News Briefs

Alorica Inc., a digitally-engineered, tech-enabled global CX leader, identified the top three leading missteps brands made with their CX strategies in 2024—nonstrategic AI, lack of localized, multilingual support, and relying on legacy customer service practices. With customer loyalty both fragile and volatile within the U.S. market across every industry—more than 1 in 3 U.S. consumers are not loyal to brands—these 2024 CX fails serve as a reminder to companies on what to avoid and what is required to maintain customer satisfaction.

 Top 2024 CX Fails:

• Nonstrategic AI—Between 2023 and 2024, global AI readiness in the enterprise declined; today, only 13% of companies are fully ready to capture AI’s potential. While AI is reshaping the industry, the brands that deployed it without a strategy and the harmonization of human support, failed to make a real, tangible impact and lost out financially in those investments.
• Missing Multilingual CX—29% of businesses lose customers due to the lack of multilingual support, while 70% of consumers say they feel more loyal to brands that communicate in their native language. Localized, multilingual CX that takes cultural nuances into consideration, builds trust as consumers feel heard and valued. Brands that couldn’t deliver a multilingual customer experience lost the increasingly global race for customers.
• Legacy Customer Service—Businesses can no longer thrive on face-to-face communications. Those that shied away from integrating new technologies, data and analytics lacked in delivering exceptional service. For example, 51% of organizations said chatbots reduce customer call time—big savings that add to the bottom line and brand satisfaction.

“Brands are under constant pressure to deliver memorable and satisfying customer experiences, and when they don’t, their reputation and bottom line are at risk,” stated Mike Clifton, Co-CEO, Alorica. “In 2024, AI-powered solutions demonstrated incredible capabilities to personalize CX, but the over reliance on tech without thoughtful implementation led to misguided automation, and ultimately, generic, one-size-fits all responses with no contextual awareness. Brands that don’t take a step back to analyze these detrimental mistakes will not adapt to the emerging tech and future, and they will be left behind.”

Ahead of 2025, the CX landscape is more competitive than ever with brands vying to win market share by meeting increasing consumer expectations. The only way to stand out is by perfecting convenience, speed, personalization and empathy—key pillars of customer trust and loyalty. By leveraging data and analytics, brands can build bespoke experiences that create meaningful connections. In 2025, conversational AI will take off. A type of AI that simulates human conversation across a wide range of tools like chatbots and virtual agents, conversational AI will redefine the standard for CX excellence not only with measurable outcomes, but also by creating more meaningful, empathetic and memorable customer journeys.

“Businesses that don’t have an AI or multilingual strategy for the upcoming year should pause and reassess their approach,” said Max Schwendner, Co-CEO, Alorica. “If they don’t consider these crucial CX fails, they are vulnerable to a slew of pitfalls, including missing customer insights, inconsistent omnichannel experiences, neglecting accessibility needs, over-reliance on outdated tools and poor employee training, which leads to turnover.”

Tucker’s Farm Corp. has acquired Pizza Factory Inc., a restaurant franchisor. The acquisition was completed via the Farm’s franchisor platform Wonder Franchises. Founded in 1979 by Danny Wheeler and Ron Willey, Pizza Factory has approximately $94 million in system sales across 84 franchisees and 110 restaurants. Since 2012, the business has been led by owner and CEO, Mary Jane Riva, who will stay on as CEO moving forward.

In 2023, Tucker’s Farm launched Wonder, a franchise-focused holding vehicle, with $30 million of committed, long-term equity capital. Wonder is dedicated to partnering with and acquiring emerging to mid-size brands with the goal of long-term growth. Wonder’s priority is to be a great partner to sellers and a responsible steward for world-class brands and related assets.

“We’re extremely excited to be acquiring Pizza Factory and to be partnering with MJ to take Pizza Factory to the next level. We love the longevity and stability of the system, the passion that MJ and her team have for their franchisees, and the community-focused culture of the brand. We feel fortunate to be partnering with someone with as much character and knowledge as MJ and believe there’s a great fit both culturally and in terms of our respective skillsets. We’re excited to have the deal closed so we can now focus on driving value for our franchisees,” said Adam Lewin, a partner on the private equity team at Tucker’s Farm and CEO of Wonder Franchises.

