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Hooters: Creating a Culture of Empowered Employees and Elevating the Customer Experience · Leaders in Customer Loyalty, Powered by Loyalty360

• 0:05
  Mark Johnson: Good afternoon, good morning.
• 0:06
  Mark Johnson: This is Mark Johnson from Loyalty 360.
• 0:08
  Mark Johnson: Hope everyone's happy, safe and well.
• 0:09
  Mark Johnson: Want to welcome you to another edition of our Leaders in Customer Loyalty series.
• 0:13
  Mark Johnson: In this series we speak with brand leaders about what they are seeing and hearing on the front lines of the customer channel and brand loyalty.
• 0:19
  Mark Johnson: Today we have the pleasure of speaking with Cheryl Kish.
• 0:22
  Mark Johnson: She's the Chief People Officer at Hooters of America.
• 0:26
  Mark Johnson: How are you today?
• 0:28
  Cheryl Kish: I'm doing awesome, Mark.
• 0:29
  Cheryl Kish: Thanks for having me on.
• 0:30
  Mark Johnson: Absolutely.
• 0:31
  Mark Johnson: Thank you very much for taking the time.
• 0:32
  Mark Johnson: First off, can you tell us a little bit more about yourself and your role with Hooters?
• 0:38
  Cheryl Kish: Yeah, so I am a Hooters veteran.
• 0:41
  Cheryl Kish: I go back to the early days with the brand, back actually to the late 80s, started out in operations, actually wore the orange shorts as a Hooters girl for a short time.
• 0:51
  Cheryl Kish: I was an operations manager, training general manager and then eventually came to corporate in the early 90s, focused on all things, training and development, and then was promoted, took on HR and I was the first female vice president ever promoted within the brand and that was in the mid 90s and I oversaw all of human resources, training and development, talent management, that sort of thing.
• 1:16
  Cheryl Kish: I've been the company's spokesperson on and off and you know I have done a lot of consulting in the years that followed with the brand the Hooters Casino Hotel and many other projects and then landed back here in late 2019.
• 1:31
  Cheryl Kish: And I'm the first chief people officer for the brand.
• 1:34
  Mark Johnson: That's great.
• 1:35
  Mark Johnson: It's always good to have a chief people officer, and I know you are in the process of celebrating the brand's 40th anniversary.
• 1:43
  Mark Johnson: You're focusing on almost a half million women who have donned the orange shorts over the past 40 years.
• 1:49
  Mark Johnson: You know, as you know, the Hooters largest internal demographic being female.
• 1:54
  Mark Johnson: In what way has the female perspective shaped your strategy, especially with regard to the customer experience and cultivating customer loyalty?
• 2:04
  Cheryl Kish: Yes, we are one of the largest employers of women in the service industry.
• 2:09
  Cheryl Kish: You know we have 198 corporate stores.
• 2:11
  Cheryl Kish: Right now, approximately 370 stores total, including domestic and international franchisee.
• 2:17
  Cheryl Kish: And so, as a female based brand with 70% female demographic within the brand, the first thing we think about is the experiences that we're creating, Mark for the internal customer, the Hooters girl, and, of course, our heart of house, our kitchen, our managers but 70% of the folks are female and so what experiences are we creating for her that's going to drive her belief system right to show up in a way that's going to drive the external customer's belief system that Hooters is the place to go right to create loyalty.
• 2:52
  Cheryl Kish: So you create internal loyalty and then that's going to pass on and create external loyalty.
• 2:58
  Cheryl Kish: So we've been celebrating and elevating and empowering and really focusing on the Hooters girl and who she is and how she shows up and what she experiences.
• 3:08
  Mark Johnson: Okay, the I am initiative at Hooters is focusing on empowering the current Hooters employees through educational initiatives and tuition reimbursement, also trying to nurture, while nurturing, employees to identify the companies and skills they have that may be needed, that are needed to go to the next level.
• 3:27
  Mark Johnson: You know, in what ways does employee satisfaction play into your overall customer satisfaction and loyalty strategy?
• 3:35
  Cheryl Kish: Yeah.
