Case Study: Jason s Deli Delivers Delicious Customer Service And Experience

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1 July 17, 2014 Why Read This Report Case Study: Jason s Deli Delivers Delicious Customer Service And Experience Visibility And Interconnectivity Yield A Responsive Service Ecosystem And Curious Workforce by Courtney Bartlett with Eveline Oehrlich, Michelle Mai It s difficult to make a good sandwich if you don t understand your customer s order or you can t find the ingredients you need. Similarly, it s difficult to deliver a service smoothly if you don t understand its components, manage partner relationships if you can t locate related contracts, or track the performance of your organization without an accurate means of reporting. These were just a few of the business problems faced by Jason s Deli prior to its service management transformation. An opaque service environment and a cumbersome IT service management (ITSM) tool that was inhibiting rather than enabling its employees threatened internal and external customer experience. Service management professionals should read this report for an overview of one technology management department s journey from fragmented and disjointed service delivery to interconnected and streamlined service delivery. situation: ZERO VISIBILITY affects customer experience And MORALE Jason s Deli, founded in 1976 and headquartered in Beaumont, Texas, is a delicatessen restaurant chain focused on providing healthy food to millions of customers across the United States. In fact, in 2005, it was the first major restaurant chain in the US to ban trans fats and eliminate high-fructose corn syrup from its menu. Jason s Deli prides itself on providing customers choices, offering both standard and build-yourown sandwich and salad options, and the company strives to be a delight to work with. The mission of Jason s Deli s technology management department is to be easy to do business with, but it was struggling to deliver that experience. Its challenges included difficulties in tracking IT assets, accurately reporting on service desk metrics and performance, automating tasks, and properly upgrading its solution. These obstacles significantly hindered employee productivity and company morale. It needed a transformation in tool set and service management strategy. Its specific pain points and catalysts for change included: Fragmented contract management. Negotiating and managing partner and supplier contracts is an integral part of service delivery for a nationwide delicatessen chain. Being unable to locate an original contract or missing a renewal can radiate issues throughout the business. For Jason s Deli, contracts lived in many places, hidden in computer files in and outside of Deli locations across the country. It missed renewals and did not manage some relationships, which resulted in unnecessary costs and frustration. Jason s Deli needed a centralized tracking system for contracts. Headquarters Forrester Research, Inc., 60 Acorn Park Drive, Cambridge, MA, USA Tel: Fax:

2 Case Study: Jason s Deli Delivers Delicious Customer Service And Experience 2 Lengthy support calls. A lack of visibility caused some restaurant managers to spend upward of 45 minutes on the phone with corporate groups trying to resolve issues regarding access and locating required data, resulting in a frustrating experience for all parties involved. A lack of accurate service desk reporting. Limited visibility throughout its systems of record also impacted Jason s Deli s service desk reporting. It was impossible to know whether it was improving or declining, what the business service desk costs were, and where it could reduce costs. Better visibility meant better reporting capabilities, which led to a better strategy and method of communicating the service desk s performance and value to the business. A strained relationship between technology management and the business. Issues with workflows and the inability to access accurate data when needed meant that prior to its ITSM overhaul, Jason s Deli s technology management department was reactive in addition to being unable to deliver the service and support its customers needed in a timely manner. The relationship was strained, further worsened by a tool that customers deemed as too IT-centric and difficult to use, which lessened productivity. solution: an interconnected And intelligent service ecosystem Zero visibility into a variety of key workflows left Jason s Deli unable to automate manual tasks or orchestrate processes and workflows; since it struggled to keep up, it couldn t get ahead or anticipate customers needs. After careful consideration, the technology management department, led by Stephanie Hunt, decided to replace its current ITSM tool to improve internal and external customer interaction, experience, and satisfaction. A New ITSM Tool Offers A Clean Slate Jason s Deli selected Cherwell Service Management (CSM) ITSM Suite for its ITSM solution because it believed Cherwell CSM s capabilities aligned best with its needs. A solid set of goals drove the success of its business case and implementation of the new solution, including: Quick and easy customization of the customer experience. The technology management department wanted a tool it could easily customize to fit the organization, not the other way around. The capacity to customize screens and prompts using business language that made sense to each department and each individual within that department was also very important. A proper ticketing system. After the technology management department spoke with business stakeholders, it decided that a proper ticketing system was critical. The service desk needed a centralized location where it could quickly and easily enter tickets and manage workflows.

