Like most fast casual F&Bs, Le Casa trains its staff to delight customers. But management discovered that these same staff unintentionally cause customers to order less, no matter how gleaming their smile. Why? Customers were rushing their ordering when facing another human being. They subliminally felt the impatient buzz of hungry people queuing behind and the frenetic energy of the busy cashier.

When rushing their ordering, they end up ordering about 20% less than they otherwise would have. Deploying kiosks didn’t solve this problem. Consumers still felt people waiting behind them, even when they didn’t turn around to check. Multiplying the kiosks just multiplies this issue, not to mention the space and expense wasted.

For food courts and hawkers, not all consumers have the time and patience to queue a second time for drinks or dessert. Yet, the lunch hour represents 50-80% of sales at coffee, juice, tea, yogurt, and dessert establishments. 

Our primary target is to help F&Bs optimize and stretch their peak lunch and drink rush hours. When customers used CIRCL to order ahead at Milk Tea Corner, orders started coming in earlier: Most customers ordered their drinks on the way to lunch, so it was ready when they arrived. Some customers selected a specific pickup time. Others ordered their juice while they were eating lunch, so they could grab it on the way back to the office.

As a result, CIRCL lengthened the peak period. Before, full capacity was typically 75 minutes between 12:10pm – 1:25pm. After deploying CIRCL, this peak period extended to 90 minutes, from noon to 1:30pm, a 20% gain.

Jake’s Steakout premium steakburger with foie gras is a signature mortal sin. It’s a love-hate relationship, so his average customer only visits 1.5 times a month. Jake accepted a free one hour strategy consultation and started CIRCL Rebates, our digital loyalty program to let his customers earn rebates after each purchase.

This gives customers a greater sin when they miss out on spending their loyalty credits if they don’t come back before it expires. Over the first six months, CIRCL Analytics demonstrated that 40% of CIRCL customers were visiting weekly, lifting his average visits per month to a 22% uptick.

If it’s a sin, it might as well be an addiction.

Takeaway customers have little patience. At Artisan Sandwiches, they complained about waiting in the same queue as dine-in customers. However, the tables are usually full so the cashier intentionally paused to help the barista between orders, creating a longer wait time. This forced takeaway customers to wait longer and visit less frequently to avoid the frustration.

Launching the takeaway program with us converted 93 existing customers to using CIRCL for ordering takeaway in the first two weeks. Customers experienced how easy it was to order their lunch from their office, receive a notification when the food was ready, and then pick it up straight from the collection counter.

Takeaway orders rocketed 35% over the first year.

As companies shift to coworking spaces, available meeting rooms are becoming scarce and expensive, especially large meeting rooms. Fire & Spice has multiple spaces for events on multiple levels of their building, but these spaces are rarely booked. To book these, Fire & Spice required a minimum order of $250 so they could arrange extra staff.

Our free marketing workshop showed them how to support events that require customers to order via CIRCL. This eliminated the need for extra staff and the corresponding minimum charge. To support the restaurant, CIRCL promoted the event space to its network of corporate partners and coworking spaces.

Now, Fire & Spice is getting twice as many event bookings.

The average order size at global chains like Starbucks is over 2.5 times that of local cafes and coffee shops. A key driver is that such chains have marketing engines that encourage drink customizations. When customers order using CIRCL, they see specific customizations for each drink in a consistent interface they are used to using across all F&B.

Customers see drink options that they normally wouldn’t know about. After customizing, they are able to re-order on their next visit in just two taps. This enables local coffee shops to leapfrog the large global chains in technology. These contribute to increasing not only order sizes, but also repeat visits, lifting sales by up to 11%.

Source: The above are use cases of the benefits of deploying CIRCL. Your mileage will vary.