Is a KDS Right for Your Business?
Restaurant operators know back-of-house processes are critical to speed of service, and ultimately, customer satisfaction. How to go about those processes varies from establishment to establishment, ranging from yelling orders aloud as they come in, to paper ticketing systems, to higher-tech kitchen display systems (KDS). As with any restaurant tech, operators have to consider when the benefit of new technology justifies the cost to implement it. For the rapidly growing superfood café Frutta Bowls, investing in KDS made a huge difference in the chain’s key performance indicators (KPIs). Read on to see how implementing Revel’s KDS improved KPIs for the franchise, namely in speed of service, order accuracy, and satisfied guests.
Establishing a Baseline
Charged with running Frutta Bowls operations, COO Chris Ives quickly identified bowl creation time—and thus, speed of service—as a major KPI for franchise performance. Customers arrive hungry, and expect quick fulfillment of their orders. Additionally, each order can be customized to meet dietary needs and preferences. The challenge was clear: restaurant staff would need to find a way to quickly churn highly-tailored orders.
So, Ives worked with franchise managers to establish an average baseline for customer bowl creation. “When we opened our first store in 2016, we were at 12-minute bowl times,” he says. With plenty of room to speed up the production process, Ives looked at opportunities for greater efficiency.
Accounting for Real-time Modifications
Right away he noticed an opportunity to decrease lag time for custom orders on his production line. For bowls with add-ons or special instructions, employees assembling the bowls could use real-time information from the KDS to make adjustments as customers were sharing the information at the register. “Speed of service was huge for us with Revel because they offered kitchen display systems,” Ives says. “Customers can watch their orders being done as employees see the orders pop up. Any modification that comes into the KDS is very easily transacted on.” Able to immediately start on bowl orders as they came in—accounting for customization along the way—Frutta Bowls employees were able to significantly speed up the process.
Reaping the Rewards
Dare we say it? Frutta Bowls employees quickly saw the fruits of their labor (pun intended) thanks to Revel’s KDS in their kitchens. “Our best ticket to date was two minutes and 41 seconds,” says Ives. Bowl creation time improved by more than 75 percent from the original store. Investment in a single point of sale feature—the KDS—helped with several factors, including speed of service, inventory tracking, order accuracy, and most importantly, guest satisfaction. Frutta Bowls regulars know they can expect fresh food along with fast and friendly service at every visit. Especially popular near college campuses and fitness centers, the quick-service franchise is a refreshing snack solution for people on-the-go.
“One of the reasons we’ve been able to open stores as quickly as we have is really due to technology,” says Ives. “It’s literally the click of a button or turn of a switch to get the Revel platform up and running within a store.”
Interested in learning how Revel’s KDS can help improve service at your establishment? Connect with one of our product experts today.
Client Login