Article

Putting customers in the driver's seat: Which Wich adds drive-thru

Driven by a desire to serve his customers, franchisee adds drive-thru to his fast casual sandwich restaurant.

August 8, 2014 by Brenda Rick Smith — Editor, Networld Media Group

Russ Edwards had a feeling a lot of business was driving right on by his Which Wich restaurants. The Texas franchisee, who currently owns two Which Wich stores, noticed that afternoon and evening traffic was not as brisk as he wanted it to be.

He suspected that potential customers – moms with vanloads of kids strapped in to booster seats, senior adults sensitive to the Texas heat, folks heading home after a long day of work – were bypassing his stores in favor of other options that did not require them to get out of their vehicles.

"I was just a big believer in giving people what they are looking for as far as the convenience and everything else," said Edwards.

So when the time came to build his new Which Wich restaurant in Marble Falls, Texas in 2013, Edwards added a drive-thru. It was the first drive-thru available at any of Which Wich's 300 restaurants nationwide.

The Marble Falls location presented a great opportunity for a drive-thru, said Edwards: The new free-standing building featured easy access, and despite being a small town, Marble Falls is on a main north-south thoroughfare.

"It just kind of made sense to take advantage of our situation," said Edwards.

Which Wich corporate leadership agreed.

"It was very intriguing to us because we didn't have one at the time," said Jeremy Cook, vice president of Real Estate and Construction for Which Wich. "Having a drive-thru would give us the chance to set ourselves apart from others in our category."

After a year, Edwards is labeling the drive-thru experiment a success. He'd hoped to see 20 percent of store sales come through the drive-thru; but the figure started off at 22 percent and has now climbed to 30 percent.

Since customers can now pick up orders in the drive-thru line, online sales are 6 to 7 percent, double the regional average.

"We got the results that we were looking for," said Cook. "It got our name out there, got customers familiar with us."

Adding a drive-thru was a risky move for the better-sandwich shop. The Which Wich brand experience includes dozens of customization options, which the customer records in red Sharpie marker on a special bag and hands to the cashier. The bag is placed on a zipline that carries it down the sandwich prep line. When the order is filled, it's returned to the customer in the bag. Customers are encouraged to decorate their bags and hang them on the walls inside Which Wich stores.

The brand experience was extended to the drive-thru by carrying the bag through the design of the menu board, according to Edwards. The menu board is designed to look like a giant Which Wich bag.

Once a drive-thru guest places an order, the cashier enters the order in the restaurant's POS. An adhesive-backed ticket is generated and placed on a bag, and the bag is attached to the zip line just as it would be if the customer had placed the order inside the restaurant.

Putting the fast in 'fast casual'

Delivering highly customized orders quickly was another potential challenge. Customers perceive the drive-thru experience as faster, even when they are ordering a complex product, said Cook. For Edwards' restaurant, however, throughput is down to about 3 to 5 minutes.

The key to speed is communication, he said. At least three team members are connected via headset: the cashier at the drive-thru and the P1 position (the person that starts making the customer's sandwich) plus another team member. Often the P1 begins making the sandwich as the customer is ordering it, before the cashier has completed entering it in the POS system.

"I didn't foresee that our headsets would play a role in our speed of service, but they really have," said Edwards.

Edwards and his team also went through extensive testing and training before the drive-thru opened, to get the new ordering system down. 

Growing interest

Other Which Wich franchisees are taking notice.

Two new Which Wich stores – one in Crystal Lake, Ill., and one in Tallahasee, Fla. – will offer drive-thru.

"We're not pushing anyone to do a drive-thru," said Cook. "It's been organic for us. We want the franchisee to be passionate about it."

About Brenda Rick Smith

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Brenda has more than 20 years of experience as a marketing and public relations professional. She invested most of her career telling the story of entrepreneurial non-profit organizations, particularly through social media.

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