This case study is part of the International Franchise Association’s ongoing effort to spotlight how franchise brands are re-engineering value, improving customer experience, and strengthening franchisee performance by thoughtfully rethinking traditional processes and embracing innovation.

We interviewed Scott Deviney, President and CEO of Chicken Salad Chick about enhancing their menu and dining room layout based on data and franchisee involvement.

What was the challenge or opportunity your innovation addressed?

As Chicken Salad Chick continued to grow, leadership identified two structural constraints that were quietly limiting franchisee profitability—despite strong brand affinity and consistent traffic.

The first challenge was menu complexity. While the brand intentionally offered a simplified product lineup—centered around chicken salad flavors—the way guests ordered created friction, especially for first-time or infrequent visitors. The existing “Chick Special” (a pick-two format) and “Trio” (pick-three) required explanation, limited pricing flexibility, and placed a cognitive burden on both guests and cashiers.

“For a first-time guest or someone who doesn’t come very often, it was confusing,” Deviney explained. “And from a pricing standpoint, you only had two levers to pull.”

The second challenge involved restaurant footprint and build-out costs. At roughly 2,800 square feet, Chicken Salad Chick restaurants were designed to support a meaningful dine-in business—but rising construction and rent costs raised the question: could the brand maintain the dine-in experience more efficiently?

“We still do a decent dine-in business—about 27% of sales,” Deviney said. “But 2,800 square feet can be expensive to build and expensive to rent as prices go up.”

What did your brand do—what was the project or initiative?

Rather than making surface-level changes, Chicken Salad Chick took a research-driven approach to rethinking both menu architecture and dining room design—without changing the core brand experience.

On the menu side, the team dismantled the pick-two / pick-three framework entirely. Instead, they rebuilt the menu around how guests actually think:

• Scoops vs. sandwiches

• One side vs. two sides

• Distinct sandwich options (classic, melt, BLT, etc.)

“We separated everything out so guests could just look at the menu—with pictures—and say, ‘I want that,’” Deviney said. “The cashier doesn’t have to ask five follow-up questions.”

This redesign created eight pricing options instead of two, giving franchisees far more flexibility to manage value, margin, and promotional strategy.

On the restaurant design side, the team studied seating behavior across every restaurant the brand had ever opened. What they discovered changed the conversation entirely.

“Eighty percent of our guests are one or two people—and the first place they sit is a booth,” Deviney said. “So you’ve got four seats, but only one or two people. That’s 100% table capacity, but only 25–50% seating capacity.”

Instead of focusing on seat count, the brand reconfigured dining rooms around two-top banquettes that could be flexed together for larger parties. Booths and ornate overhead build-outs were reduced or eliminated—cutting costs without sacrificing functionality.

The result: a potential reduction of 500 square feet per restaurant, meaningful rent savings, and a targeted goal of reducing build-out costs by approximately $100,000 per location—while still supporting full lunch and dinner demand.

How were franchisees and the franchisor involved?

Ideas were first shared transparently at annual conferences and regional meetings, where leadership previewed strategic priorities and gathered feedback. From there, both initiatives followed a disciplined test-and-validate process.

Menu changes were tested first in company-owned stores, then rolled out to Franchise Advisory Council (FAC) members, who volunteered to pilot the changes and share performance data.

“Every FAC member wanted to try it,” Deviney noted. “Once the data validated that it worked, we rolled it out systemwide.”

The same approach applied to the redesigned restaurant footprint. Willing franchisees partnered with the brand to test the new layout, validate construction costs, and measure operational impact.

“We’re fortunate to have franchise owners who want to test things,” Deviney said. “Adoption from them is key in anything we do.”

What were the results?

On the menu redesign, the most significant outcome was a dramatic increase in upgrade behavior. Under the old menu, only about 20% of orders included an upgrade (the Trio). Under the new structure, upgrade incidence jumped to approximately 33%.

“That’s more than a 50% lift in upgrade behavior,” Deviney said. “And we didn’t do anything other than change how guests order.”

The changes also:

• Increased average check

• Improved pricing flexibility

• Reduced ordering friction

• Made the experience easier for both guests and team members

On the restaurant design side, the new layout preserved dining capacity while reducing wasted space. By focusing on table utilization rather than seat count, Chicken Salad Chick was able to lower construction and occupancy costs without harming the dine-in experience.

“It’s not just about shrinking the footprint,” Deviney emphasized. “If we had done that, we would have hurt dine-in. This way, we still accommodate our lunch rush—but do it in a cheaper, smarter way.”

Anything you’d do differently if you could?

In hindsight, Deviney wishes both initiatives had started sooner.

With the menu, the team initially launched a “version 2.0” that still didn’t fully solve the problem. It took a real-world visit to a grand opening for the shortcomings to become obvious.

“I realized it still didn’t work,” he said. “So we went back to the drawing board. We got to the right place—it just took longer than I would’ve liked.”

With the restaurant footprint, the key lesson was reframing the problem.

“We were so focused on seats,” Deviney said. “The epiphany was realizing it’s not about seats—it’s about table utilization.”

That insight allowed the brand to resist post-COVID pressure to simply shrink dining rooms and instead redesign them in a way that balanced guest experience with franchisee economics.

This case study is part of the International Franchise Association’s ongoing series highlighting how franchise leaders are re-engineering value by reducing friction, integrating technology thoughtfully, and empowering franchisees to deliver better experiences for customers and buyers alike.