News Briefs

Lazeez Shawarma, a fast-casual Mediterranean restaurant chain, will implement the Revel POS platform at 225 locations across Canada.

"As we enter a period of rapid expansion, we needed a cloud POS platform like Revel that could help us easily scale our operations," said Sahib Rana, co-founder and director of franchise operations at Lazeez Shawarma. "The Revel platform also provides the software and hardware flexibility required to deliver an exceptional guest experience."

Lazeez Shawarma will also take advantage of the Revel kitchen display system (KDS) that eliminates the waste, cost and hassle of paper tickets. The Revel KDS automatically displays orders from all channels as they come into the POS, which increases speed of service while also improving order accuracy.

• 85% say integrations with other systems is driving POS purchasing decisions, according to HT's 2024 POS Software Trends Survey

Lazeez Shawarma will also utilize Revel Advantage International, Revel’s integrated in-house payment processing solution, to provide a complete POS and payments offering. Revel Advantage International is powered by Adyen, the financial technology platform of choice for many of the world’s leading companies.

"Revel looks forward to partnering with Lazeez Shawarma as they execute on their exciting growth plans," said Chris Lybeer, chief strategy officer at Revel Systems. "The Revel POS platform is a proven solution for rapid scalability, and its order management system will enable Lazeez to drive increased revenue and profits by optimizing disparate ordering channels."

The Revel customer display system (CDS) will enable Lazeez to improve the guest experience by allowing them to review order information in real-time, ensuring transaction accuracy. The CDS can also save and store multiple designs to easily put in front of the customer, including recurring promotions, holiday specials, and general messaging.

Domino's Pizza Inc. introduces its new and improved loyalty program. 

Domino's Rewards offers loyalty members even more opportunities to earn and redeem points across its corporate and franchise store locations. Domino's enhanced rewards program allows customers to:

• Earn points for less
  • Loyalty members will now earn 10 points on every order of $5 or more
• Redeem points for even more menu items – and earn free Domino's after just two orders
  • Members can redeem a variety of points for more menu items:
    • 20 points: A free dipping cup, a 16-piece order of Parmesan Bread Bites or a 20 oz. drink
    • 40 points: An order of Bread Twists or Stuffed Cheesy Bread
    • 60 points: A medium, two-topping pizza; pasta; Oven-Baked Sandwich; or a 3-piece order of Chocolate Lava Crunch Cakes
• Earn more rewards
  • Loyalty perks are now even better, as members will have exclusive access to member-only deals, special discounts and opportunities to earn bonus points!

"We are thrilled to give the brand's loyal customers additional ways to earn free Domino's items more often," said Mark Messing, Domino's vice president of digital experience and loyalty. "At a time when most brands are scaling back their loyalty programs and making it more difficult to earn and redeem points, Domino's is doing the opposite. We want to make it easier to reward our customers and give them more options so they can get rewarded faster."

Marketing a LTO 

From now until Oct. 22, 2023, rewards members can take advantage of a limited time offer to redeem 20 points for a free order of Domino's new Pepperoni Stuffed Cheesy Bread, which is normally a 40-point redemption, in celebration of the product's recent launch. 

Caribou Coffee will implement Toast Enterprise Solutions across 500 initial coffeehouse locations in the United States. 

In addition to Toast point-of-sale (POS) terminals, Caribou Coffee will use Toast Payments, Kitchen Display Systems (KDS), and Multi-Location Management.

• 83% say using data to understand guest preferences and behavior is impacting POS upgrade decisions in 2024, according to HT’s 2024 POS Software Trends Survey

Expansion on the Horizon

Caribou Coffee has made significant progress in its retail expansion plan through company-owned development as well as its previously announced franchise program. To help support the brand’s growing coffeehouse footprint, Caribou Coffee sought a modern technology partner with a robust, scalable POS solution that would be easy to use for all stakeholders including company and franchisee operators and team members. Focused on maximizing speed of service while maintaining an enhanced guest and team experience, Caribou Coffee also wanted to ensure availability of key features to support guests like the ability to modify active orders and offer flexible payment options. 

“Caribou Coffee was founded over 30 years ago with a vision to bring personal service into the coffeehouse space. That commitment to our guest and team member experience guides us today as we announce this exciting partnership. Toast proved to be the ideal strategic technology partner for our brand as we introduce tools that will ensure we can bring our coffeehouse experience to more guests than ever before,” said Scott Kennedy, Chief Financial Officer at Caribou Coffee. “Toast took the time to understand our business and clearly demonstrate that they can support our team members and guests with their easy to use, easy to manage platform.” 

Part of Panera Brands, Caribou Coffee has 333 company-owned, 140 non-traditional and 338 franchise locations in 11 countries.

Jet's Pizza has partnered with ConverseNow, a voice AI technology platform for restaurants.   

By providing a fast and accurate service when ordering over the phone, Voice AI is set to deliver an enhanced guest experience for Jet's Pizza's customers.  The intuitive voice ordering assistants will support Jet's Pizza in processing phone orders, as well as support the growth of the company through intelligent upselling and accurate and efficient ordering. 

"Voice AI is a game-changer for Jet's Pizza, as it allows us to address a big concern of ours: making sure our franchisees are making good use of their human capital. We aim to make technology as good as our pizza. ConverseNow can take a high volume of phone calls with speed and accuracy. This allows our franchise operators to get their employees off the phones and focus on the fun part of the job: Making pizzas," said Aaron Nilsson, CIO of Jet's Pizza.  

Selected for its cost-effectiveness and scalable technology, ConverseNow's Voice AI will be present in Jet's Pizza locations across the US from early 2024.  

