Cosi is improving its customer service after 13 of its locations were forced to close because of the company's 11 percent drop in second-quarter revenue earnings last year according to Nation's Restaurant News.
"The savior of our business is going to be retaining customers," Cosi Chief Executive Stephen Edwards said during the company's earnings call as reported by Nation's Restaurant News. "And that's only going to happen if they come to our stores and have a positive experience."
The company plans to emphasize attentiveness and engagement with customers in an effort to restore its decreasing number of restaurants, and revive same-store sales Nation's Restaurant News reported.
"We're trying to make sure we have class-A hospitality in the stores," Edwards told Nation's Restaurant News. "We get a number of remarks from customers about how much they love our food but are disappointed time and time again by the experience they receive. Speed of service isn't the issue at stores operating nowhere near capacity.
"It's night and day from some of our locations where we're failing miserably," he said. "The level of excitement there is what you like to see a restaurant operator. I would feel differently if it were about being in new, shiny location, but sales improved before we even arrived there, so it's more about the people than anything else."
Same store sales went down 3.6 percent at corporate restaurants, while franchise restaurants went down 1.4 percent during the second quarter Nation's Restaurant News reported.
The company still has plans to undergo minor remodeling and enhancement of equipment with money to be used from its capital in a move Edward's told Nation's Restaurant News is not a main focus but a neccessity.
"I just don't want people to think it's the savior of our business," he said.
