Technology

Church's in-store quality checks go virtual

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November 13, 2020

Church's Chicken chain has revamped its brand standards measurement program to comply with COVID-19 travel restrictions, transforming its five-hour, in-person review into a 90-minute remote review, a news release said.

"These virtual visitations allow the field team to measure the operations using our proprietary mobile app called the Restaurant Visitation Tool," Brendan Berg, Church's senior vice president of Global Operations said in the release. "We worked with our vendor, Nextx, to develop mobile app enhancements that allow our OPS Excellence coaches to provide real-time reinforcement and redirection to our managers and above-restaurant leaders … all done remotely, so we're not having to travel."

The technology links the Church's and Texas Chicken field teams to each restaurant's manager and market, as well as the director of operations or franchisee, who can also visit remotely. All parties can then collaborate on an action plan.

"The OER Program was designed to help our restaurants be the very best they can be. …" Luis de la Torre, Church's director of Ops Excellence said in the release. "We've had travel restrictions in place since March, and it will probably be another six months before the team can travel again.

"That's too long not to have visibility into the daily operations of our restaurants. The Remote OER allows us to see how we're delivering the total guest experience today and quickly make improvements today to positively impact the business tomorrow."

Managers provide their store's progress on improvements inside a dedicated tablet that supports daily restaurant routines and simplifies access to information. Managers and employees can access brand-approved reporting websites, job aids, videos and submit photos and comments when action items have been completed.

"What's important to note is that with the advancements we've made in restaurant-level technology, information and data can be can be accessed at a moment's notice and allows a peak into how the restaurant is implementing their action plan," de la Torre said. "That kind of real-time intel lets us pivot quickly and capitalize on growth and guest satisfaction like never before."

When public health conditions are appropriate, Church's will return to traditional OERs, but will do so in a hybrid manner using the brand's breadth of technology and cloud-based resources as well. The beta-test for the remote system wrapped up in September and was rolled out domestically in October, with international stores joining this month.

Church's has 1,500 locations.