News Briefs

Customers who order from select Shake Shack restaurants in Los Angeles through Uber Eats may receive their order via Serve Robotic's  autonomous robots. 

The partnership marks another step forward in the expansion of sidewalk robots on Uber Eats, which has been offering Serve's autonomous deliveries in Los Angeles since 2022, and is poised to lead to future expansion across the U.S.

Shake Shack's move comes as  63% of restaurants are looking to add automation and/or robotics this year, according to HT's 2024 Restaurant Technology Study.

"We are excited to add another national merchant like Shake Shack to our platform, a partnership made possible through the relationship we have built with Uber Eats across tens of thousands of successful deliveries," said Touraj Parang, President and COO of Serve Robotics. "Today's announcement highlights the value of Serve's world-class strategic partnerships as we work to expand our geographic footprint and deploy 2,000 robots across the U.S. in 2025."

• Related: Aniai Deploys 15 Hamburger Grill Robots in South Korea

"In line with our vision of enlightened hospitality, this partnership highlights our commitment to leveraging innovation to enhance guest experiences both in and out of Shack," said Steph So, Senior Vice President of Digital Experience at Shake Shack. 

"Serve has been advancing their technology for years to provide merchants and consumers with not only a futuristic experience but greater affordability, reliability, and convenience," said Noah Zych, Global Head of Autonomous Mobility & Delivery at Uber. "We're thrilled to take another step forward and give Shake Shack customers in Los Angeles a little more Uber magic through sidewalk robot delivery."

Key Features of Serve's Autonomous Delivery Robots:

• Quick and Convenient: Optimized for efficient route planning and available on demand, Serve's robots enable food to arrive reliably, hot/cold and fresh.
• Secure and Contactless Delivery: Serve's robots are designed to maintain the security of the food items during transit, providing a fully contactless delivery option.
  Cost-Effective: Robotic delivery increases efficiency and lowers costs. And there's no need to tip the robot!
• Safe Navigation Systems: Equipped with advanced GPS technology and artificial intelligence (AI), the robots safely and swiftly navigate urban environments, avoiding obstacles and offering a smooth delivery experience.
• Eco-Friendly Solution: The all-electric robots will eliminate noise and congestion from crowded urban areas and help reduce the carbon footprint associated with traditional delivery methods.

Shake Shack autonomous robotic delivery is currently available through the Uber Eats app.  

Chris Kung has joined Zaxby's as its new Chief Digital Officer. He will lead the transformation and acceleration of the company's Loyalty and e-Commerce initiatives.  

"Zaxbys rapid expansion requires the investment of world-class leaders and resources," said Bernard Acoca, Zaxbys CEO. "Chris's expertise in e-Commerce and loyalty programs will help drive incremental growth and enhance the Zaxbys experience as digital touchpoints continue to proliferate throughout the customer journey. His arrival will help us build stronger relationships with our guests by deepening our understanding of their needs and rewarding their patronage with personalized experiences." 

Growing Loyalty

Kung brings over 20 years of innovation and strategy experience to Zaxbys and most recently served as Chief Digital Officer at Dollar General, where he led initiatives that transformed the company into a digital innovator. Kung played a central role in creating the myDG loyalty program. Under his leadership, the company's e-Commerce sales grew 40x in three years, app usage surged from 1.8 million to 7 million monthly active users, and the DG App earned the distinction of the #1 couponing app in America.

Prior to Dollar General, Kung held key leadership positions at Macy's Inc., where he drove omnichannel technology and innovation.

Zaxbys is establishing a new Loyalty & e-Commerce Team, which will report to Kung. This new team will spearhead efforts to make Loyalty and e-Commerce significant contributors to its growth. The creation of the Chief Digital Officer role will open capacity and drive focus for Mike Nettles, Chief Technology Officer, and Patrick Schwing, Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer, who both previously oversaw a portion of this role.  

