Four fast casual leaders offered up insight on overcoming challenges, from dealing with COVID shutdowns to the ongoing labor shortage, at the Fast Casual Executive Summit hosted by Networld Media Group.
Phot courtesy of Networld Media Group.
The year 2020 may go down in history as one of the most challenging, if not top challenging, for the restaurant industry as COVID-19 shuttered restaurants nationwide, forcing many to go out of business and leaving remaining survivors scrambling to get stores back to a profit point.
Fortunately, a sizable number not only survived, but are thriving 18 months later, but are now facing another monumental challenge: a labor shortage that has restaurants reducing operating hours and dining room space.
So, at this point, it's clear all brands can use a little inspiration to keep moving forward and a big dose was delivered during the Fast Casual Executive Summit, held recently by Networld Media Group in Charlotte, North Carolina. It is one of several leading industry conferences run by Networld Media Group, based in Louisville, Kentucky. A virtual event,#QSRNext, will take place Nov. 9.
In a panel talk, "Executive Perspectives: Inspiration for Today's Restaurant Leaders," four inspirational, fast casual operators shared how they not only battled through the dark year of COVID-19 but are adopting unique and dynamic strategies to deal with the labor crisis. The session was by kicked off by Zach Goldstein, CEO and founder of Thanx, which sponsored the panel.
The new loyalty paradigm
In his talk, "The Digital Flywheel: Accelerated Revenue Growth Starts with Loyalty," Goldstein spoke of the need for restaurant brands to stand out in the crowd and how the chief development officer will become the chief data officer in the near future as data is critical to connecting and engaging with customers.
"It's all about digital sales — how do I make my restaurant brand a digital brand and that will determine winners and losers," he said adding the industry is now the era of the chief digital officer.
"The future is about data as well executed personalization drives a massive increase in revenue and value. Most customers in this industry are promiscuous. They can go to as many restaurants as they like. But if you can win their loyalty that's where you drive that outsized return and we're seeing a rebirth in loyalty," he said.
Loyalty 2.0, he explained, provides an opportunity to get to know guests, and personalized marketing drives six times the revenue.
"Once you know your customers you can start treating them as individuals and target them with the right message at the right time and you have a higher likelihood of having them."
It's all about community
For Adenah Bayoh, founder of Cornbread, success is all related to community. During her session, "Community Building: Putting Community On The Menu," Bayoh defined community as encompassing everyone from the customer to employees to partners and those who haven't become customers yet.
"When things get difficult always remember your 'why.' My why has always been my community — the people who work in my company," said Bayoh who spent five years working on her brand before launching her first store in 2017.
Her vision, from the start, has been her constant inspiration: Serve the community whatever they wanted to eat. During her talk she cited an African proverb relating to her vision: If you want to go fast go alone, if you want to go far go together.
During COVID her company continued to pay employees though her six stores closed.
"It was the right thing to do. We made sure team members had food on their tables. Cornbread is a service-driven company committed to going above and beyond our call of duty for our customers, employees, business partners and the community we serve."
Her passion is her staff's passion and staff is as important as her, the CEO.
"They don't call me the CEO they call me Adenah. We get lost in this industry about who we're serving and I always say we need to remind ourselves every day that it's about the people that make this thing work. If you do that you will never go out of business."
During the pandemic her company served meals to essential workers, shut-in seniors, hosted a community COVID vaccination event, and served 10,000 pancakes and boxed lunches to those in need during statewide shutdown.
"If you put customers and employees first you can never go wrong."
Building a successful brand in just five years
Next on stage were Landon and Kat Eckles, co-founders of Clean Juice. Kat Eckles serves as chief branding officer and her husband serves as CEO. During their talk, "Creating an Award-Winning Brand in Half a Decade," the duo shared how their personal passion for wellness and health and juices is a critical reason for their success.
"We knew it was a calling as we're passionate about health and wellness," said Kat Eckles, noting the brand's mission statement, a bible passage: "Dear friend I hope all is well with you and that you're healthy in body as you are strong in spirit."
The couple said it's been crucial to cultivate meaningful relationships with employees and guests and anyone in the Clean Juice family.
"We love our staff, love our guests and create an environment of care. It's truly differentiated, and we do it in a fun and loving environment. It's the fire behind everything we are doing."
A key success element has been creating an intimate experience with the customer.
"We have an opportunity to get to know their stories, listen and give advice. We have a deep connection with our guests because so much of it is healing and so much of it is health," said Kat Eckles, adding "our employees really believe in what we do and want to be in an environment promoting health."
The goal, said Landon Eckles, is for customers to leave the store feeling better than when the came into the store.
"It's not just because they got a great organic product but because we treated them with love and kindness along the way. It's about how do we make sure we know the guest knows we care about them."
Dealing with the labor shortage
The final panelist, Kathleen Wood, founder and CEO of Kathleen Wood Partners as well as a family-owned brand, Suzy's Swirl, spoke to how brands are battling the labor shortage in her talk, "The 3 Key Moves in a Labor Crisis."
"All of us in some sort or fashion have been impacted by the labor crisis. And when I think about the industry, I think about how do we put the fire out," she said.
The first place to look is at the talent pipeline and Wood cited five key areas: candidate experience, hiring and onboarding experience, training and development, retention and leadership.
"And that pipeline is all held together by culture. There is definite need for a retention strategy and a leadership strategy and a culture strategy," she said, adding "it's time for us to attack the leadership crisis from the inside out. We have all these great people working for us now. We have to switch strategy."
The fast casual and overall restaurant industry have a leadership deficit and employees want to know how to succeed at jobs, she said.
"It's time to start investing equal time with people working for us each and every day. We need to shift our mindset to be equally focused on employees as we are on customers. When we do that wonderful things will happen."
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November 10, 2021 at 06:00PM
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Fast casual leaders share inspirational insight, labor shortage strategy - Fast Casual
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