Gamification: Boosting Employee Engagement and Brand Loyalty

 

In today's fast-paced foodservice industry, keeping employees motivated and engaged is paramount to maintaining high standards and exceptional customer experiences. According to Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® one innovative strategy that's gaining traction is gamification. At Love's Travel Stops, a pioneering gamification system is revolutionizing their restaurant operations, demonstrating how technology can edify employees and elevate brand loyalty. Let’s dive into the details and uncover how gamification can be a game-changer for your brand.

Enhancing Operational Efficiency

Love's Travel Stops has integrated a state-of-the-art gamification system featuring three 27-inch monitors that track key performance metrics in real-time. These metrics include greet times, order processing times, and the time it takes for food handoff. By providing immediate feedback, employees can see how their performance stacks up against their peers and previous shifts.

According to early data, restaurants utilizing this gamification system are 11 seconds faster in service on average. This notable boost in efficiency translates to quicker service for customers, which is crucial for a business that prides itself on convenience and speed.

Fostering a Culture of Continuous Improvement

Gamification isn't just about improving efficiency; it's also about creating a culture of continuous improvement and friendly competition. Employees earn badges for reaching milestones, achieving sales goals, and promoting self-development. This recognition not only motivates employees to excel but also fosters a sense of achievement and belonging.

"Our investment in gamification technology is transforming the way Love's restaurants operate," said Joe Cotton, vice president of foodservice at Love's. "By incorporating cutting-edge technology, we can better engage our team members while optimizing the customer experience."

Real-Time Performance Tracking

The gamification system allows for real-time performance tracking across multiple locations. This transparency encourages healthy competition between stores, driving employees to strive for top rankings. Such competition ensures that each visit to a Love's restaurant is a consistently positive experience for customers, as every team member is motivated to deliver their best performance.

Carl's Jr. Restaurant Manager Tanda Hopper shared her experience: "The gamification software helps us meet brand standards and contributes to our speed of service. It engages my employees and creates healthy competition between our store and others — we're always trying to get the top rank!"

Keep Good Employees

Away from the Competition

Will Help Build a Larger

Share of Stomach 

Building Brand Loyalty Through Employee Engagement

When employees are engaged and motivated, their enthusiasm translates into better customer service, which in turn strengthens brand loyalty. Gamification helps employees feel more connected to their roles and the brand they represent. By making work more engaging and rewarding, employees are more likely to take pride in their work and stay committed to the company's goals.

The Future of Gamification in Foodservice

Love's Travel Stops plans to invest more than $2 million over the next five years to install gamification technology across its locations. New stores will be equipped with this technology upon opening, ensuring that the benefits of gamification are felt company-wide.

For any brand looking to enhance employee engagement and operational efficiency, gamification offers a compelling solution. By turning everyday tasks into engaging challenges and recognizing achievements, companies can create a more motivated, efficient, and loyal workforce. This, in turn, leads to better customer experiences and stronger brand loyalty.

Incorporating gamification into your operations could be the key to unlocking higher performance and a more dedicated team. As the Grocerant Guru®, I see gamification as not just a trend but a transformative tool that can drive success and growth in the foodservice industry.

Foodservice Solutions® specializes in outsourced business development. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities or a new menu product segment and brand and menu integration strategy.  Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma WA is the global leader in the Grocerant niche visit us on our social media sites by clicking one of the following links: Facebook,  LinkedIn, or Twitter

BP's ampm C-store has Mojo

Foodservice Solutions® grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food pontification, implementation, and track record of success since 1991 has once again can be found at a retail chain of over 1000 units.  This time London based BP P.L.C. ampm division is rolling out “Project Mojo consisting of new in-store graphics, a new coffee program, and a new fresh food program.”

Chief Operating Officer Donna Sanker  "We are dialing up the offer, making it current and fresh, and aligned with the trends we see around our consumer base,"  The ampm division is a majority franchise operation, the ampm network currently spans five western states: Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon and Washington. This new focus on fresh food will create a platform so ampm can become a formative competitor in the fresh food space and clear rival for 7-Elevens fresh food offerings.

The goal of Project Mojo is exactly what it sounds like: maintain and enhance the Mojo at ampm with an updated store image and offers that consumers are demanding, according to Carl Orsbourn, BP's director of convenience marketing for the ampm brand.