This is the third franchise transaction for Tucker’s Farm in recent months, after portfolio company VIO Med Spa, the nation’s med spa franchisor, was successfully sold to Freeman Spogli in September 2024, and Wonder acquired The Decor Group, the leading holiday decorating franchisor with 245 franchised territories and $75 million in system sales, in November 2024.

Riva received HT's Top Women in Restaurant Technology - Lifetime Achievement Award in 2024.  

“I’ve been part of this system for more than 30 years and this company means the world to me. I chose Wonder because I really felt they were the partner that could help improve and grow the system but would do so in a way that took good care of the brand and the franchisees. The Wonder team is smart, young, and energetic – all things that I love – but the thing that really stood out compared to other groups was the way they asked so many questions. They didn’t come in with a ‘we know best’ mindset, they truly wanted to learn about Pizza Factory, understand what’s gotten us this far, and build on what we’re doing. The better I’ve gotten to know their team, the more confident I am that Wonder is the right partner and that the next chapter for Pizza Factory will be a great one.” 

A community staple in 100-plus communities, Pizza Factory has stayed true to its roots with hardworking operators, family-friendly dining and high-quality products, offering fresh, hand-tossed pizza, pasta, wings, sandwiches, salads, beer, wine and more. With multiple restaurant designs, an Express model, and robust off-premise dining options including delivery and mobile ordering through a custom app, Pizza Factory is built to excel in the restaurant industry moving forward.

Grubhub, a leading U.S. food ordering and delivery marketplace, and Olo, a leading restaurant technology provider, have expanded their partnership to integrate Grubhub with Olo Dispatch. With Dispatch, restaurants can outsource delivery for orders generated through their own website and apps leveraging a network of third-party delivery service providers, now including Grubhub. This integration builds on Grubhub and Olo's existing relationship where Grubhub orders are directly sent to restaurants' point-of-sale system via Olo Rails.

Olo Dispatch seamlessly selects service providers, including in-house couriers, based on optimal price, timing, availability, and other criteria. Olo's automated matching technology enables restaurants to get orders out the door and into the hands of customers faster and in the most cost-efficient way. With Dispatch, brands can quickly deploy delivery at a national scale with integration into their POS and kitchen production systems. This allows brands to strengthen direct relationships with their customers while offering a convenient and branded delivery experience through their own channels.

"As demand for digital ordering and delivery grows across third-party and owned channels, we're proud to expand how we support our merchant partners and create more earning opportunities for Grubhub's delivery partners," said Kyle Emmett, senior director of retail media and merchant solutions at Grubhub. "With our nationwide delivery network, we help merchants manage their delivery operations, reduce costs, and better meet customer demands."

"At Olo, we always strive to do what's best for our customers, and adding a great partner like Grubhub to our Dispatch network is a perfect example," said Kacie Gonzalez, vice president of product partnerships at Olo. "Giving restaurant brands more delivery service provider options gives them more flexibility, reliability, and competitive pricing, while allowing them to grow their direct ordering channels and own their guest relationships."

This integration with Olo Dispatch joins Grubhub's On-Demand Delivery and Supplemental Delivery services that help restaurants easily scale up their delivery operations when it's needed most.  

Walk-On’s Sports Bistreaux, the nationally renowned restaurant and sports bar, will be relaunching its guest engagement platform with Paytronix Loyalty. The new Walk-On’s Rewards loyalty program is being deployed to help the brand support its franchisee community as it seeks to increase growth in the coming years.

Walk-On’s Sports Bistreaux selected Paytronix as the loyalty program best suited to round out its approach to guest engagement, particularly for its best-in-class platform. Paytronix will support the brand’s inherent belief in Southern hospitality while also growing loyalty sales to double digits across all locations.

