Flame-Grilled & Five Stars - The Habit Digital Ecosystem
- Digital branding
- Web, mobile, and kiosk ordering applications
- Custom POS application and other in-restaurant systems
- 3rd-party delivery integrations
- Automated curbside pickup functionality
- Rewards & marketing platform integration
The Habit Burger Grill is a fast-casual restaurant chain headquartered in Irvine, California. Habit operates over 400 restaurants concentrated on the West and East coasts. During our work with The Habit, BHW has designed, developed, and launched industry-leading mobile and web ordering apps, a world-class in-store ordering kiosk, and a resilient and highly performant fulfillment system that makes these apps possible.
Digital Branding
When our engagement with Habit began, their rich in-store branding lacked an equally vibrant digital counterpart. During our design process for the various ordering platforms, we immersed ourselves in their existing branding and guest experiences. Drawing examples from their printed menus, tray liners, “1969 - Santa Barbara” vibes, and open kitchens, we built the infrastructure for a clear digital style guide that is now extended across numerous executions. This work has been foundational in creating a consistent and truly “Habit” digital ecosystem.
Digital Ordering
Habit’s digital ordering experiences are gorgeously food-forward. Guests are able to quickly and repeatedly order their favorite items, complete with their desired customizations. Each app’s consistent design language