FROG trainers are recruited from El Pollo Loco stores around the country and spend several weeks training employees at soon-to-open restaurants.

But in January 2006, with 145 new restaurants in the pipeline and plans to open in new markets, El Pollo Loco decided to pay closer attention to franchisees, who run two-thirds of the Irvine, Calif.-based chain's 390 restaurants.

That year, the chain established the Franchise Restaurant Operating Group. FROG, as it's called, offers new franchisees extensive help, from the time they sign the franchise agreement to opening week and beyond. And although FROG is only 2 years old, El Pollo Loco continues to refine it. For instance, several new hires will take place this year to make the organization more efficient and more serviceable for a growing roster of franchisees.

“[FROG's launch] was really more of a strategic decision…we needed to be more focused on franchise support if we were to develop across the country,” says John Phillips, vice president of FROG. The acronym was intended as temporary, but when executives realized its marketing potential, catchy logo included, they decided to keep it. “It was kind of fun,” Phillips says.

The FROG management team is headed by Phillips, formerly a franchise business manager for the chain; Phillips reports to Steve Sather, El Pollo Loco's senior vice president of operations. Phillips was promoted to vice president from director in April 2007. The executive title “shows franchisees we are extremely serious and committed to success and growth,” Phillips says.

FROG support begins after franchisees sign their papers. El Pollo Loco does not use FROG as a courting tool; prospective store operators don't even find out about the services until the application process is three-quarters finished. “We do offer it as a great service,” Phillips says. “But the brand speaks for itself.”

A FROG trainee checks that food prepared for a mock rush, where staffers get experience handling high-volume hours, meets El Pollo Loco's standards.

Initial FROG assistance includes site selection, setting up accounts with vendors (especially important in markets outside El Pollo Loco's West Coast stronghold), IT assistance and help with restaurant construction.

Training, however, is FROG's forte. Six weeks before opening day, store managers fly to California for intensive training. Two weeks before opening day, a team of five FROG trainers arrives to help the manager train the crew. The team, pulled from various El Pollo Loco stores around the country, stays for 10 days. Trainers, who travel approximately once a quarter, consider it a privilege to assist franchisees. “It's a status thing to be pulled out,” Phillips says.

In addition to basics such as how to cook El Pollo Loco's menu and place an order, training also includes a mock rush. Trainers put the crew through its paces during a $500-hour sales period, a $750-hour period and a $1,000-hour period.

The FROG training team stays several days after opening to ensure that opening week runs well. New franchisees may use FROG teams for their second and third store openings, but by the fourth restaurant, franchisees are expected to have their own training teams in place.

New employees who have successfully made it through FROG training are FROG certified.

Chris Elliott, who opened his first El Pollo Loco restaurant in Hiram, Ga., in August 2007, agrees that the FROG team helped cut turnover. “We expected a natural drop-off of employees” after the first few weeks, says Elliott, whose Atlanta-based firm, Fiesta Brands Inc., will open 50 El Pollo Loco stores in the next six years. “We didn't experience that.” Because of the diligent training, “employees weren't frightened off by the experience,” he explains.

Elliott, a seasoned restaurant executive who has been COO of Church's Chicken and president of Morrison's Cafeterias, adds that he was surprised how much FROG contributed to the store's opening. “If you had asked me before [the opening], I would have said I need it less,” Elliott says. “But after opening the store, I'd say you need it, no matter how much experience you have.”

That's mainly because of El Pollo Loco's from-scratch menu, which features grilled chicken. “You're not just dropping it into a fryer and pressing a button,” Elliott says. Also, the stores open “big,” with high sales volume, “and that puts a lot of pressure on a brand-new crew,” he says.

Elliott says his FROG team continues to stay in touch and offer advice on an as-needed basis. For instance, his store team has faced challenges with food costs, “figuring out where the right number is,” Elliott says. On the West Coast, where El Pollo Loco has an established distribution system, there is a benchmark figure; in the Atlanta market, a new one for the chain, there is not.

In two years, FROG has been successful in helping franchisees open well in new markets. Still, the program has undergone some recent changes. In addition to Phillips' promotion, the chain hired Franchise Business Manager Bob Brown, who is based in Atlanta, to provide franchisees with an East Coast presence and handle field training. “They need someone who's not a three-hour time zone away,” Phillips says. In the future, El Pollo Loco may hire a new person to assume Brown's training responsibilities.

Support-wise, though, “I don't know that it could be any better,” Phillips says, citing the intense training prior to opening week and the team's presence throughout opening week as key. Still, “our company by nature is never static,” Phillips says. “Anything we can do to improve success, we're all over it.”