• 3:35
  Cheryl Kish: So we're founded in our serve values, and that starts with our internal customer right, our team members and so show you care, elevate the spirit, value feedback, respect everyone, those sort of things.
• 3:49
  Cheryl Kish: And so we, one of them, value feedback.
• 3:52
  Cheryl Kish: We are constantly asking our team members are Hooters, girls what it is that they need, what is it that they want from us?
• 4:02
  Cheryl Kish: And then they tell us what that is, and so that then results in programs that impact the external guest.
• 4:09
  Cheryl Kish: Whether that's, you know, a new MIT training program or that's a new heart of house kitchen training program, we receive feedback.
• 4:18
  Cheryl Kish: Hey, let's do a menu contest, let's engage the cooks.
• 4:21
  Cheryl Kish: We did that.
• 4:22
  Cheryl Kish: We ended up offering LTOs.
• 4:24
  Cheryl Kish: One of those ends up being on the permanent menu.
• 4:27
  Cheryl Kish: So you know, I'm a, I'm a believer they go hand in hand.
• 4:31
  Cheryl Kish: The internal drives the external.
• 4:33
  Mark Johnson: Excellent, and can you provide an example of a new initiative or change made because of employee engagement or employee feedback that has ultimately enhanced the customer experience?
• 4:46
  Cheryl Kish: Yeah, so I'm going to go.
• 4:47
  Cheryl Kish: I mentioned the MIT training program.
• 4:50
  Cheryl Kish: So feedback from the field when we asked in 2021 was hey, we really need to focus on the new manager coming in.
• 4:59
  Cheryl Kish: We included those team members.
• 5:02
  Cheryl Kish: We included operations, as we do with everything we do.
• 5:05
  Cheryl Kish: We engage them in steering committees.
• 5:07
  Cheryl Kish: They help to create and drive the programs.
• 5:09
  Cheryl Kish: We now have a net promoter score in that program, an internal net promoter score of you know well, over 82, 83%, which is world class.
• 5:19
  Cheryl Kish: We've also driven the turnover of that population down.
• 5:24
  Cheryl Kish: Well, you know as well as anyone, if you're retaining and engaging your managers who are inside the four walls, driving the experience inside the four walls, then that's translating to the guest experience.
• 5:37
  Cheryl Kish: And then the other thing we did which is interesting for this industry is typically, if you start as a new manager in the restaurant industry, you're going to start in the kitchen.
• 5:45
  Cheryl Kish: We flipped that around.
• 5:46
  Cheryl Kish: We said nope, you're going to come to work for Hooters, you're going to start in the front of the house, where the magic happens.
• 5:52
  Cheryl Kish: And so it's all guest centric, guest focused.
• 5:55
  Cheryl Kish: What is the Hooters girl?
• 5:57
  Cheryl Kish: You know, experience like what's happening in the front of the house.
• 6:01
  Cheryl Kish: That comes first with our program.
• 6:07
  Mark Johnson: Excellent During the recent pandemic many organizations focused on take out curbside, pickup, that online, pick up in store, delivering, dine in when available.
• 6:19
  Mark Johnson: So Hooters did a great deal to kind of transform to address the behaviors, the interest at the time.
• 6:26
  Mark Johnson: So the restaurant's employees and the training was focused on that.
• 6:31
  Mark Johnson: Now the customers have returned to dining inside the four walls.
• 6:34
  Mark Johnson: How has the employee training maybe shifted back to optimize that in store dining experience?
• 6:43
  Cheryl Kish: Yeah, a couple of ways.
• 6:44
  Cheryl Kish: So I've mentioned a couple of programs, the I am initiative that acronym stands for image, attitude and memorable, and so we talk about celebrating and empowering the Hooters girl.
• 6:54
  Cheryl Kish: Well, her image yes, there's a certain image.
• 6:58
  Cheryl Kish: Her attitude, she chooses, she defines her attitude as long as it's within.
• 7:02
  Cheryl Kish: You know the Hooters way and the Hooters brand, and then how she makes memory, you know memorable experiences for the guests.
• 7:10
  Cheryl Kish: She's empowered to do that and so it's really, really unique, and so our training with the Hooters girl is all focused around her individuality.
