How Teriyaki Madness is Reducing Friction in the Curbside Pickup Experience

Teriyaki Madness (TMAD) has rolled out its tech-enabled curbside pickup to all locations.

The program, called Mad Dash, is powered by Flybuy by Radius Networks technology and is integrated with MAD's platforms (Punchh, Olo and Revel) and with the TMAD app.

Flybuy tracks through opt-in GPS tracking, not geofencing. A customer places a pickup order in the TMAD app and when they are a few minutes out from pulling into the shop, the shop is notified.

Faster Than a Drive-Thru

“Our goal is to be standing on the curb before the customer pulls up. We are not just waiting until they park. The whole point of this technology is that we're tracking them. They don't have to tell us when they've arrived. Our goal is to be faster than a drive-thru and be standing there when they pull up. Theoretically they don't even have to park,” CMO Jodi Boyce explained.  Boyce  received HT’s Top Women in Restaurant Technology Lifetime Achievement Award at MURTEC 2024.

TMAD began piloting Mad Dash last summer at eight locations. Before rolling out Mad Dash chain-wide, TMAD took some time to reevaluate and streamline its processes.

“With any technology you add, there are always little things to tweak ... A lot of it was just refining the program and also learning the best way to train it, taking out anything that wasn't necessary to make it as simple as humanly possible,” Boyce explained.

“With labor issues over the last couple of years, our goal was to shift labor within the shops from back of house to the front of house and not add another person. And we did. We found a lot of efficiencies … so that we could shift that person. We use the people we have.”

Staff Training

Every employee knows how the program works, thanks to a thorough training program.

“We decided this was important enough to get our trainers and our business coaches out to every single shop in person so that we could train all the employees,” Boyce said. 

All employees were required to watch a couple of videos and take a couple of quizzes within its training program, Mad University, about the curbside pickup program.

“We wanted everyone to make sure they understood how it worked,” she said. “And then while the business coach or the trainer was in town, we did a couple of test runs so that the staff could see five or six real scenarios.”

In most cases, it is the cashier who's running the food out, but it may be the expediter or manager during a rush.

Employee feedback has been positive. “They like the reaction we're getting from the guests,” she said. “Because we are tracking customers and we know when they're arriving before they've ever had to tell us, it's a fun reaction. Some people say, ‘How did you know it was me?’ They do not have to park. They are just pleasantly surprised.”

Reducing Friction

Mad Dash has been live in all locations for a couple of months and promotions started this month. It’s already shown impressive results. Curbside engagement is at 97%. Additionally, 90% of customers have given a 5-star rating for the curbside experience. “The first week, we started promoting it, we had a 298% increase from the week prior,” she explained.

TMAD is on track to add about 20 locations this year, and curbside pickup will be included in all new store openings, Boyce said.