Customer Stories

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.

Hungry Howie’s, a nationally recognized carry out and delivery pizza chain based in Madison Heights, Michigan, is known for its Flavored Crust® and now for its loyalty program. Howie Rewards® is a simple, user-friendly program that automatically tracks participating purchases and rewards guests for every six qualifying online orders.

Howie’s launched the program mid-2016, after selecting HungerRush’s loyalty program Honeycomb. HungerRush’s development team and Hungry Howie’s technology team worked together to customize the loyalty program to fit their exact requirements. “Having HungerRush build the architecture of our loyalty program just made sense,” states Dan McKay, Director of IT. “They already provide our POS and Online Ordering, which means they understand our operational and customer interactions on all fronts.”

Honeycomb is a robust loyalty engine that tracks customer data above store, and provides updates to members via email based on qualifying actions or purchases across locations. The platform utilizes HungerRush online ordering as the customer facing portal minimizing customer credentials. “Our vision for Honeycomb is to provide a support structure that enables a consistent, brand unifying experience across platforms and locations,” states Laura Gaudin, Director of Product Management. Honeycomb provides staff with the perfect re-direction to any questions, allowing them to train consumers and direct them to the online ordering platform.

The Howie’s team has already seen major success with online only participation in 2017. Howie’s processed over 850,000 loyalty orders totaling over $15 million in net sales. The Howie’s team has given back over 147,000 medium two-topping pizzas to their guests. Howie Rewards® success is most evident in the redemption rate of 74%. “We knew the integration with online ordering would be huge,” states McKay. “We didn’t anticipate how much impact the loyalty interface in the online menu would be. Most loyalty platforms plateau at a 20% redemption rate because of manual redemption codes or incomplete integrations. With Honeycomb, we’ve tripled that benchmark in just the first year because of the online ordering and mobile application integration.”

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.   

Crush Taco is a fast casual concept based on contemporary cuisine.  Signature items include cornflake crusted shrimp, buffalo chicken and fish tacos.  Calling it a modern taco shop, owner Mo Assi describes his tacos as Texas-style with Latin influence – combining big flavors with shredded cheese, refried beans and fresh vegetables.   

Mo had an idea of what he wanted in a POS system based on ones he used in other restaurants. The POS system had to be easy for the staff to learn and use and he didn’t want anything to slow down Crush Taco’s ordering process or impact the customer experience.   

A reporting fanatic, Mo demanded a system that could provide detailed analysis of the sales, labor and product mix his restaurant was producing.  He also wanted a system that could embrace changing customer trends such as the movement of online ordering and third-party delivery services.  Crush Taco selected the HungerRush restaurant management system after receiving a demo and performing independent research. 

Now, Mo gets the detailed reports he need to keep tabs on the growing business and for strategic planning.  To keep up with a growing industry trend, Crush Taco has also expanded into online ordering and third-party delivery services.  With help from HungerRush, the restaurant built an online ordering platform as part of Crush’s website along with a custom-branded app for iOS and Android mobile devices.  

Four years after opening their doors, Crush Taco is flying high and Mo credits HungerRush as technology that has steered Crush Taco’s success.  The POS system has given Mo the visibility he requires to make good business decisions and has proven to be an adaptable platform that can scale and grow as Crush Taco builds its customer base.