Tropical Smoothie CEO relying on ‘innovation, grit, fun’ during COVID-19 | A View From The Top | Fast Casual

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By Charles Watson, CEO of Tropical Smoothie Cafe

The ability to adapt as a business has always been critical no matter the circumstance, and exercising that fluidity in today’s world has never been more important as we work to mitigate the impact of a pandemic. Over the past several months, Tropical Smoothie Cafe has quickly pivoted our operating model and focused on delivering on our mission to Inspire Better by serving our franchisees and their communities relentlessly. 

Charles Watson, CEO of Tropical Smoothie Cafe

To encourage our franchisees to flex with us and be a bit of sunshine for their communities, it was important that we also let them know that we’re there for them and have their best interest in mind. We’ve always operated with this mindset, and our efforts to equip our franchisees with support while maintaining our beloved culture have only multiplied in this time of crisis. 

For Tropical Smoothie Cafe, we believe our mission to Inspire Better rings true for our guests, crew members, franchisees and support center team. We live out our mission through our core values, which are at the heart of what we do every day:

When COVID-19 struck the restaurant landscape in mid-March, we knew we had to find new ways to operate that focused on serving our guests and supporting our franchisees while keeping our core values at the forefront. 

We closed all dining rooms and transitioned to carryout, curbside pickup and delivery where available, and our drive through locations began to operate at a higher volume. We also designed and implemented new sanitation and cleaning protocols in less than five days. 

We immediately deployed hyper-local marketing strategies to drive business within a 1-2-mile radius of cafes that gave us the best opportunity to win transactions one at a time in each market while complying with the shutdown orders. Within 21 days, we’d tested 14 new marketing tactics and rolled out the six most effective tactics brand-wide.  

Adapting was the answer

We also adapted our menu by rolling out a uniquely Tropical immunity smoothie in less than a week and when the performed well, we rolled out a line-up of three immunity smoothies in less than 10 days. 

In an effort to help our cafes thrive while also supporting the community and frontline workers, we launched a 100,000 smoothie donation initiative, which challenged franchisees to donate smoothies to their local essential workers, including those in beyond healthcare fields grocery stores, warehouses, and postal offices. Within just a couple of weeks, this initiative was exceeded by doubling the initial goal for a total donation of more than 200,000 smoothies nationwide. 

Prior to launching this impactful initiative, our support center teams and franchisee committees overcame a handful of obstacles from building mobile and web technologies, creating marketing assets, to streamlining operational processes. These efforts have proven to be more worthwhile than we could’ve ever imagined, and our franchisees have truly taken giving back to their communities to the next level, especially when they need it the most.
 
In fact, our franchisees didn’t want to stop at 200,000 smoothies, so we launched a new initiative to donate a total of one million smoothies to our loyal guests and new consumers by the end of May. This campaign is currently running, and we are seeing impressive participation by consumers and our franchise community alike. We are encouraged that our efforts to drive traffic into our cafes are also bringing a bit of sunshine to the communities we serve.

Helping franchisees

Our franchisees are the heart of our brand, so we also wanted to make sure we were doing everything we could to help them stay afloat financially through the crisis as well. We decreased royalties by 50%, have offered ongoing support to secure financing through the CARES Act Payment Protection Loan, and provided resources and guidance for negotiating real estate deferrals and abatements.

While our expected 2020 growth might take a step back due to the pandemic, I believe that our approach to navigating through this will help us emerge quickly once it passes. There’s no doubt that today’s economy poses many challenges to our business and the overall industry, which is why coming together and supporting each other as a brand has proven to be essential in our efforts to prosper in this environment. We consider ourselves lucky to have a business model that has allowed us to easily flex our operations and marketing strategies, and because of our amazing guests, dedicated franchisees and the communities they serve, I’m optimistic about the future of our brand.