La Piazzetta
La Piazzetta is a network of franchises whose origins date back to 1989, on Saint-Jean Street in Quebec City. It all started with a simple restaurant project: a European-style pizzeria. The success of the first restaurant exceeded expectations.
The Challenge
The founders then decided to open a second restaurant, then a third, to finally become franchisors. The network is now composed of twenty restaurants across Quebec.
What makes La Piazzetta famous is their thin and refined pizzas. Customers love them and even order them to take away from the restaurants. Piazzetta is a network that knows how to evolve and stay current in order to satisfy its customers with both the food and the service. This is why management wanted to offer the online order.
What makes La Piazzetta famous is their thin and refined pizzas. Customers love them and even order them to take away from the restaurants. Piazzetta is a network that knows how to evolve and stay current in order to satisfy its customers with both the food and the service. This is why management wanted to offer the online order.
The Results
La Piazzetta, like many restaurants, constantly increases its volume of take away orders. To improve this service, the franchise now offers online order to its clients to satisfy an increasingly online clientele.
This also helps manage the production of takeaway orders — which would often disturb the room service.
With the online order, production management becomes simpler and no longer disturbs the service within the restaurant.
One significant introduction was the tableside self-ordering and payment solution. This allowed customers to grab any table, scan the QR code, place their orders and pay for them instantly. This significantly reduced waiting times, especially during peak hours when counter lines used to be long.
With the online order, production management becomes simpler and no longer disturbs the service within the restaurant.
One significant introduction was the tableside self-ordering and payment solution. This allowed customers to grab any table, scan the QR code, place their orders and pay for them instantly. This significantly reduced waiting times, especially during peak hours when counter lines used to be long.
Shappy Pretzels
At the beginning of quarantine, Hollywood actor and Philadelphia native Adam Shapiro (Steve Jobs, Sense8, Now You See Me) was missing his favorite hometown comfort food: Philly’s soft pretzels.
With no official recipes, Adam went on a trial and error journey—in his own kitchen— before he finally cooked the ultimate Philly soft pretzel. What started out as a pandemic side project in his kitchen quickly evolved into a full-fledged business on August 4, 2020. On that day, Adam’s wife, actress Katie Lowes (Scandal, Wreck-It Ralph), who had been filling in for Kelly Ripa on Live with Kelly and Ryan, suggested to co-host Ryan Seacrest to try some of her husband’s bonafide soft pretzels.
The next time they went on air, Seacrest was salivating and eating Adam’s pretzels on camera. “My beloved Adam! These are so good!”
The rest, as we say, was history. In the next few hours, more than 400 email orders came in. Shappy Pretzel Co was on everyone’s radar now.
With no official recipes, Adam went on a trial and error journey—in his own kitchen— before he finally cooked the ultimate Philly soft pretzel. What started out as a pandemic side project in his kitchen quickly evolved into a full-fledged business on August 4, 2020. On that day, Adam’s wife, actress Katie Lowes (Scandal, Wreck-It Ralph), who had been filling in for Kelly Ripa on Live with Kelly and Ryan, suggested to co-host Ryan Seacrest to try some of her husband’s bonafide soft pretzels.
The next time they went on air, Seacrest was salivating and eating Adam’s pretzels on camera. “My beloved Adam! These are so good!”
The rest, as we say, was history. In the next few hours, more than 400 email orders came in. Shappy Pretzel Co was on everyone’s radar now.
The Challenge
Adam and Katie quickly realized that accepting hundreds of email orders daily wasn’t going to cut it for long. Adam started his search for an online ordering provider that could fit into his unique business model.
His goal was for customers to pre-order online, pick a date and time for curbside pick-up and finally choose from pre-identified pickup locations all over Los Angeles.
Unfortunately for Adam, he quickly realized that online ordering providers don’t typically personalize their platform to meet the customer needs.
His goal was for customers to pre-order online, pick a date and time for curbside pick-up and finally choose from pre-identified pickup locations all over Los Angeles.
Unfortunately for Adam, he quickly realized that online ordering providers don’t typically personalize their platform to meet the customer needs.
“I needed a company that was flexible and could customize their platform to meet our business needs. With every other company, we had to change how we operated to fit their platform.“
That’s when Adam found UEAT and quickly got in touch with UEAT’s team of menu profitability experts and customer success specialists. The team fell in love with Adam’s energy and mission. With the help of the development team, UEAT was able to customize the platform to meet Adam’s vision.
