Case Studies

At Graze! Shared Kitchen in Toledo, Ohio, owner Rod Brant operates three restaurants under a single roof. This unique concept is growing in popularity as restaurant owners adapt to changing consumer preferences for take-out and delivery due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Under the Graze umbrella are three distinct offerings – Oasis Eats Mediterranean, Mozza Pizza and Wings, and Big Knuckle Burgers. Rod describes the delivery and take-out only model as the “new eat at home or office experience” with faster ordering, better service, and a wider variety of foods to choose from.

Rod got his start in the restaurant business offering marketing consulting services – helping other restaurants improve and grow, but always had the itch to become a restaurant owner of his own. He fulfilled that dream by purchasing Eat at Oasis in early 2020, just before the Covid-19 pandemic hit. Eat at Oasis had two dine-in locations about five miles apart, and Rod made the purchase with plans to change one location into the Graze! Shared Kitchen concept.

Flyers Pizza, a family owned and operated Ohio staple since 1976, plans to expand their market share by leveraging HungerRush Point of Sale’s technology and Software as a Service suite. Flyers Pizza was number 8 on the Pizza Today Top 100 Independent list in 2016 when they began exploring POS and online ordering options.

The Flyers team began their search because their previous POS was unable to support their next major market expansion – online ordering. “The interface was too archaic,” states Matt Ulrey, Director of IT. “Our old online ordering platform felt like it was made in the 90’s. It was a chore for customers. The Uncles (Owners) wanted a solution that would make online ordering fun and interactive. We needed a platform that would engage our customers from first-click to order completion.”

Enter HungerRush, a leader in custom point of sale solutions for the hospitality industry since 2003. Flyers installed HungerRush as part of the grand opening of their 8th location in southern Grove City Ohio in March 2017. Over the course of 2017, Flyers converted two additional locations to HungerRush. In the midst of transition, Flyers experienced immediate results, climbing from #8 to #6 on the Top 100 List, and increasing sales by 10.6%. Their Online sales in these three locations jumped from under 20% of total weekly volume, to over 30% by the end of 2017. “HungerRush is more than just a POS and Online Ordering provider,” states Mark Ulrey. “HungerRush is a partner. We’re working together on everything from suggestive selling to menu formatting and configuration to ensure our guests are happier and spend more during every experience.”

Flyers Pizza is utilizing HungerRush online ordering platform, Honeycomb loyalty service, and R-enterprise remote management. All three services interact and combine with the POS to enable the Flyers management team to respond to customer trends on-the-fly and provide a cohesively branded and unified experience across all locations. The combination of these services has set the stage for Flyers to expect a 30% increase in online sales by 2019.

Piu Bello is a family-owned business headed by Mehul Patel since 2016. Piu Bello serves their customers in three ways: Lunch and Dinner menu for both Dining Room and Carry-Out service, as well as Pizza Delivery. The concept features classic Italian dishes with modern American delivery fare for wings, mozzarella sticks, and chicken fingers.

When Mr. Patel originally purchased the restaurant, he knew that sales had been declining by 20% year-over-year. Soon after incorporating a HungerRush POS system and all its built-in tools, Mr. Patel was able to find that he was gaining back the 20% loss in sales by more effectively streamlining and monitoring his delivery process.

Mr. Patel assumed control of the business with the existing POS, Clover. He stated that all of his inventory, employee, and customer management needed to be done manually. “Clover might be ok for retail stores; it’s not going to work for my restaurant concept, which requires a lot of customization. Clover also has no way to calculate labor, unless you want to download a 3rd party app (for an extra charge). Many of those apps are also incapable of doing what I truly need.” The difficulty continued to inventory, “There’s no way for me to know when I need to reorder food, how much food I’m using per pizza, and for it to specify the quantity of toppings. The only thing Clover is good for is to take simple orders and charge cards.”

