The Need for Speed

Instructor: Randy Kibler, CEO, Bojangles’

Credentials: 38 Seconds Faster in 2008 vs. 2007

If you’re in our industry and you’re not trying to work on drive-thru speed of service, you probably shouldn’t be in this business. A lot of people have compromised on the speed aspect of things because it just doesn’t happen as well as it should in many cases. But it’s still an expectation, and it’s our job to deliver on that consumer expectation, so it’s an active focal point for our people every single day.

You have to make statements up front to new franchisees that speed of service at the drive-thru is a requirement and expectation for a brand deliverable. But once you get beyond that person being new and you’re talking about reinvestment, then there’s a sales job that has to take place. We have to make sure—whether it’s in training materials or the requiring of timing devices or measuring speed during evaluations and inspection—that it’s a consistent message that backs up what you say is important.

What we are challenging and measuring the restaurants against is the time at the window. The whole line time is obviously the most important piece, but it’s hard to keep up with what’s happening at those three different areas. Our people have to focus on only one short timeframe, the 20 seconds or 30 seconds that the car sits at the window. If they keep focused just on that car that’s at the window and get them out of there quickly and accurately, everybody in the line gets better.

Managers set the tone. They have to have the right people [at the window]. They have to have the right number of people there. They have to keep talking about [speed] and pushing it every day. We’ve talked a lot about teams. If you have three people working at the window, it shouldn’t be a different three people every day. Put the same team over there. Let them get used to working together.

You have to show people. The DVD piece is really important. They’re hearing it. They’re seeing it. They understand better. It reduces training time. It doesn’t come down to interpretation of what I’ve read on a piece of paper. I get to see somebody do it, or I’m hearing somebody explain it. I retain more of the information that way.

Efficiency incorporates accuracy and speed. We have to get more accurate. We have to get faster. We can’t have one without the other. If I am accurate and I take a long time, the consumer is not going to be happy. If I get you through there really quick and you didn’t get what you ordered, that’s not acceptable either. We have to continue to get better with both of those [areas]. You can never be satisfied with either one of those.