We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Sarah Cook. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Sarah below.
Sarah, appreciate you joining us today. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?
To be successful as a restaurant franchisee, you need a strong understanding of financial management, excellent customer service skills, the ability to follow established systems and procedures, a commitment to maintaining brand standards, a strong work ethic, and a willingness to actively engage with the franchisor for support and guidance, all while ensuring consistent quality in food and service across all aspects of the operation.
With regards to financial acumen, I have had to build a deep understand of profit and loss statements, inventory management, cost control, and the ability to analyze key performance indicators (KPI’s) to identify areas of improvement. From an operational expertise perspective, I have worked extremely hard to adhere to the franchisor’s established operating procedures, ensuring quality standards are met consistently, and managing staff effectively to deliver a smooth customer experience. Furthermore, I have continued to hone my marketing and sales skills by utilizing the franchiser’s marketing materials, implementing local marketing strategies, and actively engaging with the community to drive customer traffic. When it comes to customer service focus, prioritizing exceptional customer service, resolving issues promptly, and building positive relationships with patrons to encourage repeat business is no easy feat. I have also learned to rely upon my previous leadership and team building skills by motivating and developing a primarily young workforce fostering a positive work environment, and delegating tasks effectively. As it pertains to compliance and brand standards, it is so important to follow all of the franchisor guidelines regarding branding, menu items, uniforms, and overall presentation to maintain brand consistency. This can be challenging, especially when the removal of a menu item does not make sense for your particular market where that item sells extremely well and ultimately effects your bottom line. I work closely with corporate to ensure open communication and collaboration, seeking guidance when needed, and actively participating in the franchisee support networks. Being adaptable and flexible applies every day as the market conditions, customer preferences, and new operational strategies are constantly being introduced, Lastly, to be successful, your business acumen will continue to build over time as you develop a deep understanding for your business’s principles including but not limited to: budgeting, cash flow management, and managing overhead costs.
Sarah, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Personally, my husband and I have a beautiful blended family with seven children ranging in ages 24 down to 8 years old with our girls as the bookends of the family operation :-). I moved quite a bit growing up with a single career-driven mother, mainly up and down the east coast from Maryland up to CT, and then became an exchange student my junior year of high school. I was a very proud recipient of a full scholarship sponsored by the Germany Bundestag and American Congress to study in Berlin, Germany, which completely changed the course of my life. Little did I know, that once I returned stateside, graduated from high school, and began studying at American University in Washington D.C, I would return to Germany for nearly a decade to attend college majoring in international business and economics. I proudly worked at the American Embassy for Business Affairs, and chased my dreams of travel and independance! Not only did I become fluent in a second language and culture, but I also learned so many valuable lessons in Germany, including failure and humility, all the while balanced with leadership and resilience.
My choice to thrive abroad, is ultimately what set me up for a nearly 15 year successful career state side with Humana Insurance, ultimately departing as the Director of Customer Success for our National Commercial Business before becoming a Playa Bowls Franchisee. While on business travel, I frequented Playa Bowls establishments, which at the time were only about 70 nationwide, so imagine to my delight to find something healthy, vegetarian, vitamin rich, and delightfully delicious that would easily satisfy the hungriest of people between back-to-back meetings. I am so proud to state that we source our fruits and vegetables from local farms, as well as worldwide including Nicaragua, Brazil, Thailand, and India. Playa uses the freshest, highest quality ingredients to serve healthy, delicious smoothie bowls, smoothies, juices, coffee, and snacks. Sports and athleticism have always played an important role in my life, and refueling my body in a way that can replenish those lost minerals and electrolytes, is unlike any other alternative. Ultimately the lifestyle, the quality of our ingredients and our excellent focus on customer service and cleanliness, were the driving factors to me pursing a life change to become a franchisee, much like when I chose to become an exchange student and explore new territory oversees.
Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?
Successful franchisees recognize that each interaction with a customer is an opportunity to nurture loyalty, whether it is through attentive support, memorable experience to responsive communication channels. A great example of this is a Playa Bowls customer who’s order was made by a new trainee when we first opened and the order was not correct. The customer was very upset as they had a gluten allergy, and the trainee had not indicated with the proper sticker that we had followed allergy protocols and used the gluten free granola. My Shift Lead at the time was overwhelmed with orders and did not double check the order as it went out, resulting in a frustrated customer who felt unsafe to eat the bowl given their severe gluten allergy. As a result, I pulled the entire team together after hours, and carefully reviewed our allergy protocols, including cutting board procedures, knife procedures, contamination concerns, washing of hands, and glove procedures as well as sticker and communication procedures to the customer to assure them we had taken every necessary precaution to provide them with a gluten free and safe product. I also used our Playa rewards program to refund them their product and invite them back to enjoy two free products with us and assured them this would not happen again. This exemplified how the trust the customer had with my restaurant and staff influenced the quality of service provided and that we would go above and beyond to obtain their loyalty. To this day, this customer is a brand ambassador for us, and continues to bring in friends and family and introduce them to our product, service and caring nature.
In terms of keeping in touch with our guests, if they chose to join our rewards program, they receive texts and emails to keep our brand top of mind, and ultimately enjoy a plethora of discounts which keeps them coming back.
Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?
My experience has taught me to focus on open communication, celebrate achievements providing opportunities for professional development, promoting work-life balance, fostering a positive team culture through team building activities, and actively soliciting employee feedback to address concerns and needs.
