Mule Kick Focuses on Keeping Customers Safe and Satisfied

Along with hand sanitizer and face masks, restaurant owner Christy Ouei realized she needed more drinking glasses before resuming dine-in operations.

Ouei owns and operates Mule Kick restaurant in Magnolia. A Ready for Business grant from the Arkansas Economic Development Commission helped her purchase items needed to safely serve customers and protect employees amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“We did not have anywhere near enough glassware to take a new glass to every customer requesting a refill of sweet tea,” she said. “The Ready for Business grant was vital in doing just what the name intended. We used funds to purchase PPE for customers and staff, set up hand sanitizer stations, and purchase additional glasses.”

The state program awarded the grants in May in response to COVID-19 to help businesses offset costs associated with new health and safety measures.

Swift and Proactive Response

Ouei says her restaurant has implemented a number of practices to protect patrons, such as spraying down each table with sanitizer then leaving it vacant at least 10 minutes. Staff sanitize menus between each use, and foaming hand sanitizer is available at each table and exit.  

“We use a time-clock app called Homebase that asks employees a set of screening questions each day before they can complete clock in,” said Ouei. “All of these additional precautions were made possible due to the funds received from the grant.”

The restaurant, true to its name, is aggressively fighting through COVID-19.

“I’d like to think that what separated our fate from so many of the others in the food industry is the way and speed that we shifted how we do business. In a matter of minutes instead of weeks we decided that we would do delivery,” she said.

Mule Kick’s active social media presence is also helping the restaurant retain customers. By posting frequently on Facebook and Instagram, “We gained an entire drive-thru customer base during COVID and have kept them even after opening was possible,” she said.

“We highlighted what we were, and still are, doing to keep our employees and our customers safe.”

Hometown Help

Ouei has long relied on her local Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center for business guidance and resources.

“We have maintained weekly contact, at a bare minimum, with them before and during COVID,” she said. 

The center at Southern Arkansas University assisted her with starting Mule Kick, which opened in 2018. She has stayed in close contact with her ASBTDC consultant, Janell Morton, ever since.

Ouei noted that the ASBTDC kept her informed about the requirements and deadlines to apply for the Ready for Business grant as well as the Small Business Administration’s COVID-19 funding programs, including the Economic Injury Disaster Loan and Paycheck Protection Program.  

“Janell really sifted through so much fluff or repetitive information and sent out information I could digest and act on.”

The restaurant obtained PPP and EIDL funding, which allowed Mule Kick to keep 17 employees on the job. The COVID slowdown allowed her team to practice customer service exercises and become better acquainted. The staff was also “extremely instrumental in coming up with ways to keep our customer base engaged, from taking our weekly trivia night online to a reality cooking show called ‘Rolled,’” Ouei said.

The business owner is waiting to see how the rules evolve for having her PPP loan forgiven. “The ASBTDC continues to be helpful on the changing information on loan forgiveness,” she said.

“I do not feel the need to daily scour governmental agency websites because I know I can rely on the SAU ASBTDC to send an email as information changes.”