“Before we found UEAT, every other company we spoke to, we had to tweak what we were doing to meet the needs of their platform.“
One significant introduction was the tableside self-ordering and payment solution. This allowed customers to grab any table, scan the QR code, place their orders and pay for them instantly. This significantly reduced waiting times, especially during peak hours when counter lines used to be long.
The Results
Shappy Pretzel Co. is now selling more than a thousand soft pretzels per day. Shappy’s pretzels are anything but your typical mall variety. Everybody from Hollywood fell in love with the authentic Philly pretzels. Early fans include stars like Bradley Cooper, Jon Hamm, Olivier Munn, Henry Winkler, Busy Philipps and Patrick J. Adams, among others.
Customers in Los Angeles now get to benefit from a lightning-quick and frictionless online ordering process so they can spend more time drooling over the best Philly pretzels in California.
Customers in Los Angeles now get to benefit from a lightning-quick and frictionless online ordering process so they can spend more time drooling over the best Philly pretzels in California.
Ma cabane à la maison
Stéphanie Laurin’s family has been in the maple syrup business for four generations. Her grandfather started the business in 1948. She co-owns Chalet des Erables in Ste-Anne-des-Plaines, Quebec. She is one of the roughly 200 sugar shacks that operate across the province of Quebec, Canada.
Sugar shacks and sugaring-off season are extremely popular in Quebec. Their history stems from French settlers who were shown by First Nations how to tap maple trees and boil down the sap to become maple syrup. Over time, production evolved to take place in sugar shacks, commercial cabins that collect sap from sugar maple trees convert it into world-renowned Canadian maple syrup. Nowadays, most sugar shacks are family-run businesses and account for 70% of the global maple syrup supply.
The sugaring-off season takes place between March and April; that is the ideal period to tap maple trees for their sap. It is also the time many Quebecers and tourists visit sugar shacks for a traditional hearty meal and indoor dining experience. On the menu: pea soup, baked beans, meat pie, deep-friend pork jowls, eggs, and a smorgasbord of other dishes that pay tribute to Quebec culture.
Sugar shacks and sugaring-off season are extremely popular in Quebec. Their history stems from French settlers who were shown by First Nations how to tap maple trees and boil down the sap to become maple syrup. Over time, production evolved to take place in sugar shacks, commercial cabins that collect sap from sugar maple trees convert it into world-renowned Canadian maple syrup. Nowadays, most sugar shacks are family-run businesses and account for 70% of the global maple syrup supply.
The sugaring-off season takes place between March and April; that is the ideal period to tap maple trees for their sap. It is also the time many Quebecers and tourists visit sugar shacks for a traditional hearty meal and indoor dining experience. On the menu: pea soup, baked beans, meat pie, deep-friend pork jowls, eggs, and a smorgasbord of other dishes that pay tribute to Quebec culture.
The Challenge
When the pandemic hit, sugar shacks were forced to close their doors to visitors. Prior to COVID-19 restrictions, Ms. Laurin’s business received thousands of visitors a day. That literally changed overnight with the closures. As restrictions continued, 60 sugar shacks closed for good, overwhelmed with bills—and little revenue. Ms. Laurin’s sugar shack alone lost 90% of its annual income in 2020 alone.
In December 2020, 70 sugar shacks held a virtual meeting, along with UEAT and a team from Metro, a large grocery chain in Quebec. “It’s a bit cliché, but competitors decided to band together to face the challenge head-on and help save Quebec’s maple syrup heritage,” Ms. Laurin explained. The sugar shacks joined forces to brainstorm on how to give Quebecers the opportunity to experience the sugaring-off season in the comfort of their own homes. When other partners heard about the concept, they also jumped on board.
And Ma cabane à la maison was born.
Ma cabane à la maison, or Home Sweet Home, is an innovative meal-to-go campaign. Gourmet boxes, which can vary from one sugar shack to another, feature ready-to-cook and reheatable dishes that are typical of sugar shacks. Some even offer the means to enjoy maple taffy outside in their own backyards. Others offered vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free options.
The Ma cabane à la maison team decided to partner with UEAT for its online ordering platform. Users would simply enter their addresses and were able to discover 70 aggregated online stores from participating sugar shacks. Customers were given the option of home delivery or pick-up at a nearby sugar shack or Metro grocery store. In fact, Metro offered its 200 drop-off points for the Ma cabane à la maison initiative. The team even partnered with Quebec musicians to offer a virtual outdoor show of Quebec music and performances.
“With only eight weeks to implement the concept before the 2021 sugaring-off season, we had to rely on a technology partner with a quick turnaround time and robust platform. That partner was UEAT.”
