Sara Bittorf, Chief Brand Officer for Boston Market – a home style restaurant chain with more than 460 locations – will share her challenging and at times emotional experience on the hit CBS series “Undercover Boss” on Friday, February 1, from 8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT. Bittorf, who has served as Chief Brand Officer of Boston Market since early 2012, describes her time undercover in the kitchens of several Boston Market restaurants as remarkable.
“I wanted to go through this process to learn what Boston Market is doing right, and where we could find additional ways to improve,” said Bittorf. “I was thrilled to witness some of our company’s finest people going so far above and beyond for our brand. What I didn’t expect was to also learn about myself in the process.”
Since joining Boston Market nearly one year ago, Bittorf has been singularly focused on developing consumer campaigns and new products to help connect the brand to key audiences. The decision to go undercover allowed her to change her focus from media and consumers to the employees and systems those same consumers experienced every day.
“This experience is one that has already been instrumental in our plans to grow and improve the quality of our restaurants,” said Bittorf. “We plan to leverage every single takeaway from my time on ‘Undercover Boss’ at every level of our organization.”
Jobs that she participated in during the show include cashier, drive-thru attendant and carver. Since the show was taped, the executive team at Boston Market has created an Innovation Fund to solicit employee ideas and a program to retrain staff on proper utilization of an existing system to ensure employee breaks are taken, even during busy times. Bittorf, who is left-handed, is also committed to exploring ways of making processes more “lefty-friendly,” since they are currently designed for right-handed people.
“Undercover Boss,” an Emmy Award-winning reality series, follows high-level corporate executives as they slip anonymously into the rank-and-file of their own companies. Each week, a different executive leaves the comfort of their corner office for an undercover mission to examine the inner workings of their corporation. The fourth season of the show kicked off last fall.
Boston Market Corporation, headquartered in Golden, Colorado, has given time back to busy families and individuals for more than 25 years with quality, home style meals at a convenient value in nationwide locations. A staple on dinner tables, Boston Market prepares its fresh, never-frozen, natural chicken in signature rotisserie ovens and features an extensive selection of home style sides and made from scratch cornbread. In 2011, the company completed updates to locations across the country, adding new healthier menu items and enhancing the dine-in experience. In August 2012, Boston Market committed to reduce sodium levels in signature items by 20 percent and to reduce sodium in the company’s menu items by 15 percent by the end of 2014.
As one of the country’s largest providers of catering services, Boston Market also offers convenient, same-day orders and delivery for corporate and personal events of all sizes. For more information, visit the company’s website at www.bostonmarket.com. For the latest information and offers, follow @bostonmarket on Twitter or join us on Facebook.
