News

Survey: Chain operators say stores aren't complying operationally

November 13, 2018

Restaurateurs put plenty of thought and planning into creating and implementing topnotch operational procedures, but a new survey shows that quite often those procedures never get fully carried out. 

Operations execution platform provider, Zenput, surveyed restaurant chain leaders about the top obstacles they face operationally and an eye-popping 70 percent said their customer experience is suffering because stores are failing to correctly follow specified operational procedures, a news release said. Other key findings of the survey include:

• A mere 20 percent of respondents said procedures and store initiatives are complied with very effectively.
• Just one in 10 said the vast majority (95 percent) of locations complied with core operating procedures.
• Three of four said operational compliance was a top priority in the year ahead. 
• 92 percent said they either used or planned to use mobile tech to enable store operations.

"The data coming out of this research effort seems to emphatically underscore the reality that most operators are having a hard time rolling-out brand standards, food safety protocols, marketing promotions, and other key initiatives — especially when it involves driving compliance across dozens, hundreds or thousands of locations," Zenput CEO Vladik Rikhter said in the release. 

Key obstacles identified by those surveyed to better operations included visibility into store compliance and early identification of issues. Only about a third of respondents felt they had very clear knowledge and visibility into their stores' overall compliance with operating procedures. 

Less than one-fifth (18 percent) said they could "very quickly" identify store-level issues, but most (two out of three) said it can take a week to a month to address issues once identified. Slightly more than a fourth of respondents, however, said store audits were performed "very effectively" in terms of timeliness and issue resolution. 

Top of mind: Food safety

Slightly more than half (52 percent) of those surveyed said they were highly confident about their stores' abilities to spot food safety concerns before they became issues, and only a quarter said they felt more than 95 percent of their stores were in compliance with food safety protocols. In fact, 22 percent responding estimated fewer than three-quarters of their stores were in compliance in this key area. 

Mobile tech is seen as a potential solution in these areas of operational vulnerability, according to the survey results, which showed two-thirds of respondents had at least one tablet in use in each store for back-of-house needs, while 21 percent had a pair of tablets in use. 

In the next year, 40 percent had plans to buy at least one more back-of-house tablet for each restaurant for these tasks in order of priority: 

• Store tasks and audits
• Inventory tracking
• Temperature monitoring

Top areas for upcoming investment operationally include: 

• Training
• Audits 
• Inventory tracking

One in four respondents said they would implement mobile technology to carry out those tasks.