• 7:19
  Cheryl Kish: She's bringing herself to the table, it's not scripted, so there's a huge focus on that.
• 7:26
  Cheryl Kish: We call it the Hooters way, we call it I am, and it all links to really about empowerment and showing up in a way that's memorable for the guests.
• 7:36
  Mark Johnson: Excellent.
• 7:37
  Mark Johnson: Now, have there been any challenges in training these employees who might not have as much experience with dining customers?
• 7:43
  Mark Johnson: You do this transition.
• 7:45
  Mark Johnson: You know how do you overcome some of the challenges on an enterprise scale, especially with the restaurants maybe having less in front of house employees now that they may have had before COVID.
• 7:57
  Cheryl Kish: Yeah, you know, we're a legacy brand 40 years and one of the things we've always said you do not have to have any experience to be a Hooters girl, you just have to bring right that image and that attitude and that engagement.
• 8:11
  Cheryl Kish: So it's not really a challenge for us, because we've always been an organization that looks for that talent in that way, that unique talent, and then allows her to grow.
• 8:23
  Cheryl Kish: But one of the things I think is real interesting the career development piece too.
• 8:26
  Cheryl Kish: So you know all these women coming in and working.
• 8:29
  Cheryl Kish: We have over 40% women that are actually operating our restaurants.
• 8:34
  Cheryl Kish: We also leverage technology, and so it was in 2021, we totally changed out our tech platform, our LMS platform.
• 8:43
  Cheryl Kish: We've digitized all of our training.
• 8:46
  Cheryl Kish: There's no paper anymore.
• 8:47
  Cheryl Kish: At a click of a button, If something's changed, whether it's a menu item or a procedure or whatever a video we want to push out, it's all in real time.
• 8:57
  Cheryl Kish: So it's way more robust, it's way more engaging.
• 9:01
  Cheryl Kish: We are purposely focusing on how the demographic and the learner of today wants to learn and needs to learn.
• 9:07
  Cheryl Kish: We've put everything in Power BI.
• 9:10
  Cheryl Kish: We've got dashboards for all of that.
• 9:12
  Cheryl Kish: We incentivize training.
• 9:15
  Cheryl Kish: So I'm really, really proud of what we're currently doing there and we're getting ready next to actually bring in a Hooters Girls Steering Committee that's going to help us with I'm going to call Hooters Girls 4.0, right Just to go with the 40th anniversary theme where these Hooters Girls of today are going to help us define the Hooters Girls of tomorrow and what that means when it comes to customer service and creating loyalty and experience in the restaurant.
• 9:44
  Mark Johnson: Okay, excellent.
• 9:44
  Mark Johnson: When you look at personalization, it's critical in maintaining customer loyalty.
• 9:49
  Mark Johnson: It's a top of mind topic for members of Loyalty 360 and into all the brands that we talk about or talk to, should I say.
• 9:56
  Mark Johnson: You know how is Hooters leveraging their customer data to capitalize on personalization in your brands?
• 10:03
  Mark Johnson: You know branding and customer loyalty efforts.
• 10:07
  Cheryl Kish: So we're doing a better and better job of that.
• 10:09
  Cheryl Kish: This is fairly new for us.
• 10:11
  Cheryl Kish: I think we shared with you earlier on that we've enhanced the resources that we're bringing in to totally focus on loyalty.
• 10:22
  Cheryl Kish: We know that brands I don't have to tell you this, you're an expert in it need to use data to better engage with their customers and enhance personalization.
• 10:29
  Cheryl Kish: You know these loyalty programs, our loyalty programs, help to drive customer retention, generate revenue, brand growth, and so we get to collect that critical demographic information name, age, email addresses and then their preferences.
• 10:44
  Cheryl Kish: That's going to help drive it will want to help us understand our customer base right, and then we're going to be able to segment the audience and create these personalized marketing campaigns.
• 10:54
  Cheryl Kish: You know whether that's and for experiences that they may not be able to get anywhere else.
• 10:58
  Cheryl Kish: So whether that's hey, they want to, they love coming in and watching, the UFC events that we have going on, or it's family related events, or we have a promotion going on in the restaurant World Series fans, those sort of things.
