Burger King is reimagining the restaurant manager role to improve service

Burger King’s latest effort to improve the operation of its restaurants involves special shirts.

The fast-food chain, which has spent the bulk of the past five years working to upgrade the way its restaurants are run, is reimagining the manager role, turning them into “Your Way Champions.”

The champions will operate as the point person in the restaurant. They will welcome customers, ensure orders are correct and be available when things are needed. They will be marked by a special uniform, which was sent to stores two weeks ago. The champions made their debut this week.

“This Your Way Champion is a manager who is dedicated and whose priority is to interact with guests first,” Tom Curtis, Burger King’s president, said in an interview. “That doesn’t mean just to satisfy or take care of somebody’s problem. But it’s like the listening line. It’s to get out there and talk to people, and interact with them in the drive-thru, and most importantly in the restaurant.”

The Miami-based chain, which operates 6,700 U.S. locations, is also offering customers a guarantee on its Whopper.

Customers whose burger is not made hot and to their specifications will have it remade on the spot, and they’ll get a coupon for a free Whopper to come back.

For the chain, the champion and the Whopper guarantee are just the latest in a string of efforts to revitalize the brand through improved operations. The company has invested $2 billion in this effort, through remodel incentives tied to operations scores, the acquisition of giant franchisee Carrols Restaurant Group, and marketing investments.

This year, the company made quality improvements to its Whopper, the chain’s signature burger, with higher-quality mayonnaise, an improved bun and jewel box packaging. Curtis then took calls from thousands of customers to find other ideas to make improvements at the chain. Many of these efforts were used in social media marketing.

The efforts are paying off. Same-store sales rose 5.8% in the first quarter, and the chain has outperformed the fast-food market over the past three years.

Taking these steps, however, requires the company go through franchisees. Burger King went through weeks of training for the champions and modeled what their interactions would be like.

“The manager in charge should not be bogged down with expediting at the drive-thru or back in the kitchen making sandwiches,” Curtis said. “Now they have to do that from time to time. But that really should be 20% of their time.

“Twenty percent of their time should be dedicated to training and writing schedules and ordering food. And then 60% of their time should be guest facing.”

For the company, the champions are there to improve hospitality. They will interact with customers in the drive-thru, providing something as simple as a greeting.

“It can be short and sweet,” Curtis said. “Or if the guest wants to talk about something specific, then you know they’ll be there to listen first. But it’s really a proactive relationship with our guests.”