How a Former Marine Turned Chick-fil-A Operator Built a Battle-Tested Restaurant Ops Blueprint with Trainual

“In my world, if procedures aren’t right, people die.”‍

That’s not just a metaphor for Scott Payne. Before becoming a Chick-fil-A Operator, he was a Marine pilot. And when he opened a brand-new, high-volume location in upstate New York, he brought that same high-stakes mindset to his business playbook.

Before Trainual, Scott ran a successful Chick-fil-A in Virginia — without a centralized system. "It was all tribal knowledge and word of mouth," he said. That experience showed him what not to do. So when the opportunity came to open a new store, he decided to do things differently. With a six-month construction delay giving him rare breathing room, he made a bold move: onboard Trainual before the restaurant ever opened.

No team. No systems. Just time to build the right way.

So, he went to work. Not on his menu. On his manuals. And Trainual became his battlefield-tested system for operational excellence.

What was slowing Scott down?

Scott faced a unique mix of startup chaos and high expectations:

• Zero team carryover: After relocating, he had to hire and train from scratch.
• Operational overload: A booming grand opening delivered volume way beyond projections.
• No documentation: His Virginia SOPs were great, but they lived in his head (and maybe some dusty Google Sheets).
• No way to scale improvements: Feedback loops didn’t exist. Training was manual. Changes didn’t stick.

And he knew the stakes. "I've seen what happens when standardization fails," Scott said. "And in my world, that used to be life or death."

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The system that took Scott to the next level

Scott didn’t just implement Trainual — he engineered a multi-stage, scalable system designed for long-term growth and real-time adaptability. Every step was intentional, grounded in his experience leading flight crews and his belief in process-driven excellence.

“I’ve seen standardization at its best — and its absence at its worst. I wasn’t going to leave our systems up to chance.”

Stage One: Back-office mastery

While most teams rush straight to frontline training, Scott hit pause. He and his admin, Colby, spent their first six months documenting every behind-the-scenes process — from HR and payroll to EOS rhythms and compliance workflows. This wasn’t just setup; it was system building.

"We didn’t want to throw ops into a system we barely understood. We used our downtime to become experts — and Trainual became the infrastructure for how we run.”

Stage Two: Operational excellence

With the basics dialed, Scott turned his attention to the floor. Using his background as a Marine pilot, he recreated a restaurant version of the military's NATOPS manual — the gold standard for crew-based SOPs.

Every role in the restaurant is getting a Trainual topic structured around:

• The why of the role — "This isn’t just how to make a milkshake. It’s why this station matters to the guest experience."
• Standards based on Chick-fil-A best practices
• Clear procedures (1–10 step walkthroughs)
• How to know you’re winning in the role
• Embedded images, videos, and Trainual tests

"I might have seven minutes of someone’s attention — and Trainual helps make every one of those minutes count."

He’s already built seven custom paths for different positions. Many are unpublished placeholders — "so that when something breaks, we can fix it, document it, and push it out that week."

Trainual embedded in the culture

It’s not just a tool. Trainual is baked into the everyday language and routines of Scott’s restaurant. "It's not, 'Let me show you.' It's, 'It's in Trainual. Go check it out.'"

• "Adoption is non-negotiable. It's part of the job description."
• "If you can automate it, do it in Trainual. Save your energy for live coaching."
• "We're solving one problem forever and documenting it once."
• "Our ops meeting ends with: 'Add it to Trainual.'"
• "This procedure brought to you by Abby." Giving credit for improvements builds buy-in.

Every update is personal. If someone spots a problem and helps solve it, their name goes right into the Trainual content.

"We want people to own it — when their name is on a SOP, they care about it. They keep it sharp."

Collaborative improvement

His team doesn't just follow the playbook — they help write it. A Slack channel feeds into a Trello board, and every week, updates are workshopped live in Level 10 meetings. Once a solution is agreed on, it’s documented in Trainual — fast.‍

“Trainual isn’t just documentation. It’s how we solve problems — permanently.”

The goal? Make Trainual the single source of truth for every solved issue, improvement, and best practice — and give every team member a role in building it.

"We want the team to feel like the playbook is 60% done — and they’re the ones helping us dial it in to Olympic-level.”

‍Results: A future-proof franchise system

Scott’s not just running a restaurant. He’s designing a framework to scale leadership, training, and quality across teams. Here’s what Trainual unlocked:

• A scalable platform for operational consistency — "I don't want another platform for the rest of my entrepreneurial career."
• Fast, repeatable onboarding and compliance workflows — "We started with NYS sexual harassment training. Built the test in Trainual. Done."
• A team that contributes to and improves the system weekly — "When we hit a snag, we solve it, document it, and blast it to the team."
• Real-time problem solving that translates into lasting documentation — "Trainual helps us take team feedback and make it real."
• Seven role-based paths already mapped, with more in progress — "We went position by position, breaking each role into 7 key sections."
• A proactive approach to continuous improvement — "The playbook is never static. Trainual lets us keep building, every week."

And with Trainual commenting on the way? That real-time collaboration just got even easier.

TL;DR

Scott used a six-month delay to future-proof his business. With Trainual, he built a battle-tested, two-phase training system that turns team input into standardized excellence. The result? A restaurant that scales like a fighter squadron and trains like a pro sports team.

👉 Want a system like Scott’s? Schedule a demo and start building your operating system today.