer experience, Allrecipes is

creating the perfect recipe for satisfying

their community’s hunger for inspiration,

connection, and great ideas about food.

“It’s fantastic to be able to see, in an automated way, the impact key improvements to the Allrecipes experience across devices and platforms have on audience satisfaction and, ultimately, future behavior.”

TIANA MARIERESEARCH MANAGER, ALLRECIPES