Jackie Secor joined the St. Louis Park, Minn.-based quick-service brand as chief operating officer in June
Taco John’s is focusing on operational standards moving forward.
s St. Louis Park, Minn.-based quick-service brand Taco John’s looks to grow its portfolio within the company’s core Western region, new COO Jackie Secor believes that focusing on the basics is necessary.
Secor joined Taco John’s as chief operating officer in June, having previously worked with CEO Heather Neary during their time at Auntie Anne’s. Secor said that in her new role, she is focused on driving franchisee success through operations and processes standardization. She wants to focus on the nuts and bolts of operations rather than anything flashy, because it’s often something simple that’s holding back a franchisee from success. “Sometimes you lose sight of those nickels and dimes, and those nickels and dimes can add up,” Secor said. “There are moments where a franchisee loses sight of that, and they just need somebody to have eyes on the back end of things to say, ‘Hey, you know your Olo has been turned off for breakfast for the past week. What happened there?’ And it gives them the opportunity to go dig in and fix it. It’s truly not rocket science.”
Secor said her top priority is to standardize operations cross-organization so that solutions and results are repeatable. This includes line items like revamping training materials and programs and investing in the same technology across all stores. “I think when you have an organization like Taco John’s that is 50-plus years old, there’s a lot of legacy, which is awesome, but there are also different operational standards depending on where you are in the country,” she said. “There’s just a deviance from normal that that became the norm over the years.”
One way the company is looking to modernize and streamline technology is by testing out voice AI in partnership with Presto and rolling out new kitchen display systems. By making these small tweaks and larger technological investments, Secor said the company can speed service and improve franchisee success. Taco John’s is also looking to add more data analytics to the company’s tech stack so that more information is on-hand to catch issues — either at a franchisee level or higher up — earlier on.
“The world has changed so much since COVID,” Secor said. “There are so many different channels now that it’s really about educating our franchise system. It starts with our franchisees and making sure they have the right tools to be successful.”