Captain D’s Seafood Restaurants
Captain D's Keeps the “Quick” in Quick Service with DIRECWAY
Since its founding in 1969, the big idea behind Captain D’s has been to serve high-quality, quick service seafood. More than 30 years later, this big idea has led to the operation of more than 560 restaurants in 22 states—an industry success story.
Broadband success story
With success, however, comes a multitude of business challenges, including headquarters-to-restaurant connectivity, essential for employee training, dissemination of best practices, and keeping the “quick” in quick service. That’s why Captain D’s returned to its trusted communications partner, Hughes Network Systems, to upgrade its existing satellite network to achieve broadband speeds.
Since moving to a DIRECWAY® Private IP broadband network, Captain D’s has achieved the following key benefits:
- Enhanced customer service
- Higher customer satisfaction scores
- Improved employee training
- Decreased travel costs
Moving to quick-service speed
For years, Captain D’s relied on its legacy satellite network for many of the same applications. However, when the company realized it could achieve even greater productivity by implementing a broadband network to handle its new browser-based applications, vice president of Information Services, Chris Crabtree, called on HNS for a solution.
“The upgrade to broadband was a big decision for us so we devoted a lot of resources to evaluating options and providers,” said Crabtree. “We looked at DSL, cable, satellite, and Frame Relay solutions, but ultimately came back to HNS based on network performance and DIRECWAY’s ability to meet all of our business requirements.”
Before selecting HNS as its broadband partner, Crabtree laid out his business objectives and network criteria. Based on Crabtree’s specifications, the broadband network had to:
- Be replicable at any Captain D’s location, regardless of geography
- Advance the company’s objective to become paperless
- Enable the delivery of companywide training for more than 5,000 employees via the intranet
- Support the chain’s browser-based applications
- Facilitate easy Internet protocol-based monitoring and reporting for each location
Once Captain D’s was ready to proceed, the HNS team installed DW4020 satellite terminals with small dishes at all the restaurants to enable broadband data communication between headquarters and the stores.
Top-notch training
Delivery of training was a critical factor in Captain D’s decision to upgrade to broadband. Given the varied geographic regions and numerous locations, training programs often arrived late, got lost in transit, or by the time managers could get employees together to administer the training, they were out of date.
This led to a lack of continuity in the Captain D’s customer experience. In some cases, recipes were different or promotions were run at different times—or perhaps not at all. Thanks to DIRECWAY Multimedia Services, everyone now receives materials simultaneously and can train at convenient times within the specified period.
With satellite broadband, Captain D’s can better deliver and monitor training to ensure that both the employee and customer experiences are consistent nationally. In fact, since deploying training by satellite, Captain D's has experienced a decrease in worker compensation claims and an increase in customer satisfaction levels. The company attributes this to timely delivery of training.
Bottom-line benefits
Better training and brand consistency weren’t the only business benefits Captain D’s realized when it upgraded to satellite broadband—the company quantified considerable operational cost savings as well:
- Training-related reductions—the chain has all but eliminated training-related travel expenses;
- Quicker customer service—broadband connectivity has shortened customers’ wait time, allowing cashiers to move customers through lines more quickly, which leads to a more positive experience.
HNS as an enabler
According to Crabtree, “HNS’ DIRECWAY services create a national information highway that enables Captain D's to move its business forward. Our plans call for a number of new technology initiatives, but, whatever decisions we make, we know that HNS will be a central part of our operations.”
About Captain D’s
The first Captain D’s opened in Donelson, Tennesee in 1969. In the 30 years since, the chain has grown to 560-plus restaurants in 22 states. Captain D’s believes in being the best neighborhood seafood restaurant for everyone it serves. It has worked hard to expand its niche by providing quality seafood at competitive prices. Because they utilize the best in distribution resources, supply, food manufacturing, and purchasing, they are able to provide their customers with the finest food, available every day. The company is managed by a senior staff that has in excess of 200 years of Captain D’s restaurant experience. Captain’s D’s, Inc. is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee. For additional information, please visit www.captainds.com.