Burger King wants staff to give off a 'positive aura' by offering cardboard crowns and saying 'you rule' to every customer
- Burger King wants to exude a "positive aura" by having staff say "you rule" to every customer.
- The CEO of the chain's largest US franchisee also wants staff to offer customers a cardboard crown.
The CEO of Burger King's largest US franchisee is rolling out some new customer service initiatives at her restaurants.
Deborah Derby, who runs Carrols Restaurant Group Inc., told Bloomberg that her staff will be required to say "you rule" to customers. The phrase was a tagline introduced by Burger King in 2022.
This, Derby says, will generate a "positive aura" in the restaurants.
And it's not just greetings. Derby also expects her staff to offer the restaurant's signature cardboard crowns to every customer.
"Say it's a guy who's like 38 years old, no kids in the car, and I got to say to him: 'Do you want a crown?'" Derby told Bloomberg.
"You can't help but smile when you say that, and he can't help but laugh back. It forces that extra two minutes of engagement," Derby continued.
Derby said that the company will be enforcing these practices by conducting store visits.
The announced changes come amid a renewed focus by Burger King on customer satisfaction. The burger chain announced a $400 million plan back in 2022 to ramp up sales and franchisee performance.
Patrick Doyle, the chairman of Burger King's parent company Restaurant Brands International, told investors that they were eliminating underperforming franchisees.
"There will always be a minority who aren't dedicated enthusiastic operators, and that's OK. We'll work with them to leave the system and move on to do something else," Doyle said in an earnings call last year.
"There simply is no room for franchisees who are not willing or able to work hard to operate restaurants that are better than the system average over the long term," he continued.
Representatives for Burger King and Carrols Restaurant Group Inc. did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.