Top brands like Wingstop, Gong cha, and Sizzling Platter are consistently focused on keeping great guest experiences at the core of their operations. However, this becomes more challenging during rapid growth.
So, how can teams maintain brand standards while continuing to grow successfully?
Understanding the keys to setting up operators for successful unit growth can be the difference between floundering and delivering excellence at scale. As part of our Ops Innovators Webinar Series, three operations leaders joined us to share best practices for maintaining operational excellence through brand growth.
Let’s dive into three key takeaways from the session:
1) The most important driver of operational excellence is, quite simply, people.No matter how perfect a rollout process or initiative is, it can only work if the people who are implementing and executing it are up to the task. Matthew Smith, Learning & Development Specialist at Sizzling Platter, mentioned that having access to great tools/tech is important, but the tools will only ever be as great as the people who are using them. This is why it is so important to invest in culture and people while making sure that everyone is working towards a common goal.
An additional way to invest in people is to invest in more district managers, allowing each one to spend more in-store face-to-face time with employees. This has a direct, positive impact on employees and results in stores that are more equipped to handle whatever challenge may arise.
Stephanie Herrington, Manager of Operations Excellence at Wingstop, shared that a consistent guest experience is what ultimately keeps customers coming back time and time again.
This need for consistency and standardization is especially relevant for Rebecca Kahn, Franchise Business Leader at Gong cha, as their master franchise model presents a large degree of complexity. One of the biggest challenges was to effectively roll out processes and initiatives, and communicate down to the store level. She spoke about how tools, like Zenput, enhance the ability to communicate at the store level effectively. Technology should support efficiency and ease of use since the team experience can be just as important as the guest experience, and employees need to feel comfortable with the platform.
Matt provided a unique perspective on the challenges of maintaining consistency, as at Sizzling Platter they manage more than 600 locations across eight brands, so ensuring consistency across several different platforms can be challenging. He says that every brand has its strengths and potential challenges, so one important thing to do is examine each brand, pull specific brand standards that they like, and turn them into Sizzling Platter standards across all brands. It initially starts with a top-down mentality of determining the brand standards, selecting what you are going to do, and then pushing it down the ladder in a constructive way with brand presidents and brand leaders who are boots on the ground supporting and engaging with the new standard.
3) It's best to take a tailored approach when adding new tech.
Implementing new tech is often an important part of growing. When asked about the best implementation process, our panelists revealed that there is no one “correct” way, and the best method can vary depending on the exact needs and limitations of any given brand.
Gong cha’s strategy revolved around evaluating how much their relatively small department could handle at once. They knew they needed to take a phased rollout approach and separated the effort into four different phases. They tried to evenly disperse the stages of the rollout between the four phases as best they could. This created an unexpected benefit that was helpful for growing adoption, as they were able to test some things on earlier waves, then make changes based on the results and be more prepared for seamless execution of the later phases.
Sizzling Platter had a juxtaposing but equally insightful methodology for rollouts. While acknowledging the need for nuanced tech rollouts for each of the individual brands under Sizzling Platter, the overarching theme was that if you are going to go for something, go for it 100%. Matt made the analogy of ripping the band-aid off quickly, rather than drip-feeding the rollout bit by bit. He noted that if you have the right people in place and your district managers are competitive, they will feel the drive to not come in last on the list when it comes to implementation results, and will do what it takes to succeed.
For more insights into how to leverage technology to drive operational excellence and support growth, view the webinar in its entirety here.
