How Huddle House found success through innovating during challenging times.

By Troy Tracy, Huddle House

The Situation/Early Response

Huddle House, like many full-service restaurants, faced a hard challenge as the pandemic hit the United States in March 2020. Operators that depended on dine-in service as their main revenue source quickly saw business decline as statewide mandates changed. In the thick of this crisis, our team at Huddle House — while anxious — chose to sit down and focus in on the factors that we could control to keep our restaurants afloat and not on the elements that were out of our hands.

Oftentimes our ideas were informed and influenced by the feedback we received from franchisees who adapted and innovated on the fly.”

One of our first initiatives was to establish the “Huddle Market,” transitioning our locations into a grocery-store style operation helping to bring items like meat, produce and toilet paper to the neighbors we served, helping them stay stocked for the hard days ahead. Th is gave us our first opportunity to explore curbside pick-up. Coinciding with this success, we moved quickly to adjust our operations so that a more elevated form of off -premise dining could become a standard that our franchisees could easily implement and leverage to stay profitable.

As June 2020 came and state restrictions began to lift, our team put their heads together to reinvent Huddle House for off-premise domination, starting with reinventing our prototype and developing a guidance manual for franchisees. We dubbed the operation, “Outside of the Huddle.”

The Planning and Off-Premise Integration

Developing the “Outside of the Huddle” operations manual was a team effort. The plan detailed how current franchisees could retrofit their locations to incorporate pick-up windows, create parking lot modifications and develop appropriate signage to direct third-party delivery drivers and customers alike to appropriate areas for contactless curbside pick-up. Oftentimes our ideas were informed and influenced by the feedback we received from franchisees who adapted and innovated on the fly.

Another important element we had to implement was the integration of online ordering and third-party delivery partnerships. Before the pandemic, only 30 out of 340 of our restaurants had the technology infrastructure to manage these valuable tools. But by the end of 2020, 92 percent of open locations had successfully adapted and incorporated third-party delivery and online ordering with a curbside pick-up option into their daily operations.

In addition, franchisees swiftly added third-party pick-up cubbies for contactless food retrieval in the restaurants, expo monitors to make sure that food arrived to customers hot and ready, and for locations with dine-in capability, added plexiglass partitions in booths allowing for a safe, socially distanced dining experience for guests. Today, over 100 locations use booth barriers and an increasing amount of franchise restaurants are successfully adding pick-up windows to their building design, with the Huddle House manual supporting them along the way. Overall, 99 percent of our restaurants across the country have integrated one or more of these off-premise tools. We are proud to note that as our plans evolved, our franchisees truly stepped up and seamlessly implemented our guidelines without question or pause, showing their trust in our system.

With all of these alterations in place, our team began to redesign the restaurant prototype in a manner that fit well with these operational adjustments.

The Prototype and Thoughts for the Future

As we realized that each area we served had its own specific needs, our team decided to approach our prototype redesign in the same manner. Our goal was to create multiple models to meet the unique needs of franchisees and guests alike.

The first design we’ve developed is the EVO2000, which focuses on a location that is optimized for drive-up and curbside pick-up. The location model is roughly 2,150 sq. ft. and holds 70 seats in the dining area. The site has a rectangular design optimizing the location for off-premise dining. The restaurant has a glass entrance ready for quick food pick-up and a space for one pick-up window for online orders, only allowing customers to have two ways of engaging in a contactless and socially-distanced experience.

Our employees and staff members during the most challenging times of the pandemic rolled up their sleeves and came to work each day with a great attitude to serve our guests compassionately.”

The second design is our EVO85 model. This restaurant layout is slightly larger with capacity for 85 dine-in seats and includes the same off-premise dining operational elements. This model is geared more towards sites where a larger dine-in capacity is required to accommodate the larger population of the town the restaurant resides in. To optimize operational efficiencies, both prototype models provide franchisees with specific design recommendations on the orientation of the pick-up window and guidance on how the parking lot can be constructed to support traffic flow. These designs outline an optimal parking lot configuration, allowing customers to wait for orders previously placed and complete their contactless curbside pick-up. Through the prototype redesign, Huddle House has given customers multiple ways of engaging with the restaurant, whether it is dine-in or off-premise.

Moving forward, these designs will be used as the reference plans for all new Huddle House locations. Plus, for existing franchisees, we have included retro-fitting design plans in the manual giving them the opportunity to invest in building adjustments that will benefit their restaurant long-term.

How to Continue Surviving the Pandemic

While 2020 did supply everyone in the restaurant industry with a number of challenges, it also gave us a great opportunity to refocus our business efforts and reflect on what is most important: focusing on what you can control and taking care of your employees and staff.

Looking back, I realized quality work and innovation comes only when you’re laser-focused on the task at hand. Getting distracted by less important matters and worrying about obstacles that are out of our control rob us all of precious time to innovate and move our brands ahead.

More importantly though — take care of the employees and staff that contribute so much to the brand. Our employees and staff members during the most challenging times of the pandemic rolled up their sleeves and came to work each day with a great attitude to serve our guests compassionately. Their diligence and strength allowed Huddle House to continue to support their communities every day. As we move forward, we must never lose sight of their sacrifice and continue to make decisions that put their safety and security at the forefront.

Troy Tracy is the COO of Huddle House. With more than 15 years of multi-unit corporate leadership, Tracy brought extensive experience to the Huddle House team when he joined in 2013. Tracy previously ran operations for numerous national brands including Arby’s Restaurant Group, Captain D’s, McAlister’s Deli and Pizza Hut. For more information and franchise opportunities for International Franchise Association (IFA) franchisor member Huddle House, visit franchise.org/franchise-opportunities/huddle-house-inc.