Phone orders at Jet's Pizza are responsible for a significant share of its revenue, and utilizing voice AI can increase this share as customers see value in the ordering efficiency. In addition, ConverseNow will enable Jet's Pizza's teams to streamline operations, offering the ability to optimize the deployment of valuable staff hours and improve the speed and accuracy of orders.

Equipped with conversational and emotional intelligence, ConverseNow's AI-powered virtual ordering assistants replicate natural human dialog to gauge customer sentiment and guide conversations. It can detect nuances, predict ordering behaviors, and maximize revenues by upselling items based on contextual data and information available to them in real-time. Its cloud-based, multilingual solution personalizes restaurant orders in high-volume voice channels such as phone, drive-thru, self-service kiosks, and voice-assisted chat on mobile devices.

Voice AI is shown to increase average orders by 23% and revenues by 20% while enabling up to 63% of extra deployable labor time per store per week to be utilized. By allowing human time to be shifted from order-taking to food preparation and high-value guest interaction, AI-powered virtual ordering assistants measurably improve the entire customer experience.

Live in more than 1800+ restaurants across 46 states, ConverseNow has delivered a much-needed answer to the industry-wide labor shortage, processing limitless conversations at once with remarkable accuracy so staff can focus on higher-priority tasks such as fulfillment and in-person service, at times doubling volume during peak hours.

Most recently, ConverseNow partnered with Google and Open AI to access both companies' services to redefine conversations, infusing them with a natural flow and boosting order accuracy while accelerating AI's self-learning capabilities and correcting mistakes that developers don't even know exist, enabling real-time connections between conversational AI and dynamic scenarios.

Focus Brands, the parent company of the Auntie Anne’s, Carvel, Cinnabon, Jamba, McAlister’s Deli, Moe’s Southwest Grill, and Schlotzsky’s brands, has officially changed its name to GoTo Foods.

This news comes on the heels of a record development year globally with more than 1,150 signed franchise agreements and 398 store openings, alongside the addition of 4.6 million new loyalty members worldwide across its portfolio of brands. 

The rebranding, announced at the company’s biennial brand franchisee conference by Chief Executive Officer Jim Holthouser, signals the company’s continued transformation into a platform company as it embraces its brands’ reputations as go-to choices in the restaurant industry – for franchisees and customers. 

A Name That Conveys Craveability

“To unlock future opportunities with brand franchisees, and ultimately consumers, it has become more important than ever to have a name that conveys and powers the strength, affection, and craveability of the seven iconic brands in our portfolio today,” said Holthouser. “GoTo Foods represents a no-limits vision that is firmly rooted in reality as we embrace the power of our platform company and look to a future with endless possibilities.”

Since assuming the role of CEO in 2020, Holthouser and the company’s executive team have been on a mission to reimagine the way GoTo Foods operated. The team has prioritized the need to simplify, streamline, and strengthen the company by breaking down silos and building enhanced, centralized systems and capabilities – evolving into a platform company that leverages the power of its portfolio.

Ongoing and recent strategic enhancements to harmonize across brands have led to impressive performance marks – in 2023, the company reported double-digit year-over-year growth in adjusted EBITDA and loyalty acquisition. Streamlined in-house supply chain resulted in the rationalization of hundreds of SKUs across brands, paid media spend more than doubled the previous year, and consumer packaged goods licensing continued to grow – boasting the rollout of 10 new launches, driving revenue and strengthening brand awareness beyond brick-and-mortar locations. The company’s continued focus on the employee experience earned GoTo Foods its first Great Place To Work  certification, a prestigious “employer-of-choice” recognition based entirely on what employees report about their workplace experience.

“We’re a company comprised of powerful, well-loved brands,” added Holthouser. “We’ve made strategic investments and set the foundation for a bright future ahead. Timing was right to unveil a new name that communicates a dynamic, innovative organization with positive momentum while bringing together our company and our brands and inspiring those we serve.”

TrustYou, a provider of guest feedback management and hospitality technology solutions, announces the launch of its groundbreaking Customer Experience Platform (CXP) at ITB Berlin 2024. This innovative platform marks a significant milestone in TrustYou's mission to redefine the customer journey and elevate guest experiences across the hospitality industry. 

Alongside the launch of the upgraded CXP platform, TrustYou will be previewing several new products that facilitate both the holistic understanding of customer sentiment and behavior, as well as allowing for more personalized customer interactions. 

TrustYou is committed to pioneering solutions that empower hoteliers to enhance customer satisfaction and drive business growth. With their newly upgraded Customer Experience Platform (CXP), hoteliers can now collect, analyze, and act upon guest feedback faster and directly targeted to their specific needs with more customizable features.

Key features of TrustYou's CXP include:

• All-in-One Feedback Management: TrustYou's CXP enables hoteliers to consolidate feedback from various sources, including public reviews and private surveys, into a single platform for comprehensive analysis.
• Actionable Insights: Leveraging state-of-the-art machine learning, TrustYou's CXP provides actionable business intelligence derived from detailed analysis of guest feedback, allowing hoteliers to identify areas for improvement and address issues promptly.
• AI-powered: TrustYou's responseAI harnesses the power of AI to streamline processes and automate responses to guest feedback, cutting response efforts by up to 80%. SummaryAI empowers hoteliers to efficiently understand guest feedback and take prompt actions with the entire hotel team to make guests happy. 

TrustYou invites attendees of ITB Berlin 2024 to visit Booth 122, Hall 8.1 to learn more about the Customer Experience Platform and explore how TrustYou is shaping the future of hospitality technology.