• 11:12
  Cheryl Kish: So that's how we're leveraging that data and, of course, we continue to focus on that and level up in our ability to do that.
• 11:20
  Mark Johnson: Okay, and when you look at personalization and being able to do it at scale, how does that align with the evolving customer expectations that you have?
• 11:30
  Cheryl Kish: Well, I think that guests expect you know we all of us, right we're all loyal customers somewhere of different brands.
• 11:39
  Cheryl Kish: And you know we expect our rewards program to be personal and tailored to our needs.
• 11:44
  Cheryl Kish: And that's and the Hooters customers are no different we want them to be rewarded not only for the dollar amount that they spend with us, but the loyalty to our brand.
• 11:53
  Cheryl Kish: And we, my goodness, we have such loyalty to the Hooters brand and such brand recognition, and so we're.
• 12:01
  Cheryl Kish: You know it's important, it's personalized so that it can be exclusive to their needs.
• 12:06
  Cheryl Kish: And then we also want our guests to feel like they're a part of something bigger than themselves.
• 12:11
  Cheryl Kish: Hooters really is a lifestyle brand.
• 12:13
  Cheryl Kish: When you think about the NIL or the partnerships that we have, whether that's with NASCAR or golf or whatever it is different colleges, or it's our virtual brands or whatever that is, you know they feel a part of something bigger than themselves and we've got a tailor to that.
• 12:32
  Cheryl Kish: So we do appeal to a broad base.
• 12:35
  Mark Johnson: Okay, great.
• 12:35
  Mark Johnson: Can you provide us a brief overview of your loyalty program?
• 12:39
  Mark Johnson: Hoot Club rewards?
• 12:40
  Mark Johnson: You know how does the program work, how do members engage with it and what are the benefits for being a member.
• 12:46
  Cheryl Kish: Yeah.
• 12:46
  Cheryl Kish: So right now, our loyalty program is visit based.
• 12:49
  Cheryl Kish: We encourage frequency and getting our guests, of course, to make return visit, whether that's a dine in or you know, it's you know first party, meaning they're ordering through our app or online and they're coming and picking it up.
• 13:02
  Cheryl Kish: We have four tiers that guests work their way up through, and then there's rewards given along the way for every eighth visit.
• 13:09
  Cheryl Kish: Everything can be tracked in our app or when you log into the account online.
• 13:13
  Cheryl Kish: Some of the perks might be get a free appetizer or just for signing up, or 10 free wings on your birthday.
• 13:19
  Cheryl Kish: But what the team is really working hard on right now is to leverage the data, as we talk about earlier, and the key events that our restaurants offer, and then we can send out those exclusive offers and rewards to our loyalty guests.
• 13:35
  Mark Johnson: Excellent when you look at other programs regarding customer loyalty are there some programs out?
• 13:41
  Mark Johnson: There that you are loyal to, that you admire from a customer loyalty perspective, and what do you like about their offerings and are there elements from those programs that you would like to leverage for or apply to Hoot Club?
• 13:54
  Cheryl Kish: Well, I mean one that comes to mind is Marriott Bonvoy.
• 13:56
  Cheryl Kish: As a matter of fact, I'm booking a trip to New York soon and I'm looking at my Marriott Bonvoy and so for me personally, it would be that I think with Marriott, it's that they're driving maybe trips or visits that you wouldn't necessarily make, but you're going to make it now because if I go on these certain nights or whatever, I'm going to get a thousand extra points or whatever it is.
• 14:21
  Cheryl Kish: Sephora does a great job.
• 14:23
  Cheryl Kish: You're racking up those dollars at Sephora and, of course, you know we all talk about Starbucks and you know we're not going to, we're not going to do anything without making sure that we're using our app and our loyalty program.
• 14:34
  Cheryl Kish: But Starbucks, I think about my mom and she's a Kohl's shopper and there's constant information coming in and rewards, whether it's Kohl's or Macy's.
• 14:44
  Cheryl Kish: So those are a few that come to mind.
• 14:48
  Mark Johnson: Excellent.
