Challenge

A national fast-casual chain sought to increase engagement and revenue with a more seamless online experience and more personalized, targeted emails.

Solutions

• Implemented a targeted in-app ratings strategy powered by behavioral data to engage high-satisfaction users.
• Delivered personalized, well-timed prompts within the Tillster mobile application to review volume.
• Optimized message delivery and user segmentation to ensure prompts reached the guests most likely to convert.

Results

• 500% gain in digital revenue over 15 months‍
• 2.5x jump in online customers and transactions‍
• 200% increase in email open rates‍
• 75% of main items saw a lift in per-item revenue

Supporting scalable growth through digital transformation

Amid rapid growth in the fast-casual category, a national chain was scaling quickly—serving guests at hundreds of locations nationwide across 28 states. As its customer base expanded, the brand turned its focus to the needs of its diverse and growing guests, leading it to partner with Tillster to enable online and mobile ordering.

Tillster’s solutions powered the company’s digital revenue to achieve tremendous growth over the course of two years. This digital shift not only drove topline growth but also delivered individual, restaurant-level results, including a 50% reduction in order errors and mitigated labor demands during peak hours. 

In addition to enhancing digital ordering, the brand sought to deepen customer loyalty by increasing visit frequency.  To accomplish this, it leveraged Tillster’s robust data model and CRM solutions, using email and push notifications to engage customers in a more relevant and meaningful context. 

Enabling a seamless ordering experience

The brand turned to Tillster for its digital expertise and extensive restaurant industry footprint. As part of the digital transformation, Tillster designed and powered the brand’s mobile ordering application. 

During the design phase, the Tillster team recommended a number of changes to simplify customer navigation and reduce ordering friction within the restaurant chain’s extensive menu. These enhancements drove higher check values and lifted per-item revenue for 75% of the brand’s main items. This optimized ordering experience became a major contributor to the brand’s overall digital revenue acceleration, helping fuel a 500% gain in digital revenue.

The new mobile application empowered customers to easily search stores and localized menus to construct their preferred meals, with options to select preferred pick-up time and method of payment. As more guests adopted the improved experience, online ordering volume grew significantly, supporting a 2.5x increase in digital customers and transactions.

Tillster also transformed the restaurant’s loyalty program to deliver rewards directly within the application—redeemable during mobile orders or in-store visits.

Tailored messaging and CTAs

The company also tapped Tillster for strategy and creative services for its CRM program. 

To increase customer engagement, Tillster combined local and national communications into single campaigns. Dynamic content allowed national deployments to include local store offers for more relevant communications to subscribers.

Personalized messages, diversified content, and clear calls to action further increased engagement and consumption, while push notifications encouraged more frequent visits.

Tillster continually tested and measured results to guide messaging, offer strategy, tooling, and communication cadence. This data-driven approach strengthened the brand’s CRM foundation, resulting in a 200% increase in email open rates and higher engagement across channels.

The brand’s investment in digital solutions and engagement succeeded in building loyalty across all customer segments, unifying messaging and offers across the franchise community, and saving time for both guests and restaurant team members. 

Together, these improvements contributed to substantial digital revenue gains, solidifying the brand’s vision in building a high-performing digital revenue engine.