Chili’s was once a powerhouse Tex-Mex resto chain. But over the past few years the times – and consumer sentiment – passed Chili’s by. Sales slid. Consumer awareness evaporated. Then Chili’s brain trust had a revolutionary idea: Listen to what the fans say it should do…
We haven’t heard much from or about Chili’s in the past few years. They’ve obviously been sitting on their laurels, relying on repeat business from ‘regulars’, and staying more or less out of the high-profile self-promotion arena…
Hard times
But that stance has resulted in a slide in sales, fans leaving them to explore new (or just different) dining horizons, and a stagnation in their business model.
Not long ago (in resto years, that is), Chili’s parent company, Brinker International, Inc. replaced it’s CEO with hotshot Kevin Hochman (Pictured, left), stolen away from KFC. Who proposed a bold move: ask the brand’s most-loyal fans what to do.
“When I was at Procter and Gamble, they teach lead-ership that includes envisioning where you want to go,” Hochman told Restaurant Business Editor-In-Chief of National Restaurant News (NRN), Jonathan Maze, at the annual Restaurant Leadership Conference. “If I don’t create a vision for our leaders to know where we’re headed, it’s hard to execute anything.”
Not just the obvious stuff
Hockman said he literally went back to basics in ‘fixing’ Chilis: “It’s hard to make repairs pay out. If I fix 500 roofs from leaking, there is no clear payback, but if you don’t do those things, how do you have a concept that’s growing? We have that money in the budget now,” Hochman said. “If something gets in the way of doing the right thing, leaders have to break barriers and stop debating what’s right and start debating how to fund what’s right.”
Let the fans tell you…
The overall strategy was to get back to what Chili’s was before… the fall. Hochman and his team re-viewed social media traffic chronicling complaints about the chain. And created a list of traditionally successful menu items and practices to bring back.
“We talked about these stories and what we were going to do. The menus are tighter, the service is swifter, the restaurants are cleaned and maintained,” Hochman said. “We’re back on social media and relevant. We’re making things easier for managers. Then, we just started doing it and all of those things started building on top of each other.”
He likens the approach to climbing stairs ‘one step at a time’: “The lesson is if you think there is a challenge, and you can’t get there, that’s OK.,” he explains. “But you have to start thinking about how to stair-step where you want to be and create a vision to get there.”
My take
If you want proof Chili’s is back, just look at the financials for the past several quarters. Hochman has been at the helm for three years, now. And in that time the picture has brightened considerably.
The 50-year-old chain has generated staggering sales growth in recent quarters, NRN reports. Last year it eclipsed $4.5 billion in sales – a 15 percent year-over-year increase. In the fourth quarter, the chain hit 31 percent same-store sales growth.
‘Guilty as charged’
I am guilty of what Salon contributor Dan Kois confessed. He hadn’t even stuck his head into a Chili’s in more than a decade.
“At some point, I just determined that there are better restaurants out there. I think it seemed like something that came with adulthood. You could go to a restaurant that wasn’t a corporate chain and that didn’t cook all their food from frozen and that didn’t have a jingle.”
Yes. I admit it. Along with Kois, I – and millions of others – became fast-casual resto snobs.
nevertheless… I’m prepared to admit the error of my ways. We don’t have a Chili’s here in my home town. In fact, the nearest one is 3,332 km / 2070 mi away But next time I’m somewhere they do…
~ Maggie J.