5 Guys Essay

5 Guys Essay 5 Guys Essay Entrepreneurial Leadership Five Guys Burger and Fries. For BUS 508 – Contemporary Business April 28, 2013 Five Guys Burgers and Fries know that a company cannot be everything to every customer, so instead they decided to focus on selling a good burger at a fair price. Their idea is to keep it simple and do not cut corners and this idea helps to differentiate it from the big fast-food chains. When founders Jerry and Janie Murrell star started their business they went looking for the best ingredients to use. Their choice to use high quality ingredients means they need to charge more for their products but the Murrell’s felt that once the customers eat their burger they would not mind the additional cost. They make every hamburger to order for every customer, who has a choice of 11 different toppings and serve it on a hamburger bun that was baked using a recipe crafted specifically for their stores. Since big well established fast-food chains are able to sell such large quantities of food then can do so at incredibly low prices. Their use of lower quality products such as frozen meat, dehydrated fries, and vegetable oil for frying French fries. Five Guys uses high quality 80% lean beef that is never frozen for their juicy burgers. They also use potatoes from the northern part of Idaho, where they grow slower and are more solid. Then they take the time to soak them and pre-fry them so that when they get fried for orders they do not absorb the high quality peanut oil. Five Guys motto of â€Å"keep it Simple† carries over to their dà ©cor of their restaurants. They stuck with clean white walls with red tiles. They keep their kitchens open so customers can see that they are kept clean. The Murrell’s feel that their food deserves their attention, and that they do not need to distract their customers with walls covered with nonsense. While most of the big fast-food chains spend roughly 3% of their earnings on marketing and advertising, Five Guys does not spend any of their revenue on either one. They feel that their food speaks for itself. They also feel that the best advertising for a company is for a customer to leave satisfied. The only type of advertising they rely on is word of mouth from their customers. Five Guys would rather spend their money on high quality ingredients. The Five Guy founders also feel that when you are trying to sell a great product you also need to be mindful of the staff you hire to sell it. They feel that if they hire well paid employees and treat them fairly they will be loyal and proud to be the front line of your business. Instead of using revenue for advertising they feel it is more beneficial for them to offer bonuses to their crew members. Five Guys has worked with another company to utilize secret shoppers to their stores to rate each one on the cleanliness, courtesy, and food preparation. They also have safety audits where a person will come into a store and check the kitchen equipment and if they received a high score the crew would be eligible for a bonus to be split among the members. This incentive program give the staff a motive for paying attention to details and providing an exceptional customer experience. When Jerry Murrell and his family starts Five Guys they believed in selling a good burger at a fair price. They chose to spend their money on high quality ingredients and to provide the customer with an exceptional service experience. This was something they could easily have control over when they just had a few stores that were run by the family. Since franchising their stores they have continued to use their high quality ingredients. They are still using the same vendors to supply their stores that they were using when is all began in 1986. The Murrell family feel that there burger taste better when they are served on a bun that is