3 Case Study: Jason s Deli Delivers Delicious Customer Service And Experience 3 Accurate asset management. Asset management is an integral part of an interconnected and accurate service ecosystem; knowing which assets you even have, how they re being used, and who s using them forms a foundation for smooth service delivery. The tech management department needed asset management to provide an accurate model of existing assets to effectively track and monitor them, something Cherwell could provide. Upgradability when wanted. Sometimes ITSM customers find themselves stuck with out-ofdate versions of their solution, unable to upgrade due to prior customization or cost constraints. This was the predicament Jason s Deli found itself in; it needed a service-centric tool that it could immediately upgrade to and continue to upgrade and evolve as it and the tool advanced. Accurate service desk reporting. Without accurate reporting capabilities and the ability to trend service desk data and understand it properly, it was impossible for Jason s Deli to know what was and wasn t working within the service desk, never mind how to pinpoint areas for improvement. Jason s Deli needed role-based dashboards and performance reporting on relevant and effective metrics for business managers across the organization. Increased interconnectivity throughout the service environment. Jason s Deli s lack of visibility into its business processes, services, and the IT services and components that make up those services resulted in an opaque, fragmented environment that was difficult for it to manage and work within. This extended to virtually every aspect of the business, from contract management to executive and employee engagement, and strained its relationship with the technology management department. Jason s Deli required greater visibility and interconnectivity throughout its service ecosystem manifested in a tool that was easy to use and could empower rather than burden its employees. Implementation Focused On Quick Wins And Business Priorities Once Hunt got the go-ahead from her board, her team immediately began to work with Cherwell to plan the implementation. Jason s Deli s technology management department took a smart and practical approach for its implementation road map. It decided to look for quick wins while staying focused on supporting the business with its day-to-day needs and priorities, a mentality that contributed to the implementation s success. Jason s Deli s best practices and lessons it learned throughout its journey include: Quickly tackling wins and low-hanging fruit first. Jason s Deli believed that implementing the entire Cherwell package all at once would not do it justice; it would have been too overwhelming, causing more harm than harmony. It instead took an iterative approach of focusing on areas and departments it could convert with ease. After these departments realized the benefits of the transition, they quickly spread positive words throughout the business.

4 Case Study: Jason s Deli Delivers Delicious Customer Service And Experience 4 Prioritizing based on business needs. Not only was its project focused on quick wins, but implementation was further influenced by the priorities of the business. A significant challenge was balancing an ITSM overhaul on top of day-to-day activities with the same number of resources and a swift deadline. Prioritization was paramount; the team in charge of the transformation worked with the business to determine the most critical points of contention and need and focused on those areas first. Communicating with stakeholders. Often with transformation projects, the technology isn t the issue it s the people. Effectively and consistently engaging with the stakeholders, whether significantly or peripherally, is an important factor in the overall success of an initiative. This is something Jason s Deli believed it excelled at in some areas but could have done better in others, especially in those departments whose processes and way of work were completely changed. It could have created a better plan and communicated the value that a new tool and revamped processes would bring to such departments. Identifying and approaching potential reluctance with patience. Naturally, with any major company change there are those who embrace it and those who don t, with the latter requiring more attention and patience to win them over. The first installation of CSM involved 60% of the business; the remaining 40% were those areas of the business more reluctant to transition. Jason s Deli focused on a more iterative approach to winning over the more reluctant customers while relying on the enthusiasm from early adopters and the value they discovered to trickle down to those more cautious of the transition. results: visibility yields smooth service delivery Jason s Deli s ITSM overhaul, with the help of CSM ITSM Suite, created an environment that made everyone s work lives easier. The technology management department is now perceived as a valued business partner, and the benefits of this project have manifested themselves throughout the business in many ways: The average length of support calls have dropped by 78%. Jason s Deli restaurant managers used to spend upward of 45 minutes on the phone with various departments trying to solve issues. Now call time has dropped to an average of 10 minutes, which it attributes to easier access to accurate data, a centralized ticketing system, and a more service-centric attitude from the technology management department. Actionable reporting and business intelligence communicate value. Now that Jason s Deli has visibility into all of the technical components and technical services that support its business services and processes, it has a solid grasp on performance, spends resources on only what is necessary, and uses that information to communicate its value to the business. Userconfigurable dashboards have allowed for better and more easily accessed and tracked reporting. The biggest benefit has been being able to provide executive-level metrics.

5 Case Study: Jason s Deli Delivers Delicious Customer Service And Experience 5 Information is accurate and available in real time. One of the biggest complaints from technology management customers was that they could not get the information they needed quickly or accurately. With the implementation of a configuration management database (CMDB), assets, services, contracts, and customers are all linked, providing visibility and accessible and accurate information. For example, information on all vendors that the business deals with is now housed within Cherwell: contact information, related contracts, and support agreements. This information is constantly updated, and vendor representatives know exactly how to access it. Streamlined processes yield reliable services. Prior to implementing Cherwell, Jason s Deli was not ITIL compliant. A lack of standards or framework for key business processes meant different departments were completing the same tasks in different ways. Work was duplicated, and crossdepartmental communication was poor. ITIL compliance requires a key set of processes implemented in a certain way, which therefore brings consistency for multiple consumers of the process. Jason s Deli has noticed a significant decrease in redundant work, as well as improved availability, reliability, and security of technology management services since the inception of ITIL. Workflow customization is now quick and easy. During the implementation, the technology management department worked closely with each area of the business and found it could customize workflows for departments in less than half the time it took a developer to do so with its previous tool. Workflow customization is now easy and can be completed by managers and employees outside of IT and without the help of developers, further streamlining the process. Employee morale and customer experience have increased. Jason s Deli measures customer experience via a survey to external customers; after the Cherwell implementation, customer satisfaction increased a full 2% in nine months. This was quite a feat given satisfaction was already very high and was attributed to the support staff s ability to easily access what they needed (i.e., data, tickets, and customer or vendor information) quickly and accurately. This also led to an increase in internal customers satisfaction with technology management and a boost in general morale. next steps: curiosity fuels continuous improvement While finding the right tool was the first order of business, it was only the beginning of Jason s Deli s journey to service management excellence. An unprecedented level of visibility and interconnectivity across the entire enterprise ecosystem sparked curiosity as to what else the technology management department and Cherwell CSM were capable of. Once the business value of the new implementation was evident, executives and other stakeholders started asking questions they never thought to ask before. As a result, an organic form of continuous improvement stemmed from the project as more depth was added to both CSM and the overall service management strategy with each new request from the business:

