May 20, 2022

Photo by istock.com May 20, 2022 Focus Brands International , a developer of global multi-channel foodservice brands, is teaming up with consulting and outsourcing firm Auxis, on an international franchise operations support center. The Customer Experience Center of Excellence, in Heredia, Costa Rica will offer continuous operational review, coaching and analytical support to franchisees across the globe, according to a press release. "Our job is to help our franchisees amplify their success. The CECE allows us to have eyes and ears into their operations, greatly enhancing our ability to achieve this goal," Beto Guajardo, president of Focus Brands International, said in the release. "Never before have we had the employee bandwidth or the resources to visit over 1,850 stores in 63 countries on a regular basis," Jim Holthouser, CEO of Focus Brands LLC, said in the release. "The CECE is an incredible advancement in operations and training that came together at the perfect time. These new virtual capabilities will undoubtably shape the future of global franchising." When a customer experience coach delivers an operations excellence review, the software powering the virtual visit is a software solution developed in partnership with RizePoint, a software services provider. "RizePoint's Quality Management Platform automates OER tasks, the operational data collection for each coaching session and provides the built-in business intelligence needed to perform the analysis and quickly execute recommendations," Kari Hensien, president and CEO of RizePoint, said in the release. "Focus Brands International's innovative approach to conducting OERs will enable quality assurance and global consistency in meaningful and measurable ways at every location." The coaches will virtually visit every store four to six times per year to deliver an OER with the store operators in their native language during their normal business hours. "We couldn't be more excited to partner with Focus Brands to help execute on their innovative vision for delivering world-class operations support," Raul Vega, founder and CEO of Auxis, said in the release. "The CECE will enable the ability to collect the facts and figures that contribute to operational success in a way that is affordable, achievable and a game changer in the industry. We now have the unique ability to provide analytical insights that will help correlate store improvements to financial performance, from one central location." Atlanta-based Focus Brands is the franchisor and operator of more than 6,400 restaurants, cafes, ice cream shops and bakeries in the U.S., the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam and over 55 foreign countries under the Auntie Anne's, Carvel, Cinnabon, Jamba, Moe's Southwest Grill, McAlister's Deli, and Schlotzsky's brand names, as well as the Seattle's Best Coffee brand on certain military bases and in certain international markets.