On today’s episode of The QSR Experience Show, Bobby speaks with Craig Dunaway, Chief Operating Officer at Penn Station East Coast Subs, about how Craig and his team maximize a franchisee’s return on investment using in-person evaluations of each location.
They also discuss how quickly the restaurant industry has had to shift to a hybrid ordering model and how that has affected Penn State East Coast Subs specifically.
Topics discussed:
- What distinguishes Penn State East Coast Subs from other restaurants and brands.
- How to maximize a franchisee’s return using regular, in-person evaluations.
- Ensuring that a customer’s experience is high quality and consistent not only across locations, but across ordering platforms.
- How a traditionally dine-in restaurant accommodates hybrid ordering while maintaining customer experience across the board.
- How customers have leaned into the hybrid ordering model: they have fully embraced it.
- Craig’s philosophy on new store locations and growth.
- What Craig foresees in the future of the restaurant industry and how Penn State East Coast Subs will fit into it.
Guest Quotes:
“We’re selling return on investment. You’ll get tired of hearing me say that over the course of our talk today, because that’s what it is. I mean, it’s that and our mechanism to do it just happens to be cheesesteaks and fries.”
“Every restaurant’s evaluated between six and nine times per year. Every year, we leave a handwritten set of notes, and you know, I think it’s really unheard of what we do. They’re not clipboard people. They don’t just come in, you know, look around for a couple hours and leave notes and leave and say, I’ll see you in three months.”
“I’m floored today how when you look at survey after survey, convenience is more important than anything else. Even the quality of the product.”
“So where before we just thought about the guest, now we think about the third party guests, the web ordering guests, the dine in guests. It’s just so. It’s so different. We’ve had to teach ourselves and train franchisees how to compartmentalize each of those different categories.”
“One of the roles that we have to have is in evaluating not only trend versus fad, but what companies are going to be around to service that.”
Get in touch with Craig Dunaway:
LinkedIn
Website
Get in touch with Bobby Marhamat:
LinkedIn
Twitter