Regarding clear communication, I work hard to maintain open and transparent communication channels, actively listening to team members, and ensuring everyone understands expectations and goals clearly. We recently won Q3 top 10 locations of over 200 Playa Bowls locations for introducing our guests to our loyalty program! We are so proud and are celebrating with free Playa Cooler bags for everyone! We also utilize our group chat platform for everyone to communicate needs, wants, and celebrations so everyone can be on the same page without all having to be present in the restaurant at the same time. Lastly, my entire staff, once they are hired, receive my personal cell phone number and are told they may text or call anytime. While my GM’s handle the vast majority of staffing related issues, I want my staff to know I am a very present owner who takes the time to get to know each of them individually and what is important to them. I am in each of my restaurants for at least 4 hours a week working the line just as they are so they can get to know me and vice versa and see I am willing to roll up my sleeves and have a strong understanding of just how difficult their jobs can be at times.
Regarding regular recognition, I like to publicly acknowledge and celebrate both individual and team achievements, providing specific praise for hard work and contributions. This may be a 1 year anniversary, where staff receives a free Playa Merchandise item (up to $50), or a monthly employee of the month $25 gift card to name a few examples.
Professional Development: I offer opportunities to my employees to learn new skills, attend training, and advance their careers within the company, whether that be directly in my restaurants, or even within corporate. Everyone in a leadership position is offered the opportunity to receive their food certification by taking the test successfully and having it paid for by me. I also enjoy connecting employees with other Playa Bowls franchisees so they can continue to work for the brand even though they may be relocating. Lastly, I am a firm believer of promoting from within my organization. My staff knows they must start off as a team member, before being promoted to Shift Lead, followed by Assistant Manager and ultimately General Manager.
As it pertains to work-life balance, I encourage healthy work-life boundaries by offering flexible work arrangements, respecting personal time, and discouraging excessive overtime. This is something I feel the restaurant industry as a whole really needs to pay more attention to in order to avoid burn-out. My staff creates their schedules by indicating non-availability each week, and working to support others with last minute conflicts. My General Managers have each and every weekend off, though they remain on call should any staffing issues arise. Lastly, I am very cognizant of overtime, and my GM’s know, if they have had to work extra hard one week, they will enjoy a much lighter week the following week. I also provide 15 days of paid vacation time per year (not including weekends), which is something unheard of in this industry.
Furthermore, we love our team building exercises! I meet with my leadership team once every two months for an evening of training and fun! This helps strengthen our relationships, improve collaboration, and build a sense of unity and trust. It may or may not involve some crazy taste testing as well of new product and our favorites!
One of the newer items I am working to implement is a feedback loop from staff so that I might better learn through surveys, regular check-ins, or even anonymous reporting mechanisms to address concerns and improve morale. I have seen this be so successful in my previous roles, and look forward to continuing to drive change in this particular arena.
When I onboard individuals personally (before they begin their training in my restaurants with my leadership team), I drive the importance of a positive team culture. I want to encourage collaboration, respect, and a supportive environment where team members feel comfortable sharing ideas and providing constructive feedback. I know for my younger staff members, this is where they can continue to be mentored, in terms of both receiving and providing feedback to not only improve themselves, but help improve others and build confidence.
I also work hard to empower my leadership team to do what they do best, namely delegate tasks and responsibilities, allowing team members to take ownership of their work and make decisions within there scope. Leaders are born in my humble opinion, but if we don’t allow for them to have the opportunity to take on more responsibility, and lead, their natural gift of leadership is squashed and they will look for opportunities elsewhere.
This leads me into another area of leadership by example, where I ask my leaders to demonstrate the desired behaviors and work ethic, showing commitment to the teams goals and values. If they are going to delegate tasks, they need to be simultaneously working on other tasks and willing to walk the walk. At no point in time, would a team member look and see one of my leaders on my team standing around doing nothing.
Lastly, I want to bring up the topic of addressing conflict. I believe in proactively managing conflict within the team by addressing issues promptly and fairly encouraging open dialogue to resolve disagreements. One memorable instance of this was a shift lead I once had who was diagnosed with COVID and per the doctor’s note, was asked to not come to work for five days and remain quarantined. As a result, my General Managers cancelled their plans to all find a way to not only cover their normal 45 hour work week, but also cover this manager’s work week. Needless to say everyone was exhausted and frustrated with the situation when we learned this particular shift lead chose to go to the gym, parties, and spend time staycationing while everyone else pitched in above and beyond. This led to us pulling that shift lead aside together, and helping them understand the consequences of poor decision making. Ultimately, that shift lead chose to leave, rather than owning up to his poor choices and supporting those who had chosen to support him. We learned once again, how important it is that we addressed the issue sooner rather than later and have continuously worked to build an extremely strong leadership team.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.playabowls.com/location/louisville-st-matthews & https://www.playabowls.com/location/middletown-louisville
- Instagram: @playabowlslouisville@gmail,com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/p/Playa-Bowls-Louisville-100086341262098/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-cook-thiess-mba-762b1028/
- Twitter: https://x.com/playabowls?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kABML9CCIEY & https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&sca_esv=12e82f26f75a1e30&sxsrf=ADLYWIJ4Pxo-xJWNqKTeFiAhJRtnmppkFQ:1728584024647&q=playa+bowls+louisville+youtube&spell=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi6soOmtYSJAxWX5MkDHVnEPJoQBSgAegQIChAB&biw=1440&bih=724&dpr=2#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:82e6f863,vid:odDoHyBi2KE,st:0
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/playa-bowls-jefferson-county-2
Image Credits
Photography: Chase Antkies (@antkies_lens) Instagram