The challenge

D&D Management Enterprises is a Jimmy John’s restaurant franchisee with 30 locations in and around Salt Lake City, Utah. The company is currently building its 31st store and plans to continue growing, so its executives recently decided it was time to tackle their communications struggles. They wanted to move away from email, which was an ineffective method for reaching several hundred hourly employees who were always on the go. With this in mind, D&D went in search of a better approach.

 

One of their goals was to give all employees an easy way to get in touch with the central office – whether a payroll person, one of the founders, or another leader – while enabling executives to stay connected with store managers and workers. When one area manager started experimenting with the Crew platform, D&D’s leadership quickly saw that this mobile service could perfectly meet its needs, and decided to roll out Crew Enterprise to all 30 stores.

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“Crew has become a meaningful part of our business. Our employees are better informed and more confident, so they feel valued and are happier overall. This means they do quality work and stay with us longer, which ultimately ensures a great experience for our customers.”

Robert Madsen,
CFO, D&D Management

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The solution

Today, Crew is the predominant channel for all messaging across the organization – including day-to-day discussions within restaurant teams, chats between the central office and store managers, and company-wide announcements. Within Crew, D&D created 37 groups for targeted communications, including one for each location, as well as for the executive team, area managers, store managers, catering managers and central office staff. Administrators can send out posts from Crew’s Command Center, and be sure they immediately reach the appropriate audiences on their preferred devices.

 

For example, D&D’s leadership team takes turns sharing personal experiences, stories about why they work there or uplifting quotes weekly. In addition these inspirational posts, the corporate team often distributes training or benefits updates via Crew, and can broadcast open enrollment reminders and instructions to every eligible employee. At the same time, store workers frequently use Crew to reach out to their team and ask for shift coverage. Other employees see those messages and can pick up extra hours when interested.

 

General managers for nearby stores leverage Crew to communicate with each other when they want to share employees or inventory. If one location realizes they baked more bread than necessary on a certain day, they just hop on Crew and offer their excess up to other stores in their area in case one of them under-projected and is running low. Managers also post comments or questions about new Jimmy John’s products, food preparation or cleaning processes, and their peers offer useful feedback or suggestions. Finally, they recognize and motivate team members by using Crew’s Gold Stars to publicly award employees that do something great.

The results

By enhancing D&D’s internal communications, Crew connects and unifies teams. Employees now have easy access to all the tools and resources they require to be successful, which improves employee satisfaction and retention. This, of course, is critical to the business, given its challenging employment environment.

 

Crew also frees up manager time from passing along news or tracking down people to fill in for shifts when someone calls out. And since D&D’s executives have visibility into conversations happening in each store or area, they can offer assistance, training or support. This all helps the organization run smoothly, avoid waste and ensure a positive employee experience. In turn, since stores can better manage their staffing levels and share best practices to enhance work quality, Crew helps prevent mistakes and improve customer service.

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Robert Madsen, chief financial officer of D&D, noted, “Crew is fantastic, because it gives us the ability to get in touch with every employee, all the way down to our newest staff member making sandwiches.” Lowry Akers, Director of HR and Compliance at D&D, added, “It’s a great way to bring everyone together at once, as opposed to making a bunch of individual calls or store visits. When people get a Crew notification on their watch or phone, they see it much faster than they might see an email, so they don’t miss out on important corporate news or policy updates.”