Flybuy unveiled its "Course Correct" solution to prevent pickup mistakes. Flybuy’s Course Correct detects when an order-ahead customer or delivery driver is heading to or arriving at the wrong pickup location and offers a friendly redirection message to guide them to the correct pickup address. The Course Correct notification helps ensure customer satisfaction, minimizes the need for costly remakes or refunds and eliminates staff confusion.

Flybuy’s flagship product, Flybuy Pickup, enhances the pickup experience for some of the world’s largest restaurants, grocers, and retailers using precise AI-powered ETAs to determine the location of incoming customers to deliver a seamless order handoff. However, surprisingly, over 1% of customers arrive at the wrong location to pick up their food orders. For many brands, this can result in millions of dollars wasted annually, in addition to causing frustration for both customers and staff. Given that 89% of consumers are likely to make repeat purchases only after a positive experience, these mishaps not only incur costs for remaking or refunding orders but also risk losing future repeat business.

'Eye-Opening' Number of Mistakes

“It was eye-opening to see how often order-ahead customers were going to the wrong location to pick up their order,” said Five Guys, VP of Digital Strategy, Steve Teller. “When this happens, customers are frustrated, staff is confused, and we usually end up having to remake the order and throw an order away at the correct pickup location. With Course Correct, our customers are getting notified before they are frustrated and before the staff is disrupted, which yields a much better experience for everyone.
 

Course Correct allows restaurants to proactively address the challenge of customers arriving at the wrong pickup location without the need for operational changes, thereby delivering a frictionless and satisfying experience for customers and staff. On average, restaurant brands that have already been using Course Correct have reduced their wrong location errors by over 50%, leading to substantial reductions in refunds and saving hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars, depending on the brand.

"We quickly realized how important it is for businesses to be able to proactively address customer needs before they even notice a mistake, thereby providing exceptional service," said SVP of Product at Flybuy, Alonso Vargas. "We understand the significant impact customer loyalty has on profitability, and Course Correct is an invaluable tool to drive repeat business and boost profits for our partner brands.”

HungerRush released a native integration between Uber Eats and the HungerRush Point of Sale. 

This integration provides restaurant owners with an additional layer of support to manage both in-house and third-party delivery orders.

Now, owners can enjoy the benefits of Uber Eats and the ease of a fully integrated system:

• Uber Eats orders go straight to a restaurant’s POS. No more manual order reentry.
• Restaurant owners can easily update menus, prices, images, and store hours.
• Managers can control order volume with the ability to pause orders when needed.
• Centralized reporting – everything all in one place for better insights.
   

As of 2023, there are more than 2.85 billion online food delivery service users, according to Business of Apps. This means it’s more important than ever that restaurant owners have the technology in place to handle these increasing delivery demands. 

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

Coupled with HungerRush’s existing DoorDash integrations and more third-party app integrations to come, HungerRush is helping restaurant owners prepare for this growth. HungerRush POS combines multiple third-party ordering and delivery services with in-house delivery and driver tracking tools. This provides restaurants with a leading delivery management solution that helps ensure every order arrives exactly as expected and on time.

“We expect food delivery to continue to increase in popularity over the next few years. Because of this, HungerRush strives to ensure restaurant owners are equipped with the best technology needed to keep up with the growing demand for delivery,” said Eran Hollander, Chief Product Officer at HungerRush. “This helps ensure owners and operators are reaching customers wherever they are and provide unparalleled customer experience.”

HungerRush continues to focus on technology that makes it easy for restaurant partners to grow their businesses and stay competitive. This latest integration aligns with their mission to help fast-casual and quick-service restaurants prosper by delivering great experiences for their customers and employees.

Twice Daily, the Nashville-based convenience store brand owned by Tri Star Energy, has achieved a 225% increase in sales dollars since it added Paytronix Order and Delivery and a custom mobile app to its pre-existing Paytronix-powered loyalty program. The brand expanded the footprint of its digital engagement platform in support of the launch of its made-to-order food offerings.

