Why BurgerFuel closes all its stores for one day

BurgerFuel hamburger brand will not open its 57 stores tomorrow morning.

Instead, the NZX-listed fast food operator will hold a training day for all 900 of its staff until 4 p.m.

BurgerFuel said it would use closed hours tomorrow to “turn its attention” to its people.

“We have always attached great importance to our service, but as is customary in any franchised business, consistency across the system is often the main challenge,” said Jason Lowery, BurgerFuel country manager, in the statement.

“We always strive to provide a better customer experience, not only with the high quality of our food, but also with our customer service.”

Prior to the Covid-19 outage, BurgerFuel had planned a company-wide ‘People and Culture’ initiative, including implementing a tailored customer experience program.

The brand has just completed the first phase of the planned launch, which consists of intensive full-day workshops created for the brand and delivered to all stores in the country. More workshops will continue tomorrow.

To mark the completion of the first phase, the franchisees will keep their doors closed tomorrow to work with their staff on further “embedding brand values” and the lessons learned from the workshops.

The day would also be an opportunity for BurgerFuel and franchisees to treat staff with a show of appreciation and a little bond with the team, in recognition of their commitment and contribution during what has been a difficult year, the company said.

Multi-store franchise owner James Stevenson said the workshops had so far been “attractive and solution-focused.”

“The best aspect, from a store owner’s perspective, is the way the sessions encourage all staff members to work collectively as a team, to come up with their own common goals on how they want the customer to feel.” .

BurgerFuel said it is committed to being “best in class when it comes to customer service.”