Exterior view of a Bonefish Grill restaurant

Bloomin’ Brands

International Casual Dining Company Drives Enterprise-Wide Facilities Management Excellence Across 1,200+ Locations.

July 6, 2023

4 min read

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The Company

One of the world’s largest casual dining companies with approximately 100,000 employees and close to 1,500 restaurants throughout 48 states, Puerto Rico, Guam and 20 countries, Bloomin’ Brands restaurants include Outback Steakhouse, Carrabba’s Italian Grill, Bonefish Grill, and Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar.

We wanted to get from zero to 60 overnight in terms of our ‘facilities management evolution.’ To achieve this, we needed to work with the right technology partner who would give us the flexibility to grow the business the way we wanted. We found ServiceChannel to be highly collaborative and open to new ideas that can help us grow continuously together. Also, we liked that they cared about their clients and service providers equally.”

— Jon Ahrendt, Director of Facilities Management, Bloomin’ Brands

The Challenge

Until 2009, Bloomin’ Brands used locally driven solutions for facilities management. Facilities repair and maintenance was the purview of each manager resulting in several challenges, particularly given its corporate culture:

Lack of visibility into the scope and spending of service providers responsible for completing work orders
Inconsistent and inefficient vendor management across different locations due to ad hoc nature of sourcing service providers
Inability to generate actionable facilities management information based on key performance indicators for better measurement and control
Legacy CMMS (computerized maintenance management system) was limited in functionality to basic invoice processing and in data classification
Higher costs for repairs and maintenance overall due to ad hoc spending and inconsistent service at individual locations. This limited Bloomin’ Brands from taking advantage of volume pricing and other economies of scale benefits generally available to a nationwide chain

We now have information to work strategically throughout the company. We use this data to make the right decisions within our Facilities Program and across other departments.”

— Jon Ahrendt, Director of Facilities Management, Bloomin’ Brands

The Solution

Bloomin’ Brands selected ServiceChannel as its technology partner not only for its industry-leading Service Automation platform but also for its unique “dual-focused” approach of adding value to both facilities managers and service providers & contractors. ServiceChannel’s platform has been deployed at Bloomin’ Brands for more than 18 months, covering more than 1,200 US locations. Specifically, Bloomin’ Brands relies on:

Service Automation, ServiceChannel’s flagship platform gives the Bloomin’ Brands’ staff the ability to open work orders, and for the Facilities Team to track progress through resolution
Analytics Custom, an optional Service Automation module to run reports customized for internal and external stakeholders
Invoice Manager, to reduce invoice and payment processing costs through a closed-loop process
Contractor Scorecard, a “platform of competition” that enables the Facilities Team to have objective, data-based discussions with service providers and make appropriate decisions on whom to work with and prices to pay, rather than merely relying on anecdotal evidence
Mobile App, described as a “game changer” at Bloomin’ Brands in terms of empowering staff with capabilities such as:
Opening work orders directly and communicating with the Facilities Team and Service Providers using detailed text notes and multimedia (photos)
Updating NTE pricing and approving proposals directly from the platform, which “changes the nature of the business” for the Facilities Team

The Benefits

Bloomin’ Brands now has high-functioning support to maintain consistent standards for facilities operations at all locations. Through the ServiceChannel deployment, Bloomin’ Brands has been able to:

Cost Evolve the company’s facilities repair and maintenance program from an ad hoc, “white gloves” approach to one efficient, cost-effective and flexible to the company’s culture
Gain better control of the information and data generated through ServiceChannel, including custom reports on-demand to support various corporate departments
Establish formal KPIs to measure department effectiveness and vendor performance around four categories: quality (user feedback, recalls), cost savings (compared to benchmarks), speed of service (time to dispatch, resolution) and efficient administration (invoicing, compliance)

The Results

Using data to generate business intelligence/insights is arguably the hallmark of the ServiceChannel deployment at Bloomin’ Brands. Its Facilities team shares this information proactively with internal teams as well as service providers (through quantitative vendor scorecards) for alignment and planning. Using the data, Bloomin’ Brands has been able to challenge its service providers to meet and exceed specific KPI goals such as:

Reducing work order resolution times in terms of average days by 56%
Increasing first-time service provider completion rate by 88% and check-in compliance rate by 123%
Increasing on-time arrival rates for contractors at their job sites by 95% while increasing dispatch confirmation rate within one hour for urgent work orders by 105%
Reducing negative feedback of service provider performance by 66% in just over one year

Bloomin’ Brands

The Company

The Challenge

The Solution

The Benefits

The Results

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