What Processes Make Taco Bell a Popular Restaurant Chain? Tips from Taco Bell's Head Of Operation

Misa: Yeah, and we actually have an opening coming now in December. We’re opening our 17th store in Tampere. So we already have one store in Tampere, and a second one is coming. About expansion, Finland is not that big, so we also have to be. You don’t want to just take any kind of location just to have locations. You need to also make business, and it has to make sense in that way.

So what we are doing is that we’re looking at different places, and when we get something interesting, then, of course, we start calculating, will this be, what do we think it’s going to sell? What do we think about how long it’s going to take it to pay it back? And then either we go forward or we don’t. But I would say we’re really smart about it, that we don’t have a need to make a lot of stores. We want to make it like that they make sense.

Carl: Yeah. All right. And if you look then to Finland as a whole, and you say, now 17 outlets, what is the potential of Finland as a country? Can you elaborate on that? Or is this something we shouldn’t discuss? Totally fine if it’s not.

Misa: Yeah, I think the market is a bit different now than it was like 5-10 years ago so I can’t really comment on that. What we have in mind.

Misa: I would say technology gives you a lot of opportunities. And of course, you have to also choose the solutions that make it easier. There are also all kinds of solutions that can make it just harder. But for us, we try to do as much as possible digitally, so that it helps our team in the restaurants and kind of take these tasks out of their hands so that they don’t feel that they’re needed for them to kind of have a person to do that.

Carl: So. If you look into the ecosystem of Taco Bell or the businesses that you help running, what are the technologies that you are using in order to make life easier for both your customers and for your employees?

Misa: Well, food safety is through an app, which we check every day. So it’s really good because that also gives us opportunity when something is wrong. So they will send some kind of alarm to us. So we will find out. And then, as I said, Deliverect brings the orders. And then we have a lot of self service kiosks. Yes. And Finnish people love using this, so they’re not afraid of using technology, which is really good. And that, of course, also helps in that way that more customers can do. There is no, like, queuing that way.

Carl: Sorry to interrupt quickly there, because that intrigues me. If you look at the kiosks versus, let’s say, at the cashier orders, how is that percentage divided? Are there more people using the kiosks than they are using the waiter at the cash desk?

Misa: Yeah, kiosks. I think the kiosks are definitely more used and I think that changed during COVID.

Carl: Of course. Yeah. That is a typical thing that happened. Human contact has been removed.

Misa: Yeah. So it kind of forced you to use other ways. But as I said, Finnish people are not that hesitant with technology. They love using it. So for us, it’s mostly IP. We call it an IP kiosk. But a self service kiosk, that is really a big thing.

Carl: Yeah. And these kiosks, they for sure produce a lot of data. How are you working with that data? Is this something that you’re using on a daily basis or to improve ordering or inventory management or things like that, or how do you do that?

Misa: Yeah, of course we look at the whole data, but of course, from the self service kiosks, of course we investigate and think and could we make it also easier? But most in all, we try to listen to the customer. So I encourage if somebody sees a customer kind of wandering around on the self-serve, go and ask what it is like, do you need any help and so on. And most often then we also get kind of the feedback that it’s really hard to go from this section to that section. And then we’re like. Because it might prevent you from ordering if it’s too difficult. So customer feedback, of course, remains always very important in any case.

Carl: That’s interesting information indeed. Can you tell me or do you want to elaborate? What I find curious is to understand these kiosks. They are often seen as replacers of people. Is this something that is actually true? I mean, can you kind of cut in terms or not find the people that you would need in order to take all of the orders and that you now can replace by a machine. Is this something that is really true or is this a myth?

Misa: Of course, always when new things come in that way, of course it will reduce the time spent on the cashier, so to speak. But then also we have to remember that other things have also come kind of on the kitchen side. So I wouldn’t say for us it has not reduced the manpower because there has been increased on the other side, so to speak, tasks. So what has come more has been like food safety things has come more because of COVID and so one more thing has to be done.

So more tasks are kind of coming on that side and so it has more like shifted. And somebody also has to take care of our self kiosks. They don’t operate on themselves there. So I would say there is not a yes or no, because if we didn’t have those, maybe we should hire them also more, because more tasks have come. But that’s how evolution goes, that something is less, something is more.