Nando’s Canada Case Study: Real-Time Store Audits with MeazureUp
For this Case Study, MeazureUp sat down with Phil Brown, Acting Area Director & Operations Efficiency Manager at Nando’s Canada.
Why was Nando’s Canada running store audits on paper and Excel?
Phil Brown is Acting Area Director and Operations Efficiency Manager at Nando’s Canada. A hospitality professional with more than eighteen years of operational experience, he specializes in back of house operations, having spent most of his career in restaurant kitchens. He joined Nando’s Canada as a General Manager of an Ontario location, moved into the Operations Efficiency Manager role about eighteen months later, and added Area Director responsibilities for part of the Ontario region.
Before MeazureUp, the operational field assessment process ran on a standard paper and Excel based system. Brown and his team conducted regular store visits, taking handwritten notes while walking the store and trying to remember when a specific issue appeared. Once a visit was finished, the notes had to be typed up as long emails before anyone else could see them.
The logistical overhead was the real cost. Keeping the required information organized in a paper and Excel process took considerable time, and preparing that raw data for meaningful analysis took more time still, often against tight deadlines. Photos made it worse: capturing an issue meant taking a picture on a phone and attaching it to an email separately from the assessment it belonged to.
How did MeazureUp change Nando’s field assessment process?
With MeazureUp, assessments are collected in real time during the visit rather than reconstructed afterward. Handwritten notes no longer have to be turned into an email report or an Excel file, which makes it easier to gather information and identify problems and opportunities while they are still relevant. Photos attach directly to the assessment they document.
The change freed up the part of the role that matters most to Brown.
“With the additional time savings, we can spend less time auditing and more time coaching our Store Managers and Franchisees on how to perform their best which really is the main purpose of my role.”
Phil Brown, Acting Area Director & Operations Efficiency Manager, Nando’s Canada
What does Nando’s do with Action Plans and the MeazureUp dashboard?
Action Plans are the team’s most used feature. During each audit, Brown and his team create plans in the moment to fix areas that need attention, set due dates, and assign the team members responsible for resolving each issue. Everyone receives an email when an Action Plan is assigned, plus reminders as items come due and when they go overdue. That removes a significant amount of back and forth between General Managers and the area team, and it means follow ups happen without anyone having to chase them.
The dashboard adapts to the person using it. Someone managing five stores sees data for those five stores, while a VP or COO sees consolidated information and can compare performance across locations. Brown’s team uses the store ranking view to identify lower performing locations, then works out what each one is facing and how to resolve it.
Why does real-time auditing matter for multi-unit restaurant brands?
For a multi-unit brand, the value of a store audit depends on how quickly it turns into action. When assessments have to be transcribed before anyone can act on them, the delay is built into the process, and the time spent on transcription is time not spent in stores developing managers. Collecting the assessment in real time removes that step and shifts the work back toward coaching.
