Service design for multi-location & franchise brands
Make every location perform like your best one.
Katalyst is a service-design agency built to scale service-retail and QSR brands. Our Balanced Servicescape methodology unites strategy, experience design, in-house manufacturing, and rollout, so every location opens faster, runs consistently, and delivers strong unit economics.
20+ yrs
of service-design experience
50+
of brands helped scale
2,500+
of locations launched
Most growing service brands are stuck in one of three traps.
Almost no brand sits perfectly balanced: a great servicescape, real business goals, and a model built to scale, all at once. Growth almost always breaks that balance somewhere.
01
Stalled growth
Successful single locations that can't find a repeatable way to expand. Every new opening feels like starting from scratch.
02
Operational chaos
Fast growth that outruns the systems: high employee turnover, slipping customer satisfaction, and teams firefighting instead of building.
03
Fragile economics
Expansion that hits unit count but misses the financial goals: thin margins, hidden costs, and limited long-term stability.
Balance really is possible. Our Service Design Blueprinting and Balanced Servicescape Audits bring these areas back into alignment, so you replicate success, not failure.
The Balanced Servicescape
Three experiences, balanced in every location.
A servicescape is everything in the physical space where your service is delivered: layout, signage, décor, workflow, and the behaviors around them. We design it across three dimensions at once.
CX
Customer Experience
How customers feel and engage: the layout, signage, and ambiance that earn loyalty and lift conversion.
EX
Employee Experience
How efficiently and happily your teams work: workflow and space designed around the people delivering the service.
OX
Owner Experience
How financially and operationally sustainable each location is: strong unit economics, designed in from day one.
Using our proven CX/EX/OX framework, every design decision is weighed against cost, efficiency, and experience, so each location delivers strong economics and a consistent, compelling brand.
We are not consultants. We are business builders.
“Vision without execution is hallucination.” We pair strategy with a real manufacturing floor, so the plan actually gets built, shipped, and installed.
Strategy
Scalable service excellence
Consulting rooted in decades of work crafting locations that balance the customer, employee, and owner experience.
- •Service Excellence Assessments
- •Quick Brick Program
- •Franchisee Support Systems
Execution
From vision to reality
We don't just advise. We build, design, and implement, supporting locations from planning through opening day and beyond.
- •Fractional Experts
- •Program Manufacturing
- •Logistics & Install
Our Kansas City facility brings state-of-the-art machinery, experienced engineers and craftsmen, multi-material manufacturing, and dedicated project management under one roof.
From discovery to grand opening, one clear path.
We sit at the intersection of design, construction, and franchise operations. Our job is to make the path to opening clear, repeatable, and financially responsible.
01
Discovery & Fit Check
We learn your brand, goals, and gaps, and align on exactly where we can move the needle.
02
Servicescape Audit & Research
Site visits plus qualitative and quantitative research baseline how each location really performs.
03
Service Design
We blueprint the customer, employee, and support experience into “just-right” drawing sets, not over-designed architecture.
04
Validation & Execution
Prototyping, beta tests, and in-house program manufacturing turn the design into built reality.
05
Rollout
Consistent lead times and dedicated install teams open new locations sooner, with controlled costs.
Take a look at this sample of servicescapes, created for some amazing folks just like you!
Proof, in the numbers.
Real results from brands we've helped scale across QSR, service-retail, and franchise.
~100
Hawaiian Bros
Joined the ‘Ohana at five locations; set design standards and partnered with franchisees to open nearly 100 locations in three years, landing on the Fast Casual Movers & Shakers list.
9 mo → 12 wk
Asurion / uBreakiFix
Re-engineered the store-opening process and franchisee tooling, cutting average opening time from nine months to twelve weeks and supporting 115 new locations in a year.
50%+ faster
Jeff's Bagel Run
Working since their 3rd location. Our proven systems shortened lease-to-open by over 50% for franchisees. 120+ locations in development, No. 229 on the 2025 Inc. 5000.
30%+ revenue
Batteries Plus
Doubled average ticket value through planogram and merchandising design without hurting satisfaction, then rolled the plan out to all 750 stores.
Brands like yours, in their own words.
“I’m what would be considered a very satisfied customer, but it goes beyond that. I’m impressed with the creativity of their designs, their knowledge of the industry, both theirs and mine, and mostly I’m pleased with how good they are to work with. They’re just great people. There are few vendors that I would put my stamp on, but these guys have been so good to work with that I don’t mind one bit sticking my neck out for them. You will enjoy working with them, and your business will benefit from it.”
“Katalyst made life for everyone at uBreakiFix easier by identifying gaps in our store design process and tailoring a program that would work specifically for our franchisees. They listened to our pain points, used insight from their own extensive retail backgrounds, and created a system that integrated directly into current processes. Their expertise was critical in our ability to develop over 115 new locations after using them for just twelve short months.”
Ready to scale the right way?
Our Discovery Team will send case studies of our work to verified business owners and executives. If you're unsure where to start, it's a great way to brainstorm how we can partner.