{"id":3178,"date":"2015-12-08T16:29:48","date_gmt":"2015-12-08T21:29:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digital.hbs.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/clover-food-lab-fast-food-thats-good-for-you\/"},"modified":"2015-12-08T16:30:26","modified_gmt":"2015-12-08T21:30:26","slug":"clover-food-lab-fast-food-thats-good-for-you","status":"publish","type":"hck-submission","link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/clover-food-lab-fast-food-thats-good-for-you\/","title":{"rendered":"Clover Food Lab: Fast Food That\u2019s Good For You"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/c.o0bg.com\/rf\/image_960w\/Boston\/2011-2020\/2014\/07\/28\/BostonGlobe.com\/Magazine\/Images\/mag0803_CLOVERA1.jpg\" alt=\"The Kendall Square Clover restaurant.\" width=\"527\" height=\"350\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>(Image Source:\u00a0https:\/\/www.bostonglobe.com\/magazine\/2014\/07\/28\/clover-food-lab-secret-ingredient-data-lots\/JvSdzaodIny9A6xQzYdrPL\/story.html)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Clover Food Lab, a Boston-based fast-casual restaurant and foodtruck chain, was founded with the mission to reduce meat consumption by offering delicious, healthy vegetarian meals in convenient settings to change what carnivores eat. By linking their business and operational models tightly, Clover is able to execute on its promise and drive superior customer loyalty: <em>\u201c\u202690 percent of first-timers return within four weeks and 1 in 4 customers visits more than once a day.\u201d <sup>1<\/sup><\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Customer Promise &amp; Business Model <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There are three main aspects of Clover\u2019s business model that drive such strong customer loyalty:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Delicious, healthy food<\/strong> \u2013 <em>\u201cWhen people go to Clover, they don&#8217;t expect the same burger and fries, they expect good food.\u201d<\/em><sup>3 <\/sup>Ayr Muir, Clover\u2019s co-founder, describes \u201cclean flavors\u201d<sup>2 <\/sup>as the defining feature of the restaurant\u2019s food philosophy. This means simple, delicious meals cooked from scratch (Clover only uses pre-packaged ketchup and mayo ingredients).<\/li>\n<li><strong>Fast, convenient service<\/strong> \u2013 At Clover, the lines move fast and customers never have to wait long for their order. Muir notes that Clover is \u201cobsessed with speed\u201d, with average service times of 3.5 minutes, just a bit longer than at McDonald\u2019s.<sup>2<\/sup> If something goes wrong, the staff goes out of their way to help and Muir is known for issuing public apologies on his blog (most recently, he expressed regret over a \u201creally screwed up\u201d Broccoli Strawberry sandwich<sup>4<\/sup>).<\/li>\n<li><strong>Social mission<\/strong> \u2013 Clover is a mission-driven organization. Beyond helping the environment through reducing meat consumption, the restaurant also wants to support the communities it operates in by sourcing local ingredients,<sup>1<\/sup>\u00a0raising employee minimum wage and engaging its customers in every major decision (such as new menu offerings).<sup>5<\/sup><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Operating Model<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Muir notes that \u201c<em>the way we operate is unheard of in our industry<\/em>\u201d.<sup>2 <\/sup>Every aspects of the operating model, from recipe development to supply chain management, have been designed to ensure the customer promise described above is fulfilled.<\/p>\n<p><em>Recipe Development<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.confessionsofachocoholic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/clover-prototype.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>(Image Source:\u00a0http:\/\/www.confessionsofachocoholic.com\/healthy\/clover-now-open-in-harvard-square)\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Clover uses a\u00a0crowdsourcing process to generate ideas and select new recipes for its restaurants. In addition to online idea submissions page, the restaurant also hosts public Food Development Meetings every Tuesday, where customers and Clover staff can present new recipes for evaluation.<sup>3<\/sup> Attendees, including Muir, provide feedback and the best ones move on to further rounds of evaluations and pilots, before finally being incorporated into the menu.