When they first founded Salt & Straw, CEO Kim Malek and her cousin Tyler Malek — now Head Ice Cream Maker and Chief Creative Officer — were running the business out of a basement. But their delicious ice cream and inventive flavors proved to be a hit, eventually catapulting them from a one-cart operation in Portland to a chain with 17 stores across five states and counting.
Throughout the business’s twelve years of operation, however, they’ve never lost sight of their initial goal: creating a community gathering space where building connection and providing unforgettable hospitality was just as important as making unbelievable ice cream.
To continue offering that unparalleled experience during rapid growth, however, Director of Learning & Development Angela Gintz knew they needed to implement a top-of-the-line training program.
Challenge: Inconsistent Training Jeopardizes Guest Experience
Salt & Straw began a new chapter in their company journey in 2021 — one that involved both revamping their operations and dramatically increasing their hiring.
“At that time, we started to see a lack of consistency and training across all functions,” Gintz said. “Simultaneously, we wanted to pursue an aggressive growth path — but to do that, we really needed to get our training right.”
Back then, the Learning & Development (L&D) team shared training content — mainly PowerPoints and printed materials — with managers, who each cascaded the info down to team members in slightly different ways. This often resulted in inconsistencies from one location to another. What’s more, the young staff didn’t find the content particularly engaging.
“50% of our company is under 21, so we needed a solution that was aimed directly at that Gen Z population. With Opus, I wanted to push our company to think about the future,” Gintz said.
After looking for a solution that could help them get their staff aligned on service standards, business goals, and company culture, Salt & Straw decided to partner with Opus.
Solution: Digital Training That Keeps Managers at Its Heart
Gintz had a goal of not just teaching on-the-ground fundamentals, but also the company’s history, culture, and values. And although Salt & Straw wanted to keep managers at the heart of their training, they also wanted to make it easier for them to facilitate consistent trainings that drove home the value of guest experience.
The first thing managers train new hires on at Salt & Straw is how to conduct a great taste adventure — or sampling of their ice cream flavors — for customers. The L&D team revamped this training using a blended approach combining both digital learning on Opus with manager-led in-person instruction.
After completing Opus training modules on flavor stories and Salt & Straw’s history and values, managers would guide new hires through a taste adventure — so they could then replicate that magical experience with customers.
“Scoopers’ time is best spent in customer-facing interactions, and so much of our approach centers around that,” Gintz said. “It’s a full sensory experience in the training: they're learning the story on Opus, they're tasting the ice cream, and they're feeling the hospitality from their training manager.”
Now, with 200+ different Opus trainings now available on topics like monthly rotating flavors, standard operating procedures, and workplace safety and compliance (among others), managers have a complete training playbook at their disposal.
And Opus is the only platform that provides 100% visibility, allowing both trainers and corporate to view real-time performance results and track trainings done in-person.
Results: Training Loved By Managers & Trainees Alike
Training That “Harnesses Joy”
Opus has already been a hit at Salt & Straw; team members have rated their satisfaction with the platform at a 4.6 out of 5.0, while managers give Opus a 4.7 out of 5.0. Gintz largely credits this to how user-friendly Opus is — “the interface is easy to use, so managers and team members love that,” she remarked.
The blended-learning approach combining Opus training with hands-on learning is also more engaging than their previous system. Now, team members aren’t just reading PDFs. As Gintz pointed out, they’re actually getting paid to eat ice cream and learn how to tell the Salt & Straw story.
“We try to harness the joy of the company and make it integral to the training,” Gintz said — one of the many reasons why their average employee tenure is about 4x longer than the industry standard.
With more team members adopting and engaging in the training, it’s also naturally more effective. Managers across store locations say that their staff’s ability to speak knowledgeably about the flavors has significantly increased.
Monthly LTO Trainings Without a Hitch
Salt & Straw has been able to achieve all of the results above while saving time across a number of different areas. For one, they can rapidly create, publish, and edit content, with team members who have opted in even receiving automated mobile notifications. This has been a game-changer in disseminating timely information like monthly rotating flavors.
“The ability to get the new menu knowledge out and accessible to the frontline every month has been one of the biggest wins,” Gintz shared.
Close up: Allergen Alert
After a frontline staffer discovered that a monthly menu uploaded to Opus was missing a proper allergen warning, they were able to instantly alert the L&D team of the issue through the platform. The team, in turn, managed to immediately replace it with an updated version.
“I don't think we would have been able to do that before,” Gintz said. “That real-time, on-the-ground feedback was really helpful for us when it came to mitigating potential risk.”
Training That Keeps Pace with Operations
Shortened new hire ramp times have also proved valuable in preparing a wave of seasonal hires for the summer rush, and allowing hires for new locations to hit the ground running as soon as their store opens. And with four new stores opened just this past June, this plays a critical role in driving their expansion.
Managers who no longer have to walk team members through each element of the training content have seen great time savings as well. While team members independently complete Opus modules, managers can “take a breather, help their team on the frontline when it’s busy, or send some emails,” Gintz said. “They love how Opus gives them a little bit of a break.”
With Opus, Salt & Straw has found an ideal balance between moving quickly and delivering industry-leading training.
