How Barcelona’s best burger joint keeps sizzling with feedback

In a nutshell

Watch the video for Bacoa’s customer feedback tips, or get the full story below.

If you’ve ever been to Barcelona, you’ll have wandered through the Gothic Quarter. The narrow streets, timeworn architecture, and hidden treasures make it a must visit. There have been so many times when I’ve found a great bar or cafe, then completely forgotten where it was when I wanted to return. But there’s one restaurant that I can always find—and smell. Hidden behind the Santa Catarina market, you’ll find Barcelona’s best burger joint: Bacoa.

This 15-seat restaurant is where it all started back in 2007. And back then it was serving up bowls of noodles. As queues filled the cobbled streets, Brad and Paula, the owners of this cozy restaurant, started looking for a bigger place. They found an ideal location on a busy street near the beach. Business boomed.

But then the global recession came. And Brad and Paula were faced with a big decision: what to do with one closed restaurant, and one big new one to fill.

From noodles to burgers

The entrepreneurial couple knew that now wasn’t the time to sell the small restaurant—so they borrowed some money from their families to buy a fridge, a grill, and a fryer.

They used these to bring the spirit of the Australian BBQ to Barcelona—a laid back way of eating where the customers serve themselves. Bacoa was born.

They served one fairly priced burger—and did it perfectly. And even though people’s purse strings were tight, Bacoa made eating out accessible again. What really made it worth it were the interactions with customers. As Brad put it:

“Every time someone came in, I would spend 10 minutes explaining the awesome ingredients we were using—the cheeses from the market, the beef, all of it. I think I was just happy to have some company!”

Word spread quickly about this little place that does the best burger in town. It was full every day, burgers were flying out the door, and Brad needed to grow the team—one man can only flip so many burgers.

Out of the frying pan to take over Spain

So one burger restaurant turned into two, then three, and now Bacoa has nine hamburger joints in Barcelona, Madrid, Salamanca, and Lleida.

And it isn’t just that one burger they’re serving up now. They’ve got a whole menu full of glorious options—vegan, veggie, chicken, beef, it’s all there.

But fast growth comes with its own problems. Before, Brad could be there to listen to customers’ feedback over the bar. But when customers can be over 500km away in Madrid, how do you find out what they thought of the food? The atmosphere? The prices?

Bacoa started using a standard customer feedback tool, but it lacked the customization they needed—it didn’t fit the brand they’d worked so hard to build.

Every detail counts when it comes to Bacoa’s restaurants—from the hand-painted murals on the walls to the seats that have a tray for your bags. So they needed a customer feedback form that felt the same.

And they needed to get this feedback before the customer left the restaurant in a burger coma.

Fast service needs fast feedback

In busy big cities, people aren’t hanging around to tell you what was great or what could be improved. So the team at Bacoa came up with a solution that fit their fast-moving diners.

They set up iPads in the restaurants with a typeform to capture feedback before people walked out the door—while the experience was still fresh in their minds and stomachs.

Click ‘Participar’ to see how it works:

The questions are in English, Catalan, Spanish, and Italian to cater to their diverse customers. You can check out another of their bilingual beauties here.

The quick, on-brand surveys work like a burger works with a brioche bun—flawlessly. Here’s why it matters to María Fernández, who handles Bacoa’s marketing:

“The Rating and Opinion Scale questions help us know how our customers are feeling. Then every month we go through the feedback and analyze the responses so we can improve the customer experience at Bacoa.”

So far, they’ve collected over 8,000 responses from burger lovers. That’s a whole lot of feedback—so what do they do with it?

With these replies, they’ve learned to expand their veggie and vegan options, found inspiration for their seasonal burgers, and got insights into which city to expand to next—to name just a few.

After I first sniffed out Bacoa five years ago, I went three times in one week. In fact, I’d filled out that typeform before I started working at Typeform. And that’s what keeps this hamburger joint thriving—no matter how big they get, they’re still listening to their customers’ needs.

Plus, their burgers can be smelled a mile away.

Hungry for more? Check out how they did it below.

1. Custom design

“Typeform lets us adapt the forms to our brand—we can add illustrations and colors,” says María. Find out how you can customize your typeform design in this article.

2. Rating Scales

Encourage quick feedback on your customer feedback forms with Rating question. Your customers can tap how many thumbs ups, hearts, or even skulls they’d give your service.

3. Opinion Scales

Want to know how likely people are to return? Add an Opinion Scale and get the lowdown.

4. Logic Jumps

Some of Bacoa’s restaurants are in top tourist spots—so having a bilingual form is super important for them. With Logic Jumps they can ask “How was your burger?” or “Que tal tu hamburguesa?” Perfecto.

5. Mailchimp integration

If customers leave their email for more news about Bacoa, María saves time with our Mailchimp integration. Those email addresses get whisked over to Bacoa’s mailing list automagically. Find out how to set it up here.

What’s next?

Ready to use Typeform to get customer feedback?

• Copy our customer feedback template to your Workspace and make it your own.

• Find out why acing your customer success is the golden ticket to business growth in this guide.

• Learn more about your product and services with a product feedback form.