Flipping Customer Experience: How Mel Howell Transformed Culture at BurgerFuel

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What does it take to create an unforgettable customer experience?

For BurgerFuel, it wasn’t just about great food—it was about how customers feel the moment they step into a store. Leading this transformation was ECD Practitioner Mel Howell, who designed and delivered the largest-ever hybrid project for the Customer Experience & Emotional Culture Deck in the world.

In 2020, Mel launched a game-changing customer and employee experience programme across 50+ BurgerFuel stores in New Zealand. Her approach blended The Emotional Culture Deck with the Customer Experience Deck, helping store leaders design unique in-store cultures that drive customer engagement, employee satisfaction, and business success.

The Challenge: Creating Consistent Yet Unique Customer Experiences

Post-COVID, BurgerFuel recognised that customer experience would be the key differentiator in a competitive hospitality market. But how do you create a customer experience that feels authentic, not scripted? And how do you engage a workforce of mostly 17- to 25-year-olds, many of whom see hospitality as a stepping stone rather than a long-term career?

Rather than rolling out a one-size-fits-all approach, Mel focused on something bold: giving store leaders the power to design their own customer and employee experience.

The Solution: A One-Day Workshop That Changed Everything

Mel developed a one-day workshop for BurgerFuel store leaders, built around three core areas:

Self – Leaders reflected on their own emotions and leadership style using the Know Yourself Handbook
Customer – Teams used The CX Deck to define what they wanted customers to feel—and what they didn’t.
People – They explored how to create a workplace where employees feel engaged, valued, and motivated.

Key Takeaways from the Programme:

Every store designed its own experience – Instead of a top-down directive, each BurgerFuel store crafted a customer and employee experience tailored to their team and community.
Customer emotions drive business success – The top three feelings stores wanted customers to experience were: Welcome, Important, and Comfortable.
Engaged employees create engaged customers – The top two emotions teams wanted to feel at work were: Appreciated and Supported.
Real results, real impact – As the workshops rolled out, customer reviews and ratings increased immediately—a clear sign that emotional connection improves customer experience.

Embedding the Culture Beyond the Workshop

Mel knew the real challenge wasn’t just delivering an engaging workshop—it was making sure the learning stuck. So she helped BurgerFuel embed the new customer and employee experience into daily operations, including:

Pre-shift meetings – Staff answer the question: “How do we want our customers to feel today?” and share what they’ll do to make that happen.
Weekly shift manager meetings – Keeping customer and employee experience front and centre.
Audits and compliance checks – Customer experience is now part of BurgerFuel’s ongoing quality control.
The “Good Bastards” Initiative – A peer-nominated appreciation programme, where top-performing employees get a day at Head Office, including exclusive training, taste tests, and a big celebration.

What’s Next? Keeping the Momentum Going

BurgerFuel didn’t stop after the initial rollout. They’ve made emotional culture a long-term priority—even creating a dedicated Head Office role to keep driving the work forward.

Mel’s story proves that when you put emotions at the heart of customer and employee experience, real business results follow.

👉 Watch the full case study here with Mel Howell to see how she made it happen!

Want to learn how to create a CX & EX project like this?