Britt Poston opened his first Zaxby’s restaurant in 1997, located in Sumter, SC. Since opening his first location more than 15 years ago, Britt has looked only towards the future. Britt has taken that single location in Sumter and built that into a 17 store multi-unit operation covering much of South Carolina. Britt has focused on developing an operation capable of ensuring that each individual store operates as if he, or his brother Jim, were operating it themselves. Throughout his life with Zaxby’s, Britt has worked hard to form solid teams that include four Above Store Managers and an office of administrative executives who play an integral part in keeping operations running smoothly. Britt always likes to make sure he has the right people in place when building teams that will have a positive impact on the development of one another and Britt constantly encourages everyone to strive towards becoming better.
Britt has always proven to be faithful and committed to the goals of the Zaxby’s Brand. Another one of Britt’s positive attributes is that he does all he can to try and never miss an opportunity to provide guidance or support for fellow Licensees by sharing what he has learned since becoming a Zaxby’s licensee himself. He always considers how his decisions will affect the Zaxby’s locations surrounding his stores and looks for ways to help the entire Zaxby’s family.
Britt has incorporated the Zaxby’s core values, which you will find below, in his everyday business. Britt believes the culture these Core Values help create has had a tremendous impact on his overall success.
- Guest Focused: “Our success is directly linked to satisfied guests.” Our mission is simply to enrich the lives of each guest that walks through our doors. In order to achieve that mission, Britt has made it a point to ensure each of his locations goes the extra mile by placing an emphasis on the core value of remaining guest focused. Britt has invested time, money, and effort to make certain his guests have a great experience when they walk into one of his locations. Britt has created a culture where his stores are expected to exceed the RER standards, the basic corporate inspection process. The locations take pride in keeping complaint issues below system average and keeping their mystery shop scores at the top of the class.
- Develop Talent: People are our most important asset at Zaxby’s. We strive to attract, motivate, recognize and develop the most diverse talent we possibly can. We stress the importance of “building your bench” at each Zaxby’s location. This means ensuring that there are certified managers who understand how to maintain high standards. This also means constantly working on developing our teams so that those standards do not suffer should a manager have to leave. At the beginning of the year, Britt and his entire group made it one of their yearly goals to ensure each of his locations was operating with the proper amount of certified managers to ensure service is facilitated by the most knowledgeable and qualified team as possible. Britt has always maintained that if he remains focused on developing members of his team, there will never be any worry as to the well-being of a location.
- Operational Excellence: At Zaxby’s we always try to execute our systems with excellence. We strive to achieve the highest quality possible in everything we do. Britt stresses to his managers that you have to be operationally sound in order to create a strong foundation on which you can build success. He has a strong belief that “One on One” meetings for his Above Store Managers are vital for development purposes. He has also created an expectation for the Above Store Managers to conduct “One on One” Meetings with their store Managers. These meetings are about 30 minutes to one hour in length and allow Britt the opportunity to individually meet with each Above Store Manager to talk about their successes and struggles for the week. They also take the time to discuss a plan of action and strategies for the upcoming week. His Above Store Managers apply the same methods to each of their store level managers in order to maintain lines of communication among everyone. Effective communication plays a big role within Zaxby’s world and provides a solid foundation for success.
- Continuous Improvement: We always strive to deliver more than what is expected at Zaxby’s, and embrace change when it allows us to improve. Britt has taken a solid stance on always embracing opportunities to make improvements every way that he can. Complacency is viewed as the enemy of success. At the beginning of the year, Britt’s entire team implemented the MyInventory tool and used it as a new opportunity to continue to improve. After becoming familiar with the inventory management tool, his stores became more efficient in terms of controllable costs. He was able to identify the opportunities to improve within each of his locations.
Britt Poston has been a solid figure in the Zaxby’s community for more than 16 years. His entire 17 store group continues to outperform the system in relation to managing controllable costs. Not only is he an exceptional leader for his own teams, Britt is always willing to help out fellow licensees. Britt has been a great ambassador for the Zaxby’s brand and intends to keep the positive momentum going for many more years to come.
Jeremy Gattie Operations Consultant for Zaxby’s