The Results
Ma cabane à la maison launched on February 22, 2021, and was to extend until April 18. According to Ms. Laurin, there were around 6000 people on the online ordering platform at any given time. In total, the platform handled over 2 million visits—no small feat.
“We recorded between $250,000 and $300,000 thousand dollars of regular sales per day on the platform,” she said. “There were times when we were afraid of running out of wood or we were afraid of running out of containers, it was quite a challenge to get enough raw materials to create the meal boxes; but altogether, we managed to overcome every little glitch that occurred along our way.”
After the 2021 campaign, 110 000 boxes were delivered, representing 500 000 meals served. Ms. Laurin and the entire Ma cabane à la maison were thrilled with the results and the response from Quebecers. Even Quebec Premier, François Legault, and Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, got Ma cabane à la maison boxes!
Some sugar shacks decided to continue offering meals year-round, giving the industry hope that there are means to develop the market, diversify their business models, and extend sales periods beyond the sugaring-off season. “Who knows, maybe we will be able to increase sales to $25,000 a day, which would be great considering that normally we would be closed after April,” she added. “We’re going to develop themed menus according to the season, which will greatly help our business. We are very happy.”
Ms. Laurin hopes that sugar shacks will reopen for 2022. However, one thing is for sure: sugar shacks will continue to wow customers with meal boxes. She also dares to hope that they will be able to expand the concept across Canada as well as cater to customers, like ex-pats and die-hard maple syrup fans from around the world. “Knock on wood,” she laughed!
Some sugar shacks decided to continue offering meals year-round, giving the industry hope that there are means to develop the market, diversify their business models, and extend sales periods beyond the sugaring-off season. “Who knows, maybe we will be able to increase sales to $25,000 a day, which would be great considering that normally we would be closed after April,” she added. “We’re going to develop themed menus according to the season, which will greatly help our business. We are very happy.”
Ms. Laurin hopes that sugar shacks will reopen for 2022. However, one thing is for sure: sugar shacks will continue to wow customers with meal boxes. She also dares to hope that they will be able to expand the concept across Canada as well as cater to customers, like ex-pats and die-hard maple syrup fans from around the world. “Knock on wood,” she laughed!
Thaïzone
“Thai food with a kick!” is the brand’s motto.
Founded in 2007, Thaïzone quickly carved a strong reputation in the casual quick service restaurant market. Now well-established with over 36 locations in Eastern Canada, Thaïzone focuses on a multiservice concept: food service, take-out, delivery and drive-through.
Founded in 2007, Thaïzone quickly carved a strong reputation in the casual quick service restaurant market. Now well-established with over 36 locations in Eastern Canada, Thaïzone focuses on a multiservice concept: food service, take-out, delivery and drive-through.
The Challenge
With customers placing their orders online like never before, Thaïzone already had an online ordering platform. But the team felt like their platform was underutilized. The vast majority of customers were still ordering over the phone, which meant orders (and revenue) were directly linked to someone picking up the phone, which bogged down the productivity of front-of-the-house staff.
Also factor in that upselling (having customers add additional items to their order) on their current online ordering platform was clearly not providing the results the team was expecting.
Also factor in that upselling (having customers add additional items to their order) on their current online ordering platform was clearly not providing the results the team was expecting.
The Results
After looking at different online ordering platforms, Thaïzone was introduced to UEAT.
Immediately, the team fell in love with UEAT’s turnkey integration with their operations. UEAT’s platform elevated the chain’s customer experience by providing a lightning-quick ordering process combined with a non-intrusive upsell module.
It didn’t take too long for Thaïzone to realize how big of a move switching to UEAT was both financially and operationally.
A few short days after going live, the results were immediate: call-in customers dropped. The chain noticed a considerable increase in the number of orders across all sales regions. What’s more: the highest average basket size ever recorded.
Immediately, the team fell in love with UEAT’s turnkey integration with their operations. UEAT’s platform elevated the chain’s customer experience by providing a lightning-quick ordering process combined with a non-intrusive upsell module.
It didn’t take too long for Thaïzone to realize how big of a move switching to UEAT was both financially and operationally.
A few short days after going live, the results were immediate: call-in customers dropped. The chain noticed a considerable increase in the number of orders across all sales regions. What’s more: the highest average basket size ever recorded.
“If we had known our average ticket size would increase drastically and that the integration with UEAT was so easy, we would have made the switch a lot earlier“
Thaïzone is still actively looking to open more locations and continue their expansion in Canada. The team knows that with UEAT’s direct POS integration, smart upsell module and dedicated customer success team, Thaïzone finally found the win-win partnership it was looking for.