Client Profile
Our hospitality client is a leading developer of global, multi-channel foodservice brands, delivering 100+ products and $1B+ in annual retail sales. Founded in 2004, the private equity-backed corporation franchises and operates 6,400+ restaurants, cafes, ice cream shops, and bakeries in the U.S., Puerto Rico, and 55+ foreign countries.
Business Challenge
Leading foodservice corporations like our client maintain thousands of stores across the U.S. and a wealth of global locations. With franchises representing a significant percentage of its operating model, ensuring adherence to brand standards that drive consistent positive experiences and product quality for customers wherever they go is a top priority.
Before the pandemic, the client achieved brand excellence through a team of field operators, or “brand coaches,” tasked with physically visiting every store – auditing operations and guiding franchisees through improvements to ensure they meet quality standards. A single brand coach oversaw about 400 stores.
However, the client’s rapid-fire growth made it difficult and costly for brand coaches to physically set foot at every location. Pandemic restrictions also created unprecedented challenges, cutting coaches off from stores in other countries as international borders closed.
”The client recognized that maintaining brand excellence through physical audits of every store had devolved into an unrealistic and outdated operating model.”
The client hired Auxis to introduce digital innovation to its audit and coaching program – taking advantage of Auxis’ proven track record of helping companies leverage technology to solve problems in ways they hadn’t considered before.
Solution & Approach
Together, Auxis and the client built a Digital Audit and Coaching Program that broke new ground in the foodservice industry. The program can be applied easily to many industries and functions.
Auxis utilized leading industry virtual tools to ensure franchisees operate at the excellence the client expects for its locations while enabling brand coaches to visit more often and cost-effectively.
Partnering with Auxis further enabled the client to merge digital innovation with the advantages of nearshore outsourcing. Auxis operates the program from a best-in-class Customer Experience Center of Excellence (CoE) that leverages the deep talent pool, lower costs, and shared time zones with the U.S. provided by the Auxis Global Delivery Center in Costa Rica.
Key solution steps included:
- Auxis worked with the client to create a digital auditing solution that integrates audit and compliance management Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), video conferencing, and advanced analytics.
- Auxis customized the solution for each of our hospitality client’s foodservice brands.
- Coaches conduct virtual walk-throughs of store operations, visually reviewing business functions and activities to evaluate the store’s performance against a set of established standards.
- After each completed walk-through, the coach issues a report suggesting specific actions and operational improvements that help store operators better align with brand standards and performance.
- Coaches discuss the report with the store operator, agreeing upon actions and timing for resolution.
- Follow-up reviews ensure quality standards are met.
- Auxis developed an advanced analytics program to analyze and measure the results of CoE quality audits; for instance, helping leadership gauge correlations between improved audit scores and sales at a single store. Read our Business Analytics Case Study to learn how Auxis helped the client boost brand quality and sales through real-time, consolidated data views.
- Audit and coaching services are available in multiple languages, including Spanish, Russian, Korean, Arabic, Thai, Japanese, and more. Language services continue to expand rapidly as the program incorporates more store locations, brands, and countries.
Results
By merging the benefits of digital innovation and nearshore outsourcing, Auxis delivered a cost-effective, world-class, virtual audit and coaching service that has never been done before in the foodservice industry.
Key benefits included: