Recently we asked our partners: “If you could summarize FanFood in 3 words, what would those be?”
The answers were consistent across the board: “Easy. Customizable. Budget-friendly.”
So we thought we’d illustrate those characteristics with the stories of 8 FanFood partners — across 5 different markets — to show how our platform can be used in different operational models.
Reminder: Get in touch with our team now to get FanFood for your foodservice operation at no cost!
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Education
In states where football is allowed to return, high schools big and small are facing the same struggle — how do we generate concession revenue to support athletic programs while effectively managing the crowds?
The answer is easy: have a QR code displayed at the entrance or concession stand for fans to scan with their phones. From there they can order directly in their phone browser, and grab the order at an express pickup lane without having to wait around the concession stand. The whole process is fast, easy and contactless.
Owasso High School’s FanFood express pickup sign. Watch this video to see how FanFood works at Owasso.
Even before COVID-19 hit, nearly 100 high schools already adopted that operational model by partnering with FanFood, and Owasso High School was one of them. Not only were people able to order from their seats and not miss a play, but also the booster club saw 20% increase in their revenue due to the order size being larger on mobile than in-person!
Jeff Harrington, Booster Club President of Owasso High School talks about how FanFood increased their booster club revenue.
University of North Carolina — Chapel Hill (NC)
Back-to-school season might have been a little rough for UNC-Chapel Hill due to COVID-19 cases among students, the school’s athletic programs have long been the trend-setter of cashless concessions. Long been a partner of FanFood, UNC was quick to realize the importance of mobile ordering in terms of reducing wait time and speeding up concession services.
Aramark General Manager of concessions, Adrian Beros, talks about how FanFood gives fans greater convenience and increases their order value.
“As a concessionaire, the fan experience is the top priority for us,” said Adrian Beros, Aramark GM of Concessions at UNC — Chapel Hill. “FanFood is a cost-effective way for us to offer such an amenity to our fans.”
After ordering from their phones, fans can have the option to get their order via express pickup, or opt for in-seat delivery — a service powered by UNC’s very own student entrepreneurs. FanFood’s free Runner App allows stand managers to assign delivery orders to runners, and runners can use the Runner App to view order details and locate the customer for in-seat delivery.
F&B Business
RBI really figured out a way to create an integrated in-restaurant digital ordering system to not only cut down labor cost, but also provide a safe dine-in environment for guests.
The process is easy — customers will scan a FanFood QR code on the table, which brings them directly to RBI’s digital menu on FanFood in their browser. From there, the customers can view the menu items, place their order, and pay (as well as tip!) all on their phone. The orders will go straight to the kitchen, shows up on the Kitchen Display System (KDS) through FanFood’s integration with Toast POS, and a receipt printer will automatically prints out the order.
Rizzo’s manager Eddie Mahoney talks about how FanFood digital dine-in ordering helps reduce touch points between customers and staff, and lowers labor cost as a result.
Afterwards, a server will use FanFood’s Server App to bring the order to the right table. The entire process eliminates the number of touch points between a customer and the staff, thus creating a much safer dine-in experience for the guests. It also improves kitchen efficiency and increases the speed of service.
QR Codes at Rizzo’s Beer Garden
Zero Degrees Ice Cream Truck (IL)
How do food trucks keep their businesses going when traffic drastically decreases due to shelter-in-place and social distancing?
Very often they would park outside of apartment buildings hoping to have residents coming downstairs and place an order. But…what if the tenants can order from the comfort of their home on FanFood, and only come down for contactless pickup after the food is ready?
Zero Degrees Ice Cream truck takes pre-orders on FanFood from Kinzie Park residents in Chicago.
That’s exactly what food trucks in Chicago are doing with FanFood. Buildings will inform their tenants to download the app, or use our browser version to pre-order from different food trucks each week. The trucks would bring the orders to the buildings during a scheduled time window for tenants to come downstairs and grab the food. That means not only do businesses not have to deliver single orders and pay hefty commission fee on third-party delivery apps, but also tenants can have different food options every single week!
Drive-in Theaters
Showboat Drive-in Theater (TX)
“We’re just so disconnected right now and I think that’s why the drive-in business is doing so well for people,” explains owner Andrew Thomas. “They can still meet up with their friends — you sit in your car, I sit in my car — but we’re still around each other in a way that we can’t be in other normal venues.”
Before FanFood, Thomas said customers only had access to four cash registers, and with a thousand or more people at each screen, there were only so many orders the concession stores could handle at once. With customers taking a few minutes to order, and the kitchen needing time to prepare some of the orders, wait times could take as long as an entire movie.
Watch Showboat Drive-in owner, Andrew Thomas, talk about how FanFood has become a necessity for their operations since COVID-19 hit.
Since teaming up with FanFood, Showboat has seen their average number of orders per customer increase, and they’re fulfilling orders faster than ever, with wait times decreased by over 75 percent. As a result, it doesn’t take customers “nearly as long to get the stuff.”
Increased customer satisfaction has spillover benefits for his employees, too. Before FanFood, staff would make around $15 a night in tips, whereas with FanFood, employees rake in anywhere from $200 to $250 a night. This increases their pay by $2 to $3 an hour!
“It solved a lot of our problems that we had already,” he says. “The Covid-19 situation will eventually subside, but we’ll keep using FanFood for the long run because it solves sort of the core problems that we’ve had in terms of concessions stuff.”
Tower Drive-in Theater teamed up with FanFood even before the pandemic, because they recognized how much improvement digital ordering would bring to the customer experience.
“I was skeptical in the beginning whether FanFood is going to increase my sales,” said Jon Pickel, owner of Tower Drive-in Theater. “So far we are seven nights in and my [revenue] per cap of the whole night has gone up by about $1.25.”
Watch this video to see FanFood in action at Tower Drive-in Theater.
“I’d be handing out flyers about FanFood at the ticketing booth, telling them to download the app,” Jon said. “The vast majority said ‘that’s cool! I’ll do that!’” Another added bonus? The long lines that used to be at the concession stand are now gone. In fact, getting rid of the concession line was the initial trigger for Jon to start exploring mobile ordering solutions for drive-in theater.
“Y’all hit a pretty good home run on how that [the app] works,” Jon told us.
Stadiums / Arenas
Durham Bulls Athletic Park (NC)
As one of FanFood’s oldest partners, the minor league team was one of the first to roll out mobile ordering to their fans, offering both express pickup and in-seat delivery.
Watch how FanFood is used at Durham Bulls Athletic Park.
The most effective promotion, as discovered by Dave, to get fans to download the app has been seat stickers. Every other seat in the ballpark has a QR code for downloading FanFood, which made it easy for fans scan and get the app. Once fans open the app, they’d realize that using the app is pretty much a no-brainer. “If you look at the trend…everyone has an app and everyone is ordering [from restaurants],” Dave said. “And the customers have already been trained to use an ordering app [like FanFood] at a ballpark.”
Mobile ordering has become such a prevalent trend within the food & beverage industry that whether it’s a customer’s first or 20th time using the app, they know the drill: place the order, grab the bag with your name on it and go.
“Because that’s how it works at other places, there’s no reason it doesn’t work at a ballpark the exact same way,” Dave says.
Hospitality
Summer months are usually when the hotel industry is booming, but with people traveling less now because of the pandemic, hotel occupancy in the U.S. is down. According to Statista, June occupancy rates were just 42.2 percent, a 31.3 percent decline from last year.
“We were looking for a solution where we could create a seamless ordering system, payment system, and really reduce the time we spent on the phone and processing all those payments,” Sami Kohen, the Food & Beverage Complex Director for sbe, said.
SLS Lux Brickell uses FanFood’s technology to enable guests to order from anywhere on the premise, and have it delivered to designated locations within the hotel compound.
So far, SLS Brickell has rolled out the app in all of its hotel rooms for in-room dining, poolside service and express pick-up, and their site includes menu options from the hotel’s affiliated restaurants. Guests can scan QR codes and order directly from their phones, without even downloading any apps, making for an enjoyable customer user experience.
“We will continue to work and find easier ways with FanFood down the road to bring more customer, user-friendly operations,” Kohen said.