6 Case Study: Jason s Deli Delivers Delicious Customer Service And Experience 6 Contract management expansion to the entire enterprise. Jason s Deli implemented contract management within Cherwell that focused on contracts specific to IT. But other areas of the business had contracts that needed managing as well (for example, the legal department), so the team explored the possibility of implementing contract management beyond IT. This curiosity eventually led to Jason s Deli s companywide decision that all contracts must be managed within the CSM Suite. Now the legal team, technology management department, and any other necessary stakeholders can go into the system to manage their partner and supplier contracts and solve issues regarding missed or unmanaged contracts and related relationships. CMDB implementation. During this project, Jason s Deli recognized the need to tie assets, services, contracts, and customers together, and so it began creating relationships among those areas within a CMDB. When a service has an outage, Jason s Deli wants to know all of the equipment associated with that outage so it can understand the customer impact. Creating this web of information is one of the current goals of the infrastructure team; it is no small task, but it s manageable with the proper approach. Development of a self-service portal. The interconnectivity of assets, contracts, services, and customers as a result of the CMDB inspired the creation of a self-service portal for customers of technology management. Jason s Deli plans to keep revisiting and revamping the experience so that it eventually will mirror the kiosks it currently has at its restaurants across the country and can offer a similar experience for the entire ecosystem within Cherwell. At Jason s Deli s restaurant kiosks, costs are clearly displayed and customers can select what they want (simple soup, salad, or sandwich), pay, and then pick up their order quickly and efficiently. Better change management tracking. Jason s Deli did not address change management during the initial implementation, but it later determined a need to create a more unified change management system. The business wanted to see all of the changes that had been put in place over the past three to four years and a better way to track current changes made within the organization. This improvement will not only increase visibility and interconnectivity of the business, but a Payment Card Industry (PCI)-compliant organization must be able to show vendors and customers that it has a good change management plan in place, yet another example of continuous improvement that the whole company benefits from, sparked by curiosity.

7 Case Study: Jason s Deli Delivers Delicious Customer Service And Experience 7 Recommendations Change your approach to change your culture Jason s Deli s struggles are similar to what many technology management teams are facing today: a siloed, opaque environment, resulting in chaotic support and management. Getting to its current streamlined state required the adoption of service management, which effectively increased communication and collaboration across the organization. While many of its struggles prior to its transformation manifested themselves in a tool customers described as IT-centric, difficult to use, and a hindrance to productivity, a tool is never the root cause for issues. A broken tool is a result of broken processes and crippled workflows. However, the proper tool can advance a technology management department s reputation from strained to successful as long as it s supported by clear goals and a culture receptive to change. Jason s Deli was able to achieve this by communicating with business stakeholders throughout the organization to understand their pain points, needs, and wants. It also took an iterative, patient, and, perhaps most importantly, a prioritized approach to implementation of its new tool, rolling it out in places of need or ease, taking advantage of positive feedback from happy employees and customers to spread positive words and further fuel the implementation s momentum. The power of a fresh approach to service management, an increased visibility into its services, and a proper tool selection created a cultural shift within Jason s Deli in areas where customers are now enthusiastic rather than reluctant to engage and work with the technology management department. SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL Companies Interviewed For This Report Cherwell Software Jason s Deli Forrester Research (Nasdaq: FORR) is a global research and advisory firm serving professionals in 13 key roles across three distinct client segments. Our clients face progressively complex business and technology decisions every day. To help them understand, strategize, and act upon opportunities brought by change, Forrester provides proprietary research, consumer and business data, custom consulting, events and online communities, and peer-to-peer executive programs. We guide leaders in business technology, marketing and strategy, and the technology industry through independent fact-based insight, ensuring their business success today and tomorrow Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved. Forrester, Forrester Wave, RoleView, Technographics, TechRankings, and Total Economic Impact are trademarks of Forrester Research, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Reproduction or sharing of this content in any form without prior written permission is strictly prohibited. To purchase reprints of this document, please clientsupport@forrester.com. For additional reproduction and usage information, see Forrester s Citation Policy located at Information is based on best available resources. Opinions reflect judgment at the time and are subject to change