 If Orsbourn had to choose which initiative of Project Mojo he is most excited about, it would be the fresh food element because he firmly believes that foodservice — and all areas associated with it — is going to be an "important differentiator" for ampm.

Fresh food, in particular, has the ability to attract new consumers, as well as draw out different missions from current consumers, he said. If ampm gets fresh food right, it will build further trust in the brand and heighten consumer perceptions about "gas station food" quality, he continued.

Does your brand have Mojo? For international corporate presentations, educational forums, or keynotes contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us  the Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.  His extensive experience as a multi-unit restaurant operator, consultant, brand / product positioning expert and public speaking will leave success clues for all. Visit: www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more information

Fresh Food Fast Shell Select Excels

Global grocerant niche growth is one of the undercurrents driving legacy fresh food retailers to rethink just how they do what they do according to Tacoma, WA based Grocerant Guru® Steven Johnson of Foodservice Solutions®.  Nowhere is it more apparent than with Netherlands based Shell Select.

Just in case you did not know Shell as a brand and its iconic logo is found in more locations than Starbucks or McDonald’s around the world.  No after testing Shell Select Deli by Shell is setting the bar high for itself as it pursues increasing the profit contribution of its non-fuel business to 50 percent.

István Kapitány Executive Vice President Shell Global Fuel Retail reported that he has until 2025 to reach the 50-percent mark from an undisclosed current figure. He acknowledges the profit goal is aspirational.

“We are always adapting our retailing capabilities to the changing world and believe it is a great opportunity for us because of the scale and size of the business,”

Kapitány continued. “Some markets are close to the 50-percent goal and some are far away, but one of the benefits of Shell’s global scale is that we can learn from each other. Whatever works in one country, we can transfer that knowledge to another country.”

For one example, the company operates a service-oriented concept called Shell Select in The Netherlands that is comparable to Wawa convenience stores in the United States. Shell’s operating model in the U.S. is different than The Netherlands, but the company is looking to make changes that would facilitate expansion of the Shell Select concept in the U.S.

“I would say that Shell Select in The Netherlands is kind of like the top-end food and coffee convenience place to go in the market, similar to a Wawa. We’re looking at how we bring that Shell Select concept to the United States,”

Is your company Looking A Customer Ahead?  How do you plan to expand your business?  Are you going to continue to do what you have always done and do it the same way?  How is that working for you today?

For international corporate presentations, educational forums, or keynotes contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us  the Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.  His extensive experience as a multi-unit restaurant operator, consultant, brand / product positioning expert and public speaking will leave success clues for all. Visit: www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more information

Portable Mini Meals are Magic

Grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food continues to drive top line growth and bottom line profits in every retail foodservice sector according to Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru® Steven Johnson. One big reason is continued customer adoption of fresh prepared meal components that comprise most portal mini meals today.

Today consumers of 88% of Americans over the age of 18, in every region of the country, male, female and income group consume mini meals (snacks), meal components at least once a month according to Johnson.  Why to retailers it simply should not matter.  What should matter is consumer’s rapid adoption of fresh prepared food.  

According to Nielsen despite evolving eating preferences and tastes, American consumers still reach for sweet and salty snacking staples. Salty snacks, including chips, popcorn and meat snacks generated more than $27 billion in sales across Nielsen-measured U.S. retail stores for the year ended April 1, 2017. Sweets are close behind, with candy bringing in more than $20 billion, and cookies bringing in more than $7 billion.

The Harris Poll EquiTrend study released by Nielsen, U.S. consumers evaluated 275 snacking brands and identified their favorite items to reach for when they have snack cravings. The majority of consumers chose items from the candy/chocolate category, but there were some notable differences by region.

Consumers in the East and West ranked cheese, particularly Sargento Sliced Cheese in the East and Tillamook and Sargento Ultra-Thin Cheese in the West, in their top 15 snack items. Consumers in the Midwest also ranked non-sweet categories as their favorites, including Ritz Crackers and Wonderful Pistachios.

Mini meals will likely continue to drive top line sale and bottom line profits. While no one at Foodservice Solutions® was surprised that candy was a top snack.  What retails must understand is the rapid rise of fresh foods from nuts, cheese, meats (beef jerky), milk products.   

Foodservice Solutions® specializes in outsourced business development. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities or a new menu product segment and brand and menu integration strategy.  Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma WA is the global leader in the Grocerant niche visit Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, Linkedin.com/in/grocerant/ or twitter.com/grocerant