This article was originally published in Franchise Times, sister publication to Food On Demand.
Restaurant brands may be employing a slew of strategies to boost sales, but Zaxbys Chief Operating Officer Sharlene Smith said the fundamentals can’t be lost in the shuffle.
“What we’ve really focused on is the experience,” Smith said. “Making sure we’re really delivering our great food faster to the guests and more accurately to the guests, and we’ve made double-digit improvements in those areas. Because when the customer finds you worth spending their hard-earned dollars, they’re going to keep coming in.”
Zaxby’s Chief Operating Officer Sharlene Smith.
That push on experience for the concept, which has nearly 1,000 restaurants and a chicken-centric menu, coincides with making prices align with what customers are looking for. Smith said in approaching the price question, it has to be included in a larger strategy, rather than just cutting menu costs.
“We’re also trying to look modern and relevant,” Smith said. “We took an assessment of older stores, and some of them in Texas didn’t look like those we have in the Southeast, so having our locations modernized and identifiable is important.”
Smith shared her comments during a panel at the Restaurant Finance & Development Conference, which also featured Revenue Management Solutions CEO John Oakes and Lance Trenary, the CEO of buffet brand Golden Corral. Like Smith, Trenary discussed improving day-to-day operations while making moves on price to attract guests.
“Price has been really important to us, and we made the decision at the beginning of COVID that we wanted to own value in the family dining segment,” Trenary said. “So, we went to work on basically every line of the P&L. We worked on having the most efficient labor and ideal food costs. We even went into things like controllable costs, from utility management to insurance.”
Trenary added that value goes beyond price and the brand made a conscious effort to create an experience that would exceed expectations. An important part of the mindset, Trenary said, was doubling down on restaurant cleanliness.
“There are a few things we follow very closely,” Trenary said. “From the taste of our food to our cleanliness and hospitality scores. We also subscribe to multiple sources of data to triangulate on what we’re hearing from customers and make sure it’s absolute.”
In his remarks, Oakes discussed such data, as well as labor insights, across thousands of restaurants. In turn, Oakes said the company can understand the link between a restaurant’s labor plans and labor goals, and what guests are saying and feeling about those locations.
“There is absolutely a clear link between that,” Oakes said. “What we’ve taken from that is, in a sensitive environment, execution is even more important. We’ve seen a huge focus this year on four-wall economics. So, collecting detailed financials on restaurants, benchmarking them and understanding where there is an opportunity within those four walls is something we’ve spent a lot of time on.”
While what takes place inside the restaurant is critical, Smith noted what happens in the digital space has become just as important.
“We were a little bit late on third party and we didn’t have a chief digital officer until a year ago,” Smith said. “But that’s been our fastest-growing channel, and we’re focused on how to deliver that experience better. We’re at almost 20 percent digital now. That’s gotten us into an area and brought us guests that we didn’t have. Now that we have that, it’s about the consistency to keep them coming back through those channels.”
Lance Trenary, the CEO of Golden Corral
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Trenary said the brand has also incorporated digital channels into its push to bring in more customers, as well as working to attracting a younger clientele.
“The buffet segment was aging out, so we’ve wanted to capture that without losing those other demographics,” Trenary said. “We’ve rolled out new restaurant designs, updated the menu, and made sure it’s not tired or stale. Our chief marketing officer has also done a great job of engaging and understanding how to attract a younger crowd. We’re advertising differently than in the past and engaging in building our off-premises.”