<\/p>\n<p>However, existing menu items are still closely monitored and updated based on customer feedback. The iconic chickpea fritter sandwich recipe has been updated over 30 times since it was first introduced 7 years ago.<sup>3<\/sup><\/p>\n<p>This crowdsourced, iterative and test-driven approach to recipe development ensures the continuous improvement of the menu and high customer engagement, setting Clover apart from its competitors.<\/p>\n<p><em>Food Preparation<\/em><\/p>\n<p>To ensure \u201cclean flavors\u201d, the staff prepares all recipes from scratch. Everything is extremely fresh &#8211; they do not use preservatives or even freezers and make sure to cut the ingredients as close to the consumption time as possible.<sup>2<\/sup><\/p>\n<p>As a result, the menu is small, changes frequently based on available ingredients and items occasionally run out. \u201c<em>We choose to run out\u201d<\/em><sup>2 <\/sup>says Muir &#8211; an unavoidable consequence of being uncompromising on food freshness and quality.<\/p>\n<p><em>Supply Chain Management<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Clover sources 40-85% of ingredients locally <sup>2 <\/sup>to further support their social mission and \u201ckeep your money in your region\u201d, as well as ensure \u201cclean flavors\u201d and fresh ingredients. Over time, Clover has developed close relationships with distributors and suppliers, enabling the team to be even more discerning about which ingredients to offer when.<\/p>\n<p><em>Technology <\/em><\/p>\n<p>Technology is paramount to achieve superior customer service and high employee wages. Trainings are offered via Youtube, shifts are scheduled through a cloud-based system, customer orders are taken by iPhone and plants water themselves (to save employees time).<sup>1<\/sup><\/p>\n<p>Gathering and analyzing feedback to improve operations is also of great importance at Clover. <em>\u201cAlmost anything that happens at Clover is gauged, tracked, and beamed through the cloud to management in real time\u201d<\/em><sup>1<\/sup>. Clover analyzes over 3,000 comments a month, gathering data during order processing, as well as through customer surveys, Twitter, Yelp and Facebook.<sup>3<\/sup> This data is used to measure how well the company is tracking against its customer promise and allows management to make changes if any gaps are identified.<\/p>\n<p>Muir has grand growth aspirations: <em>\u201cI think we should be as big as McDonald\u2019s one day\u201d<\/em>.<sup>3<\/sup>\u00a0But Clover works because of the\u00a0tight link between the business and operating models. Whether this link can be replicated on a national, or even international, scale remains to be seen.<\/p>\n<p>Sources:<\/p>\n<p>[1] <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bostonglobe.com\/magazine\/2014\/07\/28\/clover-food-lab-secret-ingredient-data-lots\/JvSdzaodIny9A6xQzYdrPL\/story.html\">https:\/\/www.bostonglobe.com\/magazine\/2014\/07\/28\/clover-food-lab-secret-ingredient-data-lots\/JvSdzaodIny9A6xQzYdrPL\/story.html<\/a><\/p>\n<p>[2] <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cloverfoodlab.com\/food\/\">https:\/\/www.cloverfoodlab.com\/food\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>[3] <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fastcompany.com\/3034640\/most-creative-people\/clover-food-labs-quest-to-become-the-vegetarian-mcdonalds#12\">http:\/\/www.fastcompany.com\/3034640\/most-creative-people\/clover-food-labs-quest-to-become-the-vegetarian-mcdonalds#12<\/a><\/p>\n<p>[4] <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cloverfoodlab.com\/blog\/2015\/07\/08\/sandwich-launch-mess\/\">https:\/\/www.cloverfoodlab.com\/blog\/2015\/07\/08\/sandwich-launch-mess\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>[5] <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cloverfoodlab.com\/blog\/2015\/10\/29\/much-think-clover-employees-earn\/\">https:\/\/www.cloverfoodlab.com\/blog\/2015\/10\/29\/much-think-clover-employees-earn\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How Clover&#039;s innovative processes enable the company to offer healthy fast food to customers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1289,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[74,267,194],"class_list":["post-3178","hck-submission","type-hck-submission","status-publish","hentry","category-crowd-sourcing","category-fast-food","category-operational-innovation"],"connected_submission_link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/assignment\/the-tom-challenge-tom-winners-and-losers-assignment\/","yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - 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