WhataGames 2013 © Whataburger Restaurants
Get ready for a unique three-day competition pitting 24 Whataburger restaurants against each other for a gold medal and the esteemed title of WhataGames 2015 Champion. And if those stakes aren't high enough, Whataburger will also award $165,000 in cash prizes to all members of the gold, silver and bronze winning teams, which includes team members who participated in the events as well as those who stayed back to operate and manage their stores.
“Every two years, this unique competition and training event provides us the opportunity to further improve the ways we serve each other and our customers,” says Rob Rodriguez, senior vice president of operations Whataburger Restaurants LLC. “At Whataburger, our team members take pride in their work and love serving customers, which is why this event is a perfect opportunity to allow them to shine and reward them for their great work.”
But before the finalists even reach Grapevine, the 121 restaurants that have emerged as semifinalists—including the Whataburger on State Highway 26 in Grapevine—will have to continue to prove their skills through a series of elimination rounds.
To earn their spot as semifinalists, the restaurants had to beat out their competitors among Whataburger's more than 760 restaurants in 10 states in this spirited contest designed to test the skills of Whataburger team members in three categories: operations, corporate history and customer service.
The games, created in 1996 as a training exercise for operations to better serve customers, has grown steadily from 500 participants to more than 2,000 Whataburger team members.