Related: 82% of customers want to receive discounts as a benefit of their loyalty program membership, according to HT's 2024 Customer Engagement Technology Study 

“We want to better establish the foundation of our brand through loyalty, and Paytronix is the perfect fit to support our fast-growing franchisee community,” said Mark Foulds, Vice President of Digital Media and Consumer Engagement at Walk-On’s Sports Bistreaux. “Its rich feature set includes the data-driven measurement and reporting necessary to give our franchisees greater visibility into how our loyalty program is performing. It’s a one-stop shop for SMS push and pull marketing campaigns.”

Designed to scale to the needs of the brand, the Paytronix loyalty program will enable Walk-On’s franchisees to capture guest data, make data-driven decisions and optimize their programs using real-time ROI analysis and reports. All while delivering the rewards and experiences that lead to more visits, higher spend per visit, and an increase in the value of each customer.

“Our franchisees are asking for a loyalty platform with more personalization that will help them build deeper relationships with their guests,” said Mike Lester, CEO of Walking Tall Brands and a member of the Walk-On’s Sports Bistreaux Franchise Advisory Council. “Through enabling greater personalization via segmentation, targeting, and offers based on guest transactions, Paytronix Loyalty will provide both convenience and access to the data and information necessary to learn what our guest journey is and how to increase their visit frequency.”

“Paytronix is incredibly pleased to play a key role in Walk On’s growth plans,” said Paytronix Chief Customer Officer, Andrea Mulligan. “We’ll be working closely with their franchisees and marketers to get the best of their loyalty program. Walk On’s is a highly respected institution in the South, and the greater hospitality industry. We look forward to collaborating and finding new ways to leverage their belief in Southern hospitality to create value for their customers and new growth opportunities for their franchisees.”

Guestline, an Access Company, released figures highlighting the benefits of online bookings and check-ins to help meet guest demand. The data indicates Guestline's GuestStay self-service technology to be a revenue generator for hoteliers with 2.4 million self-service travelers checking in and purchasing additional services.

Guest self-service has also given hotel teams back 6,000 hours of labor time and, together with Guestline's Direct Booking Manager, captures first party data for hotels to improve their communications with guests.

In 2024, Guestline recorded a staggering 2.3 million online check-ins completed via GuestStay. An additional 120,000 self service check-ins through on-property kiosks generated incremental revenue of 2.6%  as guests purchased additional services such as breakfast - increasing hotel revenue beyond the room booking.

The impact of GuestStay technology and kiosks also benefits the hotel's team. 72,000 guests opted for autonomous checkouts receiving automated invoices without staff intervention. Each digital interaction not only boosted staff efficiency but also elevated guest satisfaction by eliminating traditional bottlenecks especially at peak times.

Eric Neumann, Managing Director of Classik Hotels Berlin, "Guestline has helped us gain more time. I have more time for my team, and my team has more time to offer our guests excellent service and an enjoyable stay – and that's the most important thing."

In addition, GuestStay’s digital registration cards captured 800,000 personal email addresses directly for hotels, converting third-party bookings into valuable first-party data. This provides hotels with valuable data to build stronger guest relationships and drive loyalty through targeted communications.

The Direct Booking Manager (DBM) booking engine secured 1.2 million bookings in 12 months, from 2023 - 2024, with 6.7% facilitated through seamless integration with Google Connector, further optimizing revenue streams for hoteliers.

These figures highlight how adopting self-service touchpoints not only improves the guest experience through convenience but also assists operational efficiencies. By automating routine tasks to eradicate the zombie culture and creating new revenue opportunities, hotels can refocus their efforts on creating memorable guest experiences.

“With almost 50% of travelers preferring to use tech rather than the reception desk and guest expectations on the rise self-service technology is no longer a luxury but a necessity for forward-thinking hotels,” said Chris Jones, Senior Product Manager, Guestline. “By integrating digital tools like GuestStay and Direct Booking Manager properties can improve guest engagement, reduce reliance on manual processes freeing up time to provide a better guest experience and drive meaningful growth.”