Häagen-Dazs Uses Yext to Level-up Its Organic Search Strategy

Iconic brand Häagen-Dazs has been delighting ice cream fans since it opened its first location in 1976. It now delivers extraordinary moments to its customers in over 900 shops worldwide with unique recipes, exclusive pastry creations, and a wide variety of ice cream flavors. Its shops, perhaps better described as 'temples of indulgence', have been the cornerstone of its legendary brand experience. Like all successful brands, Häagen-Dazs has had to adapt its location-based business to reach new audiences throughout its decades of operation.

Häagen-Dazs determined that it would focus on building a search strategy to significantly increase its organic performance across search engines. "We wanted to invest in a global solution that would help us organically increase our presence throughout the digital ecosystem," says Aurélie Lory, Managing Director EUAU-LATAM Häagen-Dazs shops at General Mills (parent company of Häagen-Dazs). "In order to expand our reach and target the key millennial market, we knew that we needed a partner to help us to manage our online experience in a consistent way across search endpoints."

The business chose Yext to manage its business listings, develop location and menu pages, and efficiently manage its online reputation across a network of over 200 integration partners. "Most of our shops across Europe and Latin America are franchised, meaning that before Yext, it was extremely difficult and time-consuming to make even one important update across multiple platforms," says Lory. Hundreds of individual users now leverage the Yext platform to make updates, and each has received unique training to optimize the use and understanding of Yext solutions.

To match the exceptional experience that customers receive in-store, Häagen-Dazs invested in Yext SEO Landing Pages to maximize conversions and boost discoverability in local search. "With Pages, we are able to truly customize and control what appears for our shops online, and we've seen a significant increase in site traffic," says Lory. "With the ability to display shop-specific menus and other content on each page, we can deliver the same great experience online that customers get in our stores. Thanks to Yext, we know that customers are getting the best Häagen-Dazs experience at every stage of the customer journey."

With the challenges of a distributed franchise model, Häagen-Dazs was also on a mission to identify a scalable solution for reputation management. "We wanted to give our franchisees the tools to efficiently manage their reviews strategy," says Lory. "With Yext Reviews, franchisees can now quickly respond to customer feedback and receive instant notifications for reviews with 3 stars or less. Since enabling our franchisees with Yext, our volume of reviews has gone up by 40%."

The year 2020 was challenging for all businesses, but working with Yext allowed Häagen-Dazs to take control of their digital experience so customers had the right information at their fingertips when and where it mattered most. "Yext was a huge help at the beginning of the lockdown, when we needed to update our customers efficiently and at scale about shop closures, safety protocols, and changing business hours. We have really seen the benefit of using Yext when making updates from a single platform and take comfort in knowing that our brand's information will be accurate everywhere online," continues Lory.

The brand expects to adopt new Yext products and solutions based on its initial success. "We have a clear roadmap for the next couple of months, and are excited to roll out Conversion Tracking and additional training for our franchisees," says Lory. As warm weather approaches, Häagen-Dazs will also use Yext to share its popular summer menu across the digital ecosystem — undoubtedly delighting its thousands of customers in the process.

Altogether, Häagen-Dazs saw 75% YoY growth in website clicks for all locations and markets. During peak season, shops with Yext Pages saw a 25% incremental lift in foot traffic and a 45% incremental lift in website clicks. These locations also experienced 236% fewer phone calls than expected during the same period, suggesting that consumers were able to find the information they were searching for without resorting to a costly phone call.

Between July 2019 and December 2020, 123 total users made 170k approved updates to information in Content. This includes 45k field updates to core business information like addresses and hours, 113k updates to enhanced content like menu items, and 12k updates to branding assets, like names, descriptions, and location photos.

Häagen-Dazs is now able to get information directly into the hands of the consumer without relying on inefficient support from call centers. A comprehensive Yext-driven digital strategy attracts more business and serves up a delightful — and delicious — experience to individuals at every stage of the customer journey.