Over time, the manual workload began to overtake him, and that’s when he truly became motivated to find an all-encompassing solution. Through all of his research and due diligence, he found HungerRush. “HungerRush POS is the only system that gives me everything I need; an inventory system that can be customized, and (resources) that can help me build my menu quickly,” also, “coming through and install(ing) everything.”

After his onsite installation and training for his new HungerRush POS system, HungerRush (online ordering platform), and eye deliver (Real-time driver statistics for GPS tracking), Mr. Patel was able to identify that his delivery process was the best area to start improving.

With HungerRush he was able to limit the number of orders a driver could take based on the distance he needed to drive to complete the delivery. Now Piu Bello was able to establish the operation standard that would limit the number of pizza orders to be delivered by any one driver. Mr. Patel was also able to reconcile all of the manual inventory, employee, and customer management that had been plaguing him.

As a result, he found that he was gaining back the 20% loss in sales by more effectively streamlining and monitoring his delivery process, and the time savings from having more automated and integrated labor, customer, and inventory allow Mr. Patel to focus on his real priority – providing excellent service and food to Piu Bello’s guests. Mr. Patel conducted his own independent survey after implementing HungerRush and these changes. The results showed increased customer perception and satisfaction ratings of his business.

Today, the Piu Bello restaurant is operating more effectively, and Mr. Patel states that within his next month of operation, he will not only have corrected his monthly net loss but turned the delivery operation into a profit center. Mr. Patel is now a huge fan of the HungerRush system, and he ended by saying: “If HungerRush can do pizza, they can do anything in the restaurant industry!”

Saccone’s Pizza & Subs, based in Leander, Texas, produces award-winning pizza complete with house-made signature sauce.

When owner Dan Saccone opened his first location in 1997, he created his own point of sale (POS) system by outsourcing the coding and development to a friend. But as Saccone’s grew, Dan realized that if he wanted his restaurant to continue its upward growth trajectory, he needed to implement a modern, customizable POS system that is purposefully-built for pizzerias. 

Dan looked for a POS system that was easy to use and learn, built on a modern architecture, and had flexibility to support future technology enhancements.   

Saccone’s chose the HungerRush restaurant management system for its simple, intuitive design.  He was impressed by his waitstaff’s ability to learn the system quickly and be productive on the first day.  The customization available in the HungerRush POS system helps Saccone’s improve order accuracy and eliminate mistakes from handwritten tickets.  Saccone’s also implemented HungerRush’s online ordering system and began using third party delivery to service the restaurant’s growing customer base.   

For Saccone’s, selecting the HungerRush point of sale system has helped the restaurant grow and flourish, providing upgrades and integrations as technology advances to keep up with changing customer habits.   

Flying Pie Pizzeria is a five-store chain in the Portland, Oregon area. Ty Dupuis, the owner, worked in or owned a pizza restaurant his entire life. After starting out at a local pizzeria in high school, Ty spent time working in a dough commissary for a 26-unit pizza franchise before landing a job at the neighborhood Flying Pie in 1988. After rising through the ranks, Ty negotiated a buyout agreement with the previous owners in 2000 and has since opened additional stores alongside ambitious employees. Today, Flying Pie is a family-focused pizzeria serving multi-generational families and local kid’s sports teams. It’s a place where families come to eat, relax, play board games and have fun.

In the small town of Rockmart, GA, sales are booming at Hometown Pizza and Grill. For owner Rick Smith, adding HungerRush has helped his restaurant attract new customers through online ordering while adding a level of accountability for his staff to the restaurant’s operations. Rick knows that even in a small town, customers have an abundance of restaurant choices. Hometown Pizza and Grill excels by serving the freshest ingredients, leveraging technology to grow and track sales, and showing a commitment to a never-ending focus on customer satisfaction.

Since implementing the HungerRush restaurant management system, Hometown Pizza and Grill has added online ordering and watched average ticket revenue grow by 60% over call-in orders. Rick has better visibility into his restaurant’s operations. Detailed reports and real-time analytics have helped him run a more efficient business, spot costly discrepancies and quickly take action to address problems.

