One-third of all hourly employees at Wendy’s are Hispanic, and many still grapple with the English language. To help them along, Wendy’s nationwide stores adopted the Daily Dose English Program in 2005. After testing the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation-sponsored program in 19 locations nationwide this year, Wendy’s managers reported a 72 percent increase in the overall rate of language improvement by their employees—83 percent of whom reported that they had an easier time interacting with customers after just four weeks. The chain is now taking language learning a step further, asking Daily Dose to develop a reverse program so Spanish-speaking employees can teach their language to managers.

Electronic self-serve kiosks are nothing new; we’ve had ATMs and pay-at-the-pump gas for years. Foodservice, however, has been slow to adopt the technology, with most quick-serve chains leaving it stalled in pilot testing or hidden away in isolated roll-outs. Sheetz, though, showed us how great kiosks can be if you jump into the technology headfirst. The convenience-store chain uses Radiant Systems kiosks at all ordering points for its Made to Order (mto) quick-service concept, and any hungry, time-pressed Sheetz customer will attest to the quick, tasty results. For even greater convenience, Sheetz installed the kiosk order points, which process an estimated 47 million transactions per year, at outside gas pumps in 25 locations in 2005.

El Pollo Loco President and CEO Steve Carley says it wasn’t like him to get hooked on Jim Collins’ book Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…and Others Don’t, but once he was, he passed the habit along. The result has been a systemwide addiction to greatness, as measured by the company’s “Good to Great Scorecard” program. Through the program, each restaurant is evaluated monthly on a system of metrics, which are then used to determine if the location is doing great, in need of improvement, or in serious trouble. For each distinction, managers get a green, yellow, or red pennant to display for the entire staff. This system of conveying consistent expectations and ensuring they are met has paid off, as El Pollo Loco boasted all-time high AUVs for the second quarter of 2005.

Chuck Howd, general manager of a Tropical Smoothie Café in Jensen Beach, Florida, wanted to offer his customers online ordering without creating another obstacle for his employees. To that end, he rejected online ordering systems that rely on phone, fax, or e-mail and chose one by QTS Software that can be directly integrated into his POS system. The set-up eliminates employee error when keying in orders and ensures that every order makes it to the register. What’s more Howd says he’s barely touched his marketing budget, since he can use the software’s suite of marketing tools to create his own direct e-mail campaigns. The result: 40–50 percent of his lunchtime orders key themselves into the system through the net.

Food safety is an important issue, but all too often, large chains only certify franchisees, leaving it up to them to pass the knowledge on to front-line employees who need it most. Not so at Blimpie, which in August began promoting the Basic Food Safety Learning Management System, a web-based food-safety education, online record management, and data warehousing program. The program ensures food-safety education is comprehensive and consistent across the chain and makes it easy to see who’s certified and who’s not over the internet. Branding >