Situation

A large seafood restaurant company with 700 restaurants across North America is pursuing a continued evolution of its stellar customer experience practices.

Challenge

Facing changing customer expectations for seamless experiences on site and digitally, the brand needed to ensure fast, reliable connectivity and sought a provider to serve as a true innovation partner.

Solution

• Managed Broadband

• Dedicated Internet

Results

By rolling out Comcast Business connectivity solutions to its entire footprint, the brand saved 20% on connectivity costs, achieved 50% faster Internet speeds with 99.99% uptime, and realized meaningful improvements to customer satisfaction ratings.

“Networking was historically seen as a keep- the-lights on function. But I put it under digital guest experience. All of our operating capabilities rely on the network. The guest relies on the network. The employees rely on it. This is really about the experience of our 40,000 employees and our hundreds of thousands of guests.” - CIO, Leading national restaurant chain

About the Company

Operating a network of 700 establishments across the U.S. and Canada, with a team of over 40,000 devoted employees serving meals to thousands of guests, this major seafood restaurant chain prioritizes serving the freshest food—but is equally committed to delighting customers through in-house dining, takeout, and digital engagement. Their CIO, meanwhile, oversees core IT functions and has taken ownership of digital enablement, loyalty, and digital marketing. That means that IT plays a key role in driving not only customer and employee experience, but measurable business growth.

Challenge: Adapting to the Evolving Fast Casual Dining Landscape

In the dynamic realm of fast casual dining, delivering seamless omnichannel customer experiences, spanning in the restaurant, in- app interactions, online platforms, take-out services, and everything in between, has become table stakes.

While the restaurant garnered prestigious accolades, notably being recognized as one of America’s best large employers and earning acclaim for its innovative rewards program, the restaurant industry’s constant evolution demands a commitment to enhancing and optimizing digital strategies to drive business outcomes.

Faced with customer expectations for seamless on-site digital experiences and an imperative to embrace new innovative technologies to support business initiatives, technology leaders at the restaurant knew they needed a reliable and scalable network foundation that required minimal oversight.

A Trusted Partner—and a Path Forward— through Managed Connectivity

Starting in 2020, the company partnered with Comcast Business to deploy managed broadband and Dedicated Internet across 500 of its 700 locations. Following the initial implementation, IT leaders were pleased with the service quality and reliability at the sites serviced by Comcast Business and noted that having a single point of contact and a trusted managed service provider was invaluable.

Leveraging Comcast Business’s professional installation and activation services, the chain expanded Comcast Business Managed Broadband and Dedicated Internet to the remaining 200 locations.

By bringing Comcast Business’ reliable connectivity and human-touch-empowered managed services to the entire company footprint, the restaurant can better support and roll out strategic customer and employee experience initiatives, uniting front-of-house, and back- of-house systems to enhance personalization, reduce friction, and help streamline operations. Meanwhile, Comcast Business provides network lifecycle management, offering tailored design, implementation, monitoring, scalability, security measures, customer support, and proactive upgrades to ensure optimal and evolving network performance.

Improvements in CX, EX, and Operations, Enabled by Reliable Connectivity

After rolling Comcast Business’ connectivity and managed services to all 700 locations, the business achieved a 20% decrease in connectivity costs while realizing a 50% boost in Internet speeds. With more widely available Dedicated Fiber to its business locations and reliable service with 99.99% uptime, the reliability of Comcast Business has significantly improved the brand’s ability to serve customers in-store and online while improving integration with third-party delivery partners.

Seamless Customer Experience

At every touchpoint, customers should feel seen and valued. For the loyalty programming at the heart of the brand’s customer experience program, that means guests should have a great experience, whether signing up, reserving a table, or earning and redeeming points. Fast and reliable connectivity inside the restaurant is crucial for guests using devices on site. The improvement in Internet speeds for guests has directly led to increases in guest satisfaction.

Workforce Support

The restaurant chain has completely digitized order taking and orchestration with servers using tablets to take orders and process payments. This not only helps improve workforce efficiency and order accuracy but also keeps servers more present and engaged with guests.workforce efficiency and order accuracy but also keeps servers more present and engaged with guests.

Reduced Operational Complexity

The brand’s disparate systems—tracking inventory, waste, production speed, must integrate in real-time. Fast and reliable connectivity is non-negotiable, with every order and transaction relying on WiFi.

“Strengthening the business has to do with having technology in the restaurants that is reliable. Connectivity fundamentally underpins initiatives that help us wow the guests, help us wow the employees, and help us deliver operational excellence.” — CIO, Leading national restaurant chain

But at the end of the day, the difference maker, the CIO says, is having a trusted partner on the path to digital transformation.

The Future is Served: A Strong Partnership Grounded in Innovation

Even at the forefront of guest and employee experience in the food and beverage industry, there’s plenty of green space ahead. The brand plans to utilize Comcast Business’ robust

network infrastructure for powering advanced technologies such as AI and IoT for predictive maintenance and energy management. By redefining networking as a growth driver for business and strategically choosing Comcast Business as a partner in their digital transformation––an industry leader stands ready for what’s next

“The thing that you really can’t put a number to is having one partner to work with. The network is a very, very important, key piece of our infrastructure, our guest experience, and our operational experience. I’ve got one partner I can talk to, and that has a lot of value to me.” – CIO, Leading national restaurant chain