San Churro's latest tech partnerships reveal chain's vision towards personalised digital experiences

Founder Giro Maurici sees menu engineering as part of their accelerated digital roadmap.

Seeing the impact of the pandemic across San Churro’s store network and the industry as a whole, its founder Giro Maurici said the dessert franchise came to a fork in the road.

“Do you quickly shutter up your support office and your support function and just go into hibernation mode to try and save whatever capital you have? Or do we pile on all the chips and continue to press the accelerator?”

Maurici and his team opted for the latter direction, saying they did not need to stand down any staff members from their support office by agreeing to pay cuts.

“We had spent so many years curating the best possible team that, if we were to risk losing, then any prospect of a decent recovery out of this crisis would have been shot,” he told QSR Media. “But in a time of crisis, the honest truth is that we all needed to increase the amount of work and attention we were giving to support our franchise.”

95% of the dessert chain’s 51 stores were able to trade amidst restrictions, with the rest unable to “for reasons beyond their control.” Questions on government support, leasing and a path forward loomed, but Maurici urged partners to focus on what is within their walls whilst they, on the other hand, continue to find ways to generate traffic through their channels.

“It was equal parts leadership, some direction, some guidance, some coaching, but also grounded in some economic and financial sense. Because, in times like this, every dollar counts and the last thing I wanted to do was to see franchise partners making emotional decisions,” he said.

Google deal as “democratization” of customer engagement
For Maurici, accelerating San Churro’s digital transformation was a clear way forward, having partnered with Redcat and Doordash for a direct delivery service whilst teaming up with Google to allow customers to order for pickup or takeaway straight from Google Search or Google Maps.

“We already had a digital roadmap embedded in our strategy and we all knew that the future was in digital channels, in online ordering platforms, in digital engagement and social engagement. It was in converting our printed menus to digital mediums as well. All of those plans were in place,” he explained.
 

San Churro now allows customers to order via Google Search and Google Maps. Photo: Supplied

Maurici also revealed that the Google deal resulted from the POS provider facilitating a meeting between the two companies last year.

“The model that Google presented was, I think, another step in the democratization of chains and restaurants being able to reconnect with a customer and understand who they are and being able to transact with them directly, which we felt was in alignment with our ethos and where we want it to go,” he said, also affirming that such larger, virtual infrastructure will allow the chain to utilise data from all these channels for personalised user experiences.

“For us, the one size fits all model of just sending an EDM out to our customer base once a week with the same offers doesn't cut it anymore in this day and age,” he said.

“Amazon and eBay - these guys have done so well on the retail side of making sure they poke and prod their customers at the right times with the right products they are offering. I guess that's our vision too. Our brand is about providing an experience but for a whole different cross section of society with different motivations and desires.”

Menu engineering, in particular, is part of this vision.

“Coming up to a counter and ordering (on) a paper menu, which is static, is quickly becoming outdated. So we're already looking how we accelerate that move onto a more complete online ordering platform, even for customers in-store so they can be presented something that is relevant to them at their time with their motivation. That's absolutely the dream,” he remarked.

The chain’s quest to acquire more consumer insights is partly the reason why they relaunched their EL SOCIAL membership programme, which have since gotten tens of thousands more new members due to their latest promotions.

Opportunities for further consolidation seen
Aside from a general move to digital, Maurici says the industry might see further consolidation, seeing smaller operators struggling to come out of the crisis. He also expects heightened sensitivity around protocols regarding sanitary procedures.

“It'll be interesting to see how that plays out,” he said.

On their own growth plans, Maurici opts to focus on sustaining their current store’s network’s profits. Negotiations with landlords are also ongoing.

“You can still grow your network by 10 to 15, 20% just by growing sales for each of those stores, rather than seeking another ten. That would be far more satisfying and actually far more sustainable for the brand,” he explained. “The strength of our franchise is built up from the ground up and there is no point adding a store if you have another three that are struggling.”

With their business being traditionally in and around entertainment and leisure precincts in shopping centres, Maurici expressed optimism that some normality would resume, expecting initiatives to drive back traffic.

“I'm pretty upbeat about the assumption of normality, but obviously this is quite an economic shock and it's going to probably take some time for us to get back to where we were,” he said. ###