Golden Corral just made a big investment in its future.
The beloved buffet chain recently finished installing a new cloud-based tech stack at all of its 350 locations, replacing a roughly 20-year-old system that had become slow and unreliable.
The new system, supplied by Qu and dubbed “Cloud Corral,” is expected to help Golden Corral capture more orders, speed up service and consolidate data across its restaurants. And it will provide a solid foundation for future investments, such as artificial intelligence.
The seeds for the transformation were planted during the pandemic, which hit the buffet segment like a wrecking ball. Golden Corral was one of the few buffet brands that survived, thanks to a series of pivots including drive-thrus, plated entrees and frozen margaritas. It emerged from that experience with the realization that it would need to continue to do things differently going forward.
Under the guidance of longtime CEO Lance Trenary, the Raleigh, North Carolina-based chain decided to lean into off-premise, which was a big shift from its traditional business model. It also launched a limited-service concept, Homeward Kitchen, that would skew heavily toward drive-thru and takeout. And it knew that it would need a more modern tech system to support these highly digital formats.
“It was pretty evident at that point that the legacy platform was not one on which they could evolve if they were going to grow the business around off-premise,” said CIO Dawn Gillis in an interview.
Gillis, who led IT for Freebirds and Torchy’s Tacos, joined Golden Corral in June 2023 to help guide that project. She was familiar with Qu and its so-called unified commerce platform, which is designed to declutter the tech stack for limited-service chains and create a single point of truth for their data. Though Golden Corral is not limited service, it convinced the Qu team that it had enough in common with fast food to be a viable client: Customers enter and pay at the counter before they get their food, which is very similar to QSR.
Once they’d inked the deal, Golden Corral and Qu completed the rollout chainwide in just seven months. The breakneck pace was made possible in part because franchisees were fully on board.
“It didn't just happen as a result of picking up the phone and saying ‘We're doing this,’” Gillis said. “We truly did invest a lot in organization change management to make this happen.” That included appointing “Change Champions” at each location who would act as liaisons between management and the store as the project proceeded.
The new tech extends from the front counter to the kitchen and the web. | Photo courtesy of Golden Corral and Qu
The new tech package includes Qu’s POS, kitchen system and online ordering software as well as its cloud computing network, which includes an on-site component that speeds up order processing and significantly reduces downtime.
For customers, the most noticeable change will be for members of Golden Corral’s loyalty program, Gillis said. The chain now has scanners in every store that makes it easier to access the program and earn and redeem points. Previously, those scanners were “hit or miss,” Gillis said.
Customers may also notice the line moving faster. Golden Corral’s old POS system was slow and struggled to process large orders. “The speed of service now at the line is very noticeably different,” Gillis said.
And those who order online should experience fewer dropped orders. Since launching with Qu, Golden Corral has seen an 82% reduction in online ordering errors.
All of that should translate to more sales.
“The ROI for this mostly is going to come from sales,” Gillis said. “Making sure that every opportunity that we have to sell to our guests happens quickly, swiftly and accurately.”
But Qu should also save employees time and make their jobs easier. For instance, staff can learn how to use the POS in just a couple of hours rather than a couple of days because it's more intuitive. And they can spend less time worrying about fixing IT problems and more time helping customers.
“It certainly helps that the whole guest interaction can be a lot more positive because they’re not fighting the system,” said Qu CEO Amir Hudda.
Beyond the store level, Golden Corral is benefiting from the unified view of data that Qu provides.
Previously, each of its locations was a silo, with data compiled into reports that could be shared via email or stored on a server. Now, franchisees can see sales, labor and inventory data for all of their locations in real time using Qu's Notify app.
That visibility extends to the corporate level, where management can immediately understand who is visiting its restaurants and what they are buying. That insight will help inform all of Golden Corral's departments, from marketing to accounting.
The evolution comes just a couple of years after Golden Corral celebrated its 50th birthday, and is intended to set it up for success over the next 50.
“I think that we're going to see a lot more benefits in the future now that we've renovated the technology that runs our business,” Gillis said. “And we're pretty excited about the future.”
Members help make our journalism possible. Become a Restaurant Business member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.