For Hometown Pizza and Grill, HungerRush has provided the technology upgrade that was needed to keep the restaurant competitive. In an increasingly-crowded market, Hometown Pizza and Grill continues to attract new customers and grow revenue, while improving profit margins with a more efficient restaurant.

With no dine-in seating, The Slice Pizzeria caters to a delivery and take-out clientele in Hahira, GA and surrounding communities. Since taking over ownership of The Slice Pizzeria in late 2019, business partners, Estel Powell and Ashley Gilmer, have grown sales by over 25%.

When he purchased the restaurant, implementing a new POS system was on Estel’s list of priorities. The legacy point-of-sale system relied on a third-party online ordering solution that was cumbersome and lacked flexibility. After completing a system demo for HungerRush POS system with integrated HungerRush online ordering, Estel was impressed with the flexible purchasing options for the platform and liked the monthly Software as a Service (SaaS) model.

Estel moved quickly to on-board the comprehensive restaurant management system and set out to educate his customer base on the advantages of online ordering. The staff at The Slice Pizzeria quickly learned to use HungerRush’s Google Maps integration to coordinate deliveries during busy times. The reporting and analytics provided has helped to improve restaurant profitability.

With sales rapidly trending up, The Slice Pizzeria has set a goal to move every customer to online ordering. According to Estel, “Customers that are ordering online generate higher ticket sales, reduce order errors, free up staff to do other tasks, and reduce overall costs.”

Frank’s Pizza has been long regarded as a go-to spot in Houston for over 23 years. Located in the heart of the downtown historic district, the New York-style pizzeria has attracted many late-night crowds. in early 2018 owner Ed Love was growing frustrated with system configuration issues that were impacting the restaurant’s smooth-running operation. Specifically, a newly-introduced EMV chip-reading payment technology was slowing the customer checkout process.

After considering different POS systems, Frank’s decided to switch to Speedline which promised continued support for customers that wanted to swipe credit cards instead of using a chip reader. However, within a very short time, Ed discovered flaws with Speedline’s order entry and cash drawer reconciliation process that were slowing customer throughput. For Ed, anything that detracted from the customer experience is a showstopper.

After realizing that Speedline could not fulfill his needs, Ed contacted HungerRush about switching back. The HungerRush development team advised Ed that his challenges could be solved with custom configuration. With the switch back to the HungerRush POS software complete, Ed saw immediate operational improvements at Frank’s Pizza. The restaurant can now serve customers quickly and efficiently, easily processing two customers per minute on busy nights. With custom configuration Frank’s Pizza has streamlined operations and is providing a better experience for their guests.

Danny’s Pizza and Pasta, located in Tega Cay, South Carolina serves a piece of New York in every bite. Owners Dan and Amber Margies cater to a loyal crowd, filled with transplants from the Northeast US that long for a taste of home. Involved in the restaurant since its inception, Dan and Amber acquired the business in 2019.

Danny’s legacy point of sale system was due for an upgrade. The store was lagging in adopting modern technology and required operational improvement. After a demo to see the HungerRush system in action, Amber knew that the system could fulfill her exacting requirements and moved quickly to get it installed.

The HungerRush system provided the flexibility in ordering, ease of menu customization, and depth of reporting Amber was seeking. Easy menu customization has helped with restaurant efficiency and has improved order accuracy. The robust reporting features help Danny’s hold employees accountable. Nightly reports help Amber monitor voided tickets and know exactly how many times the cash drawer was opened. Built in Caller ID features improve the ordering process and create a better customer experience.

The staff at Danny’s Pizza and Pasta quickly grew comfortable with the HungerRush system. Customers have noticed because when they call, Danny’s staff immediately knows who they are and what their preferences are. Amber loves how the HungerRush POS system helps Danny’s take orders faster and fill them more accurately, improving order efficiency and processing customers more quickly.

