About Ruby Tuesday
Ruby Tuesday (Inc.) was founded by Sandy Beall in 1972 when the first unit opened next to the University of Tennessee campus in Knoxville.
Beall’s vision for the restaurant was to serve handcrafted, made-to-order menu items in a warm environment by caring and passionate staff.
Over the next 10 years, Ruby Tuesday grew in popularity and unit count, and in 1982, was sold to Morrison Inc. The sale infused Ruby Tuesday with the financial support needed to grow from 16 locations to 35 by 1985.
The change in ownership signified a time of progress for the chain, as today there are more than 900 locations throughout the U.S. and other international markets.
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The Situation
Although the Ruby Tuesday restaurant chain has achieved great success in providing guests with a memorable in-store dining experience, the chain’s catering business reached a plateau in 2010.
Catering since 2002, the company saw a need to offer its guests a catering-service experience; however, as sales increased for this part of the business, so too did the need for an operational overhaul.
Ruby Tuesday executives decided to bring their catering service in-house rather than continue with the outside support firm to handle this aspect of its business. The move allowed Ruby Tuesday executives to build the type of catering program that offered a long-term competitive advantage and fostered future sales growth.
The company hired three catering operators to handle incoming calls, but even that presented its own set of challenges. The catering agents were taking orders while also trying to call stores to handle administration and follow-up responsibilities.
“Within a few weeks, I realized that what we were doing was very cumbersome and not the least bit scalable. I knew that if we didn’t source a technological solution that we might ultimately fail to grow our catering business unit as we hoped,” said Andy Hepp, Vice President of Operations and Implementation at Ruby Tuesday.
“We had to find the best technology available to handle the increased catering sales, keeping in mind that it ultimately must be scalable as the business grew.”
The company turned to MonkeyMedia Software to help re-align its catering strategic vision and to help further establish a catering call center based out of the chain’s Maryville, Tenn., corporate headquarters.
Teaming up with MonkeyMedia Software
“MonkeyMedia Software was the best fit both from a technology and a service standpoint. The service...was just phenomenal. We had a blueprint and they helped support us to get there.”
Through its partnership with MonkeyMedia Software, Ruby Tuesday executives were able to recreate the value proposition of the chain’s catering business unit. Weekly conference calls between both teams highlighted and addressed areas of improvement, and the restaurant chain was given the technology tools and training needed to more efficiently execute its catering program.
By using the MonkeyCatering™ platform, the call center was able to handle a larger volume of catering orders with call times moving more quickly – from four to two minutes per order.
“I think the role of a call center agent is very important because it helps us to create a relationship with our customers. A lot of the people we speak with know us by name and so they continue to use us because we have a personal relationship and we know what they like and don’t like,” said Jason Hawk, a Ruby Tuesday catering services agent.
Now, almost two years in, there are still bi-weekly conference calls to assess Ruby Tuesday’s progress and to make any alterations, if necessary, to improve operations. Call center agents have also received ongoing training to fully support the catering business and its customers.
“MonkeyMedia Software was the best fit both from a technology and a service standpoint,” Hepp said. “The service from MonkeyMedia Software was just phenomenal. We had a blueprint and they helped support us to get there. Their MonkeyCatering™ platform has become the forefront of the company.”
The Results
Since implementing the strategic and technology tools provided by MonkeyMedia Software, Ruby Tuesday has experienced a double-digit sales growth from its catering business.
Other results include:
- An immediate 30% increase in catering sales through the deployment of MonkeyOnlineOrdering™, an add-on module that provides a new website and a customer relationship management (CRM) tool
- A 50% decrease in call center order-processing times
- A 2012 year-over-year increase in total catering sales between 12% and 15% across all units
The Future for Ruby Tuesday
“With the MonkeyMedia Software team, their service is stellar and experience evident. They stand by their product and focus on our success.”
The future of the Ruby Tuesday catering program is virtually unlimited as it adds to the company’s solid base of operations and technology that will support its catering business unit.
“Our vision for the next year – obviously we want to continue to grow sales, and we’re going to explore the store console and a couple of other avenues with MonkeyMedia Software to really capitalize on the momentum we have to have a really sustained sales increase,” Hepp said.
Future expectations include:
- A 20% increase to call center staff by end of 2013
- The implementation of a new marketing program to pursue corporate catering accounts and sales
- Catering sales growth to reach 15%-20% by year end 2013
- The roll out of additional technology tools and techniques to increase operational efficiency
“With the MonkeyMedia Software team, their service is stellar and experience evident. They stand by their product and focus on our success,” Hepp said. “It is clear that they have a very high value system within their company culture, and this only adds to their ability to build and maintain a great working relationship.”
