Hopdoddy Burger Bar has always been far from your average burger joint. Started by four friends in 2010 with the goal of “setting a new standard for burger bars,” Hopdoddy has developed a devoted fan following for its artisanal burgers (think: Truffle Mac), craft beer, fresh-baked buns, house cocktails, and hand-cut fries.

Beyond offering gourmet food, Hopdoddy also prides itself on offering a gourmet experience fueled by top-notch customer service. Of course, excellent customer service doesn’t just happen — it must first be taught.

Challenge: A Training Program & Platform Struggling to Get Traction

While training had long been a priority at Hopdoddy, their learning management system (LMS) was preventing the program from reaching its true potential.

Kim Evans, Director of Training at Hopdoddy, first started at the company 13 years ago as a cashier. Today, she operates as a small but mighty team of one responsible for designing, overseeing, and improving learning and development for all 1,500+ frontline employees.

While their training format worked well, the LMS Hopdoddy previously used left a lot to be desired. For one, it was optimized for desktop computers, which interrupted the flow of training.

“Pulling out the laptop is always a little more daunting and time-consuming, and often, the tech didn’t sync up right, which would prevent us from being able to kick off the courses in a timely manner. Plus, we accessed the LMS through a third party so we weren’t able to easily troubleshoot and get support,” Evans said. “Often, employees had to begin solo shifts before they had completed all of their training.”

Moreover, analytics were limited, and pulling reports was cumbersome, making it difficult for managers — let alone the corporate team — to assess progress.

After searching for an LMS that could accommodate their needs and help them elevate their operations, Hopdoddy chose Opus.

Solution: Continuous Learning for Everyone

Using Opus, Evans was able to easily import new hire training content from their previous platform.

“Whenever you launch a new system, you have to catch up on all the content you created previously. I thought that would be my main focus, but it was easy to convert our previous content into Opus courses. We were able to focus our efforts on creating additional content that we didn't previously have the bandwidth for,” Evans said.

Opus’ expansive library of templates and courses also makes it easy to create new content, allowing Evans to rethink her approach to communications. Information that used to be sent as a simple update can now be incorporated into their training program.

Previously, Evans would inform the team about limited-time offers (LTOs) like the Burgers of the Month through a static recipe sheet — with Opus, however, Evans can support launches like these with dynamic courses. Evans has also turned their weekly employee newsletter, the Same Page, into a training module that guarantees managers and team members are digesting the information.

She even creates trainings for the weekly employee newsletter, the Same Page.

With Opus, employees can access these trainings right from their smartphones. And thanks to Opus’ instant translation capabilities, content is available in more than 100 languages with up to 99% accuracy.

The Hopdoddy team can even verify that trainees are truly processing information and learning crucial skills. Using Opus’ check-in feature, Evans can assign standard “control points” — or essential tasks — to each role that managers must observe, evaluate, and sign off on.

And critically, Opus offers detailed yet easy-to-read reports that Evans — and the rest of Hopdoddy’s corporate office — can use to view performance data by individual, location, region, and more.

Results: Higher Adoption, Greater Efficacy, More Proactive Training

A More Accessible Experience

With employees’ ability to access Opus right from their smartphone or tablet — rather than having to break out laptops like they used to — the platform integrates seamlessly into Hopdoddy’s training process.

The fact that the team can now learn in the language of their choice has also made training much more accessible. This is especially meaningful for Hopdoddy, since 40% of their team identifies as Hispanic — and many of them prefer to learn in Spanish.

“It's very important to us that everyone feels like a member of the team, so it warms my heart to know that we can bridge that gap. We're able to reach more people,” Evans said.

Greater Engagement & Feedback Lead to Continual Improvement

Quizzes and hands-on skill verification have also made for a more engaging learning experience. To date, Hopdoddy employees have completed more than 63,000 trainings, with an average completion rate of 98% — and they’ve rated their experience with Opus at 4.7 out of 5.0. According to Evans, this is 20% lift from their previous LMS.

The ability to personalize content for specific teams, meanwhile, helps team members “feel more included in what’s going on in the Hopdoddy world” — as does their ability to leave comments on courses. 

“The fact that people taking the courses can comment on them, combined with how quick and easy it is to update a course, has been a real game changer. If someone mentions that something didn’t make sense to them, I can change it like that and leave them a message saying ‘thanks for the feedback — we fixed this,’” Evans said. “It's an opportunity to make the team feel heard, and those little wins add up.”

Stronger Manager Accountability

Opus also allows Hopdoddy to verify that employees are truly engaging with and benefitting from their training. Managers can monitor their team members’ progress, perform knowledge checks, and send reminders to complete their assigned modules.

“With Opus, we’ve seen that the folks who have outstanding items are getting caught up more quickly now than with our previous platform. Our managers are on it — and the numbers don’t lie.” Kim Evans, Director of Training at Hopdoddy Burger Bar

And now that Hopdoddy’s corporate office has visibility into this information, they can identify which managers, locations, and regions are succeeding and which need additional follow-up or support.

“The platform we were using before allowed us to view reports for individuals, but it was difficult to see where the whole team ranked. With Opus, you just open it up and see everyone in one spot,” Evans said.

Time Savings Lead to More Ongoing Training

Because of how easy Opus has made it to create new content, Evans has been able to expand her efforts beyond new hire training to ongoing employee training that allows longtime team members to upskill.

“It’s wild how much Opus has allowed me to focus on ongoing training — I’ve never been in that position before.” Kim Evans, Director of Training at Hopdoddy Burger Bar

This has been particularly valuable given Hopdoddy’s focus on internal promotions. Evans has already built out dedicated content in Opus for their Manager-in-Training and Team Member to General Manager programs.

“I’m excited to continue leveraging Opus in the future — I think it’s going to be a slam dunk,” Evans said. “Even if somebody’s not going to be with us for life, we can still help teach them skills that they can take with them anywhere.”