• 14:48
  Mark Johnson: And when you look at your team, how can Loyalty 360 help you and your team and your customer experience?
• 14:54
  Mark Johnson: Customer loyalty efforts.
• 14:56
  Cheryl Kish: Yeah, I mean loyalty is evolving at such a fast pace.
• 15:00
  Cheryl Kish: I mean I think Loyalty 360 is a great association that can provide valuable resources, networking opportunities, best practices I mean keeping us up to date with industry trends, what's coming next, storytelling, whatever can be shared in those best practices so that we can remain competitive and in the know and on top of things, because it is moving so fast.
• 15:26
  Mark Johnson: Excellent.
• 15:26
  Mark Johnson: Well, thank you for that feedback.
• 15:28
  Mark Johnson: Sure, very helpful.
• 15:28
  Mark Johnson: Now we have our fun lightning round quick fire question segments.
• 15:33
  Mark Johnson: We like to have one word or short phrase answers, so we'll go ahead and kick this off.
• 15:38
  Mark Johnson: And what's your favorite word?
• 15:41
  Cheryl Kish: Alignment.
• 15:42
  Mark Johnson: Excellent.
• 15:42
  Mark Johnson: What is your least favorite word?
• 15:44
  Cheryl Kish: How about a phrase?
• 15:45
  Cheryl Kish: We've tried that already.
• 15:47
  Cheryl Kish: That is my least favorite.
• 15:49
  Mark Johnson: Excellent.
• 15:49
  Mark Johnson: What excites you?
• 15:53
  Cheryl Kish: Seeing the light in young team members eyes and creating beliefs in them, and empowering you know, our team members, so that they can grow and become whomever they want to be.
• 16:04
  Mark Johnson: Okay, what do you find tiresome Negativity?
• 16:07
  Mark Johnson: What is your favorite restaurant other than Hooters?
• 16:12
  Cheryl Kish: Gosh.
• 16:12
  Cheryl Kish: Atlanta has so much to offer, right, we just became, you know, michelin five star.
• 16:15
  Cheryl Kish: I'm going to put it out there.
• 16:19
  Cheryl Kish: This Persian restaurant, rumi, right now, is one that's on my radar.
• 16:24
  Mark Johnson: Okay, what profession, other than the one you're currently in, would you like to attempt?
• 16:30
  Cheryl Kish: If I was a younger woman I'd attempt broadcasting news, anchor, telling, storytelling, that sort of thing.
• 16:36
  Mark Johnson: Okay, and what profession would you avoid?
• 16:39
  Cheryl Kish: Oh goodness, anything that has me siloed, with no team interaction or collaboration.
• 16:46
  Mark Johnson: Okay, who inspired you to be the person that you are today?
• 16:51
  Cheryl Kish: I've had a couple of great executive coaches and mentors in my career who really brought out of me the belief in the value that I can bring, and I'm thankful to them for that.
• 17:08
  Mark Johnson: And what do you typically think about at the end of the day?
• 17:12
  Cheryl Kish: Have I made a difference?
• 17:13
  Mark Johnson: Excellent, and how do you want to be remembered by your friends and family?
• 17:17
  Cheryl Kish: I want to be remembered as encouraging, as somebody who empowered others, in particular in making women's lives better and really again celebrating and elevating and educating and empowering the women that I come in contact with.
• 17:35
  Mark Johnson: Excellent.
• 17:36
  Mark Johnson: Well, Cheryl, thank you very much for taking the time to speak up to say it was great to know a little bit more about you and also a good to hear more about the Hoot Club program.
• 17:45
  Mark Johnson: Sounds like you have an amazing, robust program and looking forward to hearing more about it in the upcoming years.
• 17:50
  Mark Johnson: So thank you very much for taking the time to share that all with us today.
• 17:54
  Cheryl Kish: Yeah, no, thank you for having us.
• 17:55
  Mark Johnson: Thank you everyone for taking the time to listen.
• 17:57
  Mark Johnson: Make sure you join us back for another edition of Leaders in Customer Loyalty series soon.
• 18:01
  Mark Johnson: Until then, have a wonderful day.