Little Pops Pizza in Naperville, IL is a popular destination for area residents longing for authentic New York pizza. Owners Mike and Vicki Nelson continually invest in the business to improve profitability, including adding the HungerRush restaurant management system (RMS) to streamline online ordering and delivery operations.

The investment mindset served Mike and Vicki well when the Covid-19 pandemic hit in the spring of 2020. Within 24 hours of the Illinois Governor’s order to close dine-in facilities, the Little Pops team converted the restaurant into a curbside pick-up and delivery-only concept built for volume and speed.

Mike and Vicki were able to communicate quickly to 5,000 Loyalty members stored in the HungerRush system and 7,000 Facebook followers to announce new protocols for a no-contact pick up system.

The swift actions taken by Little Pops in response to the Covid-19 pandemic has allowed the restaurant to survive and thrive in ways not possible before. By rapidly changing the business model, Mike and Vicki and the entire Little Pops team were able to grow sales, gain new customers, build brand loyalty and strengthen a following that will continue to pay dividends long after the pandemic.

Piezoni’s is a 20-restaurant chain serving pizza, sandwiches, salads and pasta.  Owner Victor Martinez and business partner Joe Ferreira source all natural and fresh ingredients for their pizzas and other dishes, earning respect from customers for the restaurant’s fresh, healthy ingredients. 

As Piezoni’s grew to over 10 stores, Victor feared that that customers were starting to think of Piezoni’s as just another pizza chain. By early 2013, it was clear that a movement to online ordering was in full swing.  Large brands across the country were also implementing loyalty programs to create customer stickiness and encourage repeat purchases.  If Piezoni’s was going to keep growing at a steady rate, Victor needed both options to help him get there.   

When Piezoni’s implemented online ordering, the immediately saw a shift in orders from phone-in to ones placed through the restaurant’s website or branded app.  Victor also found that online orders were on average $3.50 higher than those placed by phone. 

Introducing HungerRush’s integrated customer loyalty program helped Piezoni’s boost repeat orders.  Loyalty members tend to order four times per month while non-loyalty members order less than twice per month.   

Implementing online ordering and introducing a customer loyalty program has been highly successful for Piezoni’s business.  In the beginning, some of Victor’s team was skeptical, but once they got began looking at sales data and customer conversion metrics, it was obvious that the programs were having a positive impact. 

Based in Houston, Pizaro’s Pizza is a beloved restaurant first opened in 2009 by Bill Hutchinson. Having previously spent most of his career in the oil and gas industry, Bill discovered his love of authentic Naples-style pizza crafting, and with the help of his son Matt, he decided to turn his hobby into a new career.

He trained under the guidance of master pizza chef, Peppe Miele, for a year and a half before finally opening what has become one of the most popular pizzerias in Houston, earning it a spot on the Alison Cook’s top 100 restaurants in Houston for six years in a row.

After opening a second location to act as a new flagship store in the heart of Montrose, Pizaro’s Pizza has expanded its offerings to include not only authentic Napoletana pizza, but New York and Detroit (pan)- style pizza as well.

With growth, however, comes growing pains. While the POS system they originally purchased was capable of handling their needs as a fledgling business, the increased popularity and expansion of the restaurant brought with it increased demands that their POS couldn’t handle.

After looking at all the available options, Pizaro’s Pizza eventually made the decision to implement HungerRush Online Ordering in order to gain access to digital ordering channels. The integrated POS and online ordering solution would ensure that all customer orders from the digital channel would be routed directly to the point of sale, reducing order entry errors and eliminating the potential for dropped orders.

The average customer spend per order has greatly increased now that guests can easily customize orders online.

The larger average order size due to the online ordering channel has resulted in improved profit margins for Pizaro’s Pizza, as well as an increase in customer satisfaction and repeat business.