Article
Franchising Focus: Mooyah COO marching to beat of 'world-dominating drum'
COO Michael Mabry discusses the brand's future plans.
June 28, 2016 by Cherryh Cansler — Editor, FastCasual.com
There's no shortage of better-burger concepts competing for customer love and dollars, but few are doing as well as Mooyah Burgers, Fries & Shakes. The chain has 78 restaurants in 21 states and 14 international units in eight countries. Growth plans over the next year include opening 25-30 restaurants worldwide, eclipsing the 100-restaurant mark by expanding in established markets, such as California, Alabama, Wisconsin and New Jersey, while opening new restaurants in the untapped markets of Boston, Jacksonville and Atlanta, said COO Michael Mabry.
"We silently march to the beat of our own world-dominating drum," said Mabry, who recently discussed the brand's future with FastCasual. "Within the next five years, our plan is to be located in all 50 states with a presence in all major markets."
FC: What makes you guys different from the other burger concepts?
Mabry: While there are a lot of brands in the better burger space and even more in the fast casual arena, no one is doing it quite like Mooyah. For starters, we set ourselves apart with what we call a "ridiculicious" number of ways to customize our beef, turkey and veggie burgers. With more than 27 different toppings and sauces, mathematicians have confirmed there are more than a million ways to build a burger at Mooyah—and our guests love us for it.
But it doesn't stop with fully customizable burgers, fries, salads and shakes. We serve them up in an environment like no other created by our team members. We're all about fun. You could even say we're fun-loving lovers of fun. But yet, we couldn't be more serious about the food we serve: We're talking buns baked in-house, never-frozen beef, hand-cut fries from No. 1 Idaho potatoes, veggies prepped fresh daily, and other delicious nouns preceded by quality-assuring adjectives. It's a place where USDA beef and a chalkboard drawing wall can comfortably coexist; we believe having high-quality food doesn't require you to have a low-quality personality. We're as fresh as we are fun. As intelligent as we are imaginative, and as picky as we are playful. Put simply, we believe making seriously good food doesn't have to be such serious business.
FC: What types of technology do you use to run the brand?
Mabry: Technology is a huge focus for Mooyah. Last year, we introduced a point-of-sale conversion along with an upgraded reporting tool. The POS conversion to Brink, a cloud-based software solution that meets all PCI compliance standards, helped streamline the guest ordering process, improve the level of data reported to the franchisor, and facilitate easier pricing and promotional updates across the system.
The system-wide implementation of CTUIT, a third-party analytics tool, gives increased insight into the habits and trends of our guests, along with real-time sales and performance metrics through a robust reporting website and mobile app. Additionally, CTUIT offers labor scheduling and a full inventory suite enabling franchisees to better manage food and labor costs with an end goal of increasing franchise profitability in the restaurant. Combined, these two upgrades are providing an unprecedented amount of data and insights that have already helped improve operations and economics, with more on the horizon.
We also use multiple pieces of technology to better serve franchisees and team members. It begins with our partner site, an internal communications hub that houses important brand announcements, training and resource documents from every department, and contact information for every corporate team member and vendor partner.
In early 2015, we debuted the MOO Crew Marketing Center, a website where franchise partners can browse, customize and order brand-approved local marketing materials, from to-go menus to soccer flyers to temporary tattoos for kids.
We also introduced an upgraded fundraising platform in 2015 that automates communications, populates an online calendar of fundraising events and reports on the many charitable donations Mooyah provides to local schools, churches and other non-profit groups. And in the spirit of always have the guests' best interest in mind, Mooyah tracks guest satisfaction responses through a custom online portal that scores restaurants in real-time on a variety of topics including friendliness, timeliness, food quality and likelihood to return.
FC: What about technology when it comes to the customer experience?
Mabry: We recently launched the Mooyah Rewards app, a loyalty program with Punchh. This program allows us to thank our frequent guests for their loyalty and referrals with cash-back rewards. Guests earn one point for every dollar they spend; when they've earned 100 points, they receive a $10 reward. But the benefits don't stop there. Because this platform is integrated with our POS partner, we are able to create segments based on our guests' purchase history and visit frequency. From there we send them offers tailored to how they use our brand. This means guests, who frequently order our turkey burger receive offers for that product, not for a beef burger that they may never order. We designed this program to benefit our guests in every way. Our franchise partners love it because we are able to compare our loyalty app guest transactions with all other guest transactions and really understand and quantify the value of loyalty.
FC: What amount of your marketing budget is used on standard advertising mediums?
Mabry: We focus much of our paid media budget on digital marketing tactics. We have found success with sophisticated digital tactics that engage with our guests and potential guests in smart and low-cost ways. We have locations across the US, but mass media tactics don't make sense in many markets. Digital tactics allow us to focus on a 10-mile radius of our restaurants and drive awareness, trial and engagement. We also leverage traditional direct mail and business-to-business mailers a couple times a year to remind our residential and business neighbors that we are here to serve them.
FC: What percentage of your marketing budget is used on social media?
Mabry: We spend about 5 percent of our marketing budget on social media.
FC: What do you look for in a franchisee?
Mabry: We look for sound business people with an appreciation and understanding of hospitality and guest service. We focus on approving individuals who will be great ambassadors of our brand. We also look for fun people who love the personality of Mooyah.
About Cherryh Cansler
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