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Applebee’s customers who want to speak to the manager will no longer have to look very far.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The casual-dining chain is instructing managers to spend less time in their office or the kitchen and more time up front interacting with customers as it looks to improve the service in its restaurants.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s part of a closer focus on operations at Applebee\u2019s, which is working to appeal to price-sensitive consumers with both reasonable prices and a good experience.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhen our guests are going to take an hour and their hard-earned money to spend that with us, we have to make it a really special moment,\u201d said John Peyton, CEO of Applebee’s parent Dine Brands, in an interview.<\/span><\/p>\n Customer feedback provided the chain with one clue on how to do that. Surveys showed that customers who saw or spoke to a manager during their visit tended to have a better experience overall.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Posting managers in the dining room allows them to correct problems immediately, which can help turn a poor experience into an exceptional one. It also allows them to coach up employees in real-time, \u201cwhich is way more effective than during pre-shifts or once a week, once a month when they take a course,\u201d Peyton said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Since making the change, customer satisfaction scores have improved chainwide, he added.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Of course, managers have a lot of responsibilities, and Applebee\u2019s wants to take some things off of their plate so they can \u00a0have more facetime with customers. It\u2019s providing them with more data on their phones, for instance, so they\u2019re not tied to the computer, and it is working to simplify kitchen operations so they can run more smoothly on their own. That plan involves more than a dozen initiatives, including a revamp of kitchen display systems to make them more user-friendly and changes to prep and cooking processes.<\/span><\/p>\n Applebee\u2019s has also just begun rolling out a new POS system from Toast that is expected to have a range of benefits, including some functions that could further free up managers.<\/span><\/p>\n Restaurants industrywide are looking for ways to win over customers who are becoming more choosy with their dining dollars. For many chains, that has meant more value-priced offerings, such as Applebee\u2019s 2 for $25 menu, or the Under $3 Menu at McDonald\u2019s.<\/span><\/p>\n But there\u2019s also been a growing emphasis on service, especially in sit-down dining, with the belief that customers will be more likely to return if they feel well cared for. Outback Steakhouse, for instance, recently reduced its server-to-table ratio to 1:4, from 1:6, to ensure that waitstaff can spend more time with each table, and First Watch has empowered managers to give away the occasional free juice or entree to surprise customers.<\/span><\/p>\n There\u2019s some evidence that those efforts are working. According to industry researcher Technomic, brands that invested in service and operations grew eight times faster than average last year. In other words, it\u2019s not enough to give customers a good deal; restaurants also have to delight them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cRight now, in this moment, that moment of delight is the thing that’s gonna keep them coming back,\u201d said Rich Shank, senior principal and VP of innovation with Technomic, during the Restaurant Leadership Conference last month.<\/span><\/p>\n Applebee’s had a solid year last year, with same-store sales growth of 1.3%, and got off to a good start in 2026 with a 1.9% same-store sales increase in the first quarter. But sales slowed in April, which the chain attributed to the impact of rising gas prices on lower-income consumers. It’s banking on value and better operations to see it through.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Members help make our journalism possible. Become a Restaurant Business member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Customer satisfaction is up chainwide since managers moved up front. | Photo: Shutterstock Applebee’s customers who want to speak to the manager will no longer have to look very far.\u00a0 The casual-dining chain is instructing managers to spend less time in their office or the kitchen and more time up front interacting with customers as … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30377,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Applebees-wants-managers-spending-more-time-in-the-dining-room.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30376"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30376\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30378,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30376\/revisions\/30378"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)\n {if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};\n if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';\n n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\n t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];\n s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,'script',\n 'https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n fbq('init', '1028050688466912');\n fbq('track', 'PageView');\n<\/code><\/pre>\n
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