Chirashi: Reimagining Front of House Experience

Chirashi by Mr. 7

Chirashi by Mr. 7 opened because they found a gap in the market. Chirashi was typically served in traditional Japanese restaurants and did not afford the diners the possibility of customizing their own chirashi bowl. With that in mind, Jack Zhang opened up his chirashi fast-casual concept, Chirashi by Mr. 7. Situated in central California, adjacent to a community college, Chirashi was welcomed by their neighboring millennial cohort.

Chirashi by Mr. 7 focused on three things, “customizability, affordability and freshness.” To accomplish this, Jack ensured that they only housed the freshest ingredients. But in order to optimize their customizability options – Jack needed to rethink their whole front of house experience.

Jack said, “Everybody is different and everybody loves different stuff. So we found out we can open a store that’s serving completely customized bowls, You can pick every single ingredient from the rice to the garnish to the pork.” Empowering their diners with total autonomy was a new move for this market, but it demanded a modern front of house technology to support this mission.

It had to first start with the ordering process. Prior to Revel Jack explains, “the business is a pull-up style, just like a Chipotle or a Subway, so customers go into the line, pick whatever they want on the bowl, and then we build the bowl in front of them, they check out and enjoy.” What seemed simple enough wasn’t working for Chirashi by Mr. 7. There was one big problem: it takes some time to build the bowl, and the customers were complaining it was taking too long. “Because every employee is having to help the customer from choosing the ingredients, building the bowl, and checking out – the process was slowed down.”

The New Front of House Experience

Jack needed a technology that could streamline the ordering process and allow his employees to focus on building the bowl, not entertaining the customer throughout the order process. Jack turned to Revel and Revel’s Self-Service Kiosks to reimagine the front of house experience. Jack said, “So after three months of opening, we needed a better way of ordering. That’s where Revel comes in, we installed five kiosks. So our customers are able to just use the kiosk to see through all the options from the beginning, take their time to make their decision, while we make the perfect bowl for them.”

To further refine the ordering experience in a mobile-centric world, Jack said “What I love about Revel is that they also have an online ordering system as well as a custom cell phone app. So the customer can experience the same way of ordering inside the store as well as they order at home. And to a business owner, it’s also easier for our workflow, because each order, comes through one single console.”

Since adopting Revel’s Self-Service Kiosks, Jack was able to turn around the customer experience and drive operational efficiency. Jack concludes with “For someone trying to open up a new business, I would really suggest you try to utilize all the technology you have outside, like the Kiosks system. Those technologies are really helping us to have more efficiency and a better experience for the customer.”