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Travels With O’Charley’sThe casual-dining chain isn't making small changes. It's Talkin' 'Bout a RevO'lution.By Kristina Buchthal, Senior Editor
At its test store in Hendersonville, Tenn., O’Charley’s is rethinking everything from kitchen display systems to awnings.
Going beyond simply reworking how food is prepared and served, O’Charley’s is rethinking how it hires managers and waitstaff. |
The casual-dining restaurant is a peculiarly American invention. It has evolved from the first T.G.I. Friday’s “fern bar” opened in New York City in 1965 through the bar-and-grill phase that has reshaped suburban dining habits. Now under competitive pressure from below by another American original, the fast-casual restaurant, casual dining is ready to morph again.
Although there is no clear consensus about just how the segment needs to change, Nashville, Tenn.-based O’Charley’s is reassessing almost all aspects of its operations in an effort to make across-the-board improvements that will position it for current and future customer needs. Dubbed Project RevO’lution, the program doesn’t involve introductions of new appetizers, entrées or salads—a common tactic in attempts to bring a concept up to date. Instead, the company is going deeper to reconsider how menu items are prepared and served, and even how it evaluates and hires those who serve food and beverages. There are few boundaries: Menu, décor and service ideas from quick-service, fast-casual and fine-dining segments are under scrutiny.
“Too many times we are just like Chili’s, just like Applebee’s,” says Gregory Burns, O’Charley’s chairman and chief operating officer. “We don’t want to be like everybody else. We want the customer to visit us realizing not only are they getting a great value, but they’re getting great service.
“I want people to come in and say ‘I paid $20, but that was a $30 experience.’”
The revolution’s prototype restaurant was scheduled at press time to open last month in Hendersonville, Tenn. While guests may not notice the new logo incorporating the chain’s “Good Food. Good Times” brand positioning over the door, the company hopes that, once inside, they experience something new and better. The 167-seat restaurant will provide O’Charley’s management with customer feedback as the chain moves to perfect a new restaurant design.
A kitchen display system for orders is an important upgrade. Traditionally used by quick-service restaurants, the system displays every item ordered on a computer monitor above a kitchen station. All items in an order are bundled together, and the computer staggers cooking times so all components can be plated simultaneously.
“A well-done steak takes 12 minutes to cook, while chicken fingers take three. So nine minutes after the steak starts cooking, the computer cues the fry person to cook the chicken fingers,” says Geoff Kokoszka, who heads the Project RevO’lution team.
The ordering procedures used in other O’Charley’s units requires that each order be printed on paper tickets, which then are distributed to different kitchen stations. Kokoszka says the test system helps cooks work more efficiently, avoids having meal components wait under heat lamps and reduces the need for verbal communication—aka shouting—in the kitchen.
“The kitchen staff is accustomed to yelling,” he says. “With this new system, stress and noise are greatly reduced. The kitchen is calmer and quieter. And the food comes up more consistently than with the ticket system.”
Solid Service
While O’Charley’s is integrating quick-service kitchen techniques, it is incorporating fine-dining methods in service. The chain has modified host, server and manager responsibilities to maximize guest satisfaction.
For instance, the company tested a process in which the host explains the day’s menu specials while seating members of a party. That approach didn’t work, but O’Charley’s is considering other ways to better involve hosts in improving guest satisfaction.
“You don’t come up with something in a boardroom and then go roll it out,” Burns says. “You test it and see how customers respond.”
O’Charley’s is looking at people as well as process. Burns says it will rely on more personality testing to find the best managers, servers and other employees for the restaurant.
“We’re not going to hire someone who can’t take care of a guest who says his meal is not right,” Burns says. “If you have a server who can’t handle that, you’re creating an issue.
“And you don’t want a floor manager who is more comfortable doing a drive-by [conversation] versus stopping and schmoozing with the guest.”
Other customer-satisfaction initiatives include adding curbside takeout service, an amenity offered by more-upscale competitors such as The Cheesecake Factory and Maggiano’s Little Italy, as well as by midscale chains such as Applebee’s Neighborhood Grill & Bar and Chili’s Grill & Bar.
Décor Decisions
Of course, many of O’Charley’s competitors share its belief that casual dining needs to evolve, and they are pursuing their own brand-enhancement initiatives. Leawood, Kan.-based Houlihan’s is opening restaurants with a new interior design sporting brighter colors, a display kitchen, modern bar tops and patio seating. Its revamped menu features Asian-influenced menu items such as tuna won tons and Thai-chile Buffalo wings.
Columbus, Ohio-based Max & Erma’s also is trying lighter colors in dining rooms and lighter entrées—including new salads—on its menu. Plano, Texas-based Bennigan’s Grill & Tavern has added a smaller-size express format and revamped the menu at full-size restaurants.
O’Charley’s executives were hesitant to detail interior-design changes at the Henderson, Tenn., prototype before its opening but they hinted that the makeover would include new carpet, wallpaper, upholstery, lighting and décor. However, they stress that it is a test location where a variety of options may be evaluated, not O’Charley’s set-in-stone look for the future. How customers respond will determine which ideas are rolled out systemwide, which are modified and which discarded and rethought.
Management does say that it has replaced the chain’s plain china with serviceware bearing a green, burgundy and yellow pattern. Servers, traditionally decked in bright shirts and jeans, will now wear muted tones and black pants.
The restaurants also will receive renovated exteriors. O’Charley’s striped awnings will be replaced with green ones, and the neon signs will be replaced with sleeker white signage.
“This is all about enhancing the customer’s experience,” says Kokoszka.
Survey Says
As O’Charley’s works to perfect a new restaurant design and operations model, the chain plans to rely heavily on customer feedback to choose a look.
At its test store in Hendersonville, Tenn., servers and managers will ask customers to take an online survey about their dining experiences. “We’ll be asking them questions geared specifically to the impression customers had about guest satisfaction,” says Geoff Kokoszka, who heads Project RevO’lution for O’Charley’s.
Customers who complete the survey will receive coupons for free appetizers or check discounts, he says.
Kokoszka adds that the company is not sure how long it will need to collect data on the changes, but the chain hopes to have finished designing the new look by the fall. |
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