Rapid-Growth Fast-Casual Restaurant Chain Implements Industry Leader Botrista Technology’s Top-Notch Craft Beverage Menu: Average Check Size Up 18% and Increased Customer Satisfaction.
The Challenge
The Halal Guys, a fast-casual restaurant franchise that started off as a humble hot dog cart in New York City, has since grown into a premier dining experience with 95 locations and 400+ new restaurants in development worldwide. While their dishes earned rave reviews from fans, The Halal Guys’ beverage selection consisted of only bottled waters and canned drink options that didn’t spark excitement from diners. For The Halal Guys, introducing a custom craft beverage program meant meeting due diligence, testing, and customer acceptance requirements while being an easy-to-operate turnkey solution, helping franchisees to potentially cut down on labor costs, adding that sparkle of excitement, providing ROI on franchisee investment, and helping sales grow as efficiently and quickly as possible.
How We Got There
This partnership was a way to not only introduce craft and premium beverages in an easily-manageable way, but to add some excitement to The Halal Guys’ beverage program.
With Botrista’s DrinkBot, The Halal Guys were able to optimize the best flavor combinations for their custom menu and drill down on best sellers. “When we rolled out on the corporate side, we were constantly reviewing beverage sales, specific individual flavor sales, and we removed two flavors and replaced them due to underperformance. We’ve been very pleased with the results and it’s created the strong menu we're currently offering today,” explains Andrew Eck, The Halal Guys’ VP of Marketing. Through Botrista’s cloud software that enables beverage offering optimization and innovation, tracks the success rate of each flavor and allows easily customizable menu offerings, diners are equally enthusiastic about The Halal Guys’ beverage program as they are about the food they pair it with.
The Results
18% Growth in Average Check Size
“When we introduced the DrinkBot, it was an almost immediate uptick in average check at those selected store locations,” explains Eck. “Digging in a little more to things like product mix and seeing specifically what’s selling, we saw a higher incidence of beverage attachment to checks than we'd had prior to the introduction of the DrinkBot.” With more premium craft beverages available, The Halal Guys created an incredible upsell opportunity with a brand new premium beverage menu, and they’ve seen an 18% increase in year-over-year check size.
A Premium Partnership with a Future Focus
“This restaurant technology is the future. As the restaurant industry tries to find ways to minimize dependency on human labor, things like automation, certainly like the DrinkBot, are going to be how restaurants and this industry stay profitable into the future,” says Eck. Being an early adopter in the restaurant technology space has been “really beneficial” for The Halal Guys’ brand, especially when they can be viewed as an innovator in the fast-casual space.
Additionally, offering premium craft beverages is still uncommon, providing a competitive differentiator for your business to leverage.
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