The Twice Daily & White Bison Rewards app integrates Paytronix Loyalty with Online Ordering for a streamlined guest experience that makes it easier to receive special offers, track rewards, or order everything from coffee, bakery goods, made-to-order sandwiches and burritos.

Between January 23 to December 22, 2023, Twice Daily experienced:

225% Increase in Sales – The powerful combination of loyalty and online ordering has increased both spend and frequency.

55% Monthly Lift in Orders – A growing online ordering program enables Twice Daily to meet customers where they are, creating additional purchase occasions.

95% increase in Unique Customers – Twice Daily’s order-ahead is acquiring new customers.
 

“Twice Daily’s proprietary food service offering is a focused differentiator. We want people to know that they can get quality food from Twice Daily that’s on the same level as QSR options,” said Jackson Tolk, loyalty and mobile app manager, Tri-Star Energy. “Paytronix Loyalty has helped us deliver targeted offers that meet our guests’ needs. Linking online ordering with loyalty makes the whole buying process seamless and has substantially helped increase sales.”

Related:   When asked what they really want from loyalty programs, 62% of customers want complimentary products or services,  according to HTs 12^th annual 2023 Customer Engagement Technology Study.

“Down the road, people will buy everything on their phones, and if convenience stores haven’t prepared, they’ll wish they had,” said Jeff Hoover, Director of C-Store Strategy & Analytics, Paytronix. “Brands like Twice Daily are discovering that the attachment rate with loyalty for online ordering is extremely high. Most people will opt-in, even if it's just to have their order remembered for the next time or if there's a free product available for ordering online through the loyalty program. But it’s not so much about loyalty. It's just about being connected and knowing as many of your customers and as much about them as you can fairly.”
 
Founded in 2000, Nashville, Tennessee-based Tri Star Energy owns and operates over 200 c-stores and supplies fuel to wholesale trade channels in 17 states. Besides Twice Daily, its c-store banners include Sudden Service, Southern Traders, Little General and Maverick Quick Shop. Tri Star also owns 20 White Bison Coffee shops throughout Tennessee and Alabama, and supplies fuel to retail dealers in Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, North Carolina, Florida and Alabama.
 

Curbit.ai, the restaurant tech company that specializes in cutting-edge capacity management solutions, announced a collaboration with Microsoft to broaden the market reach of its innovative service.  

As part of their agreement, Microsoft will provide critical digital infrastructure and state of the art AI and real-time capabilities enabling Curbit to offer enterprise-grade speed of service analysis, accurate guest expectations, real-time order progress and robust kitchen performance and sentiment analytics.

Fran Dougherty, CEO of Curbit, spent 22 years at Microsoft, where he played a pivotal role in Microsoft Azure's platform growth. Dougherty's familiarity with the Microsoft ecosystem and Azure AI contributed to bringing Curbit's new solution to fruition.  

• Related: Kitchen Armor, Curbit Join Forces to Transform Kitchen Operations

"Curbit has consistently been at the forefront of capacity management and guest experience solutions since its inception in 2019," Dougherty said. "Integrating deeply with Microsoft's global infrastructure and Microsoft's enterprise footprint was the obvious next step in our evolution. As we continue innovating and further developing our technology, our collaboration represents a critical step in realizing our vision of powering 100,000 restaurant locations by 2027."

"With Curbit's rapidly expanding footprint in the restaurant ecosystem coupled with its unique solution using Microsoft Azure and Azure AI, this collaboration represents a natural opportunity for Microsoft to support digital transformation in the restaurant industry at scale," said Keith Mercier, General Manager, WW Retail and Consumer Goods.

Curbit solves a pressing problem for restaurant operators and delivery service providers by analyzing real-time speed of service to accurately predict order readiness. The result is fresher food, minimal wait times and streamlined operations. Curbit's real-time data provides insights into kitchen performance, highlighting areas for operational enhancement, like optimization of order flow and fulfillment processes.