When there are 7,257 Burger King restaurants across America, it’s easy to find whopper-serving goodness at about any airport or freeway exit in every state. What isn’t easy is developing that special sauce that draws an engaged community around your Burger King to stand out as the best in the nation. Here’s how one of our community businesses took home the top honors.
David Laslow is leading his family’s business division of 6 Burger Kings in central Ohio. They’re located in Marysville, Bellefontaine, Bucyrus and Urbana. When we learned of his recent experience winning the 2021 Burger King Corporation Franchisee of the Year award, we had to reach out and talk about it. Laslow, who carries the family-wide trait of humble authenticity, was quick to identify what really cinched their national victory.
“Without a doubt, it’s our restaurant, maintenance, and office staff who dedicate their time and energy to leading the vision of service. They’re who make the difference every day for our guests and teams. They show up day after day with their passion to serve our community and exceed the standard benchmarks. Our managers teach, mentor, and grow our people to become their best. I know that’s why we’re so much more than just another Burger King.”
Through further discussion, David shared with us, “Our 6 restaurants are in the heart of where we live, work, and raise our kids. Our employees are there with us, too. You can feel the local effect friends and neighbors can make on your business. This is everyone’s award.”
To provide some background on how they won the award, it’s no simple test. According to David Strimple, who represents the US Midwest Division BURGER KING® Brand as Franchise Business Partner, there are several key metrics they must exceed to make the finals.
There’s the typical data, such as growth in sales, traffic, speed of service, and meals served. Another layer of inspection goes towards food safety, brand standards, compliance, and consistent cleanliness.
The next level becomes the most succinct of all – your people and the guests you serve. The Laslow’s six family Burger Kings were measured through multiple levels of guest satisfaction feedback sources, employee training standards, and growth of the franchise. The last lens comes to innovation and development initiatives to serve guests through digital menus, transaction simplifications, and improvements to locations.
The category sizes of recognition were for franchisees with 6 to 19 restaurants. This is the largest group category, with the remaining being 5 or less, 20 to 50, and 50+ Burger Kings.
When you choose to stop in or drive thru these nationally-recognized Burger Kings right here in our towns, let the team know how great they’re doing. We sure think they are. These are the stories that fuel us to continue supporting and celebrating our community business partners and people.
We’re all in this together.
Congratulations.
Richwood Bank is the community bank for local business owners and residents in central Ohio. Our mission is to inspire, protect and celebrate that which makes communities thrive. We believe that together, we can make our hometowns be the best place to raise families for many generations to come. Let’s go make it happen.
Our locations are in Marysville, Bellefontaine, Springfield, Plain City, Delaware, Richwood, LaRue and Huntsville. Stop in and say hello.
