PR95805

ATLANTA, May 4, 2022 /PRNewswire=KYODO JBN/ --

-- The new Customer Experience Center of Excellence provides continuous

operational review, coaching and analytical support to franchisees across the

globe

The International division of Focus Brands LLC (Focus Brands International), a

leading developer of iconic global, multi-channel foodservice brands, has

teamed up with Auxis, a well-respected consulting and outsourcing firm, to

inaugurate its first international franchise operations support center. The

company's new Customer Experience Center of Excellence (CECE), located in

Heredia, Costa Rica, aligns with its mission to serve people and potential. The

CECE provides an affordable and effective means to deliver world-class

operations support to enhance the customer experience and improve the

performance of franchisees' restaurants.

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"Our job is to help our franchisees amplify their success. The CECE allows us

to have eyes and ears into their operations, greatly enhancing our ability to

achieve this goal" says Beto Guajardo, President of Focus Brands International.

"Never before have we had the employee bandwidth or the resources to visit over

1,850 stores in 63 countries on a regular basis," adds Jim Holthouser, CEO of

Focus Brands LLC. "The CECE is an incredible advancement in operations and

training that came together at the perfect time. These new virtual capabilities

will undoubtably shape the future of global franchising."

When a customer experience coach delivers an Operations Excellence Review

(OER), the software powering the virtual visit is a software solution developed

in partnership with RizePoint, a leading software services provider. The

software houses brand standards and guidelines, training materials, and

business solutions such as data analysis and performance dashboards in a

convenient application that can be accessed from any mobile operating system.

"RizePoint's Quality Management Platform automates OER tasks, the operational

data collection for each coaching session and provides the built-in business

intelligence needed to perform the analysis and quickly execute

recommendations," says Kari Hensien, President and CEO of RizePoint. "Focus

Brands International's innovative approach to conducting OERs will enable

quality assurance and global consistency in meaningful and measurable ways at

every location."

Focus Brands International partnered with Auxis to create an international

shared services model and organize a team of extensively trained multi-lingual

customer experience coaches. The coaches will virtually visit every store four

to six times per year to deliver an OER with the store operators in their

native language during their normal business hours. "We couldn't be more

excited to partner with Focus Brands to help execute on their innovative vision

for delivering world-class operations support," says Raul Vega, Founder and CEO

of Auxis. "The CECE will enable the ability to collect the facts and figures

that contribute to operational success in a way that is affordable, achievable

and a game changer in the industry. We now have the unique ability to provide

analytical insights that will help correlate store improvements to financial

performance, from one central location."

About Focus Brands LLC

Atlanta-based Focus Brands(R) is a leading developer of global multi-channel

foodservice brands. Focus Brands, through its affiliate brands, is the

franchisor and operator of more than 6,400 restaurants, cafes, ice cream

shoppes, and bakeries in the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto

Rico, Guam and over 55 foreign countries under the Auntie Anne's(R), Carvel(R),

Cinnabon(R), Jamba(R), Moe's Southwest Grill(R), McAlister's Deli(R), and

Schlotzsky's(R) brand names, as well as the Seattle's Best Coffee(R) brand on

certain military bases and in certain international markets. Please visit

www.focusbrands.com to learn more.

SOURCE: Focus Brands International

CONTACT: Loryn Franco, Focus Brands International, 917-371-0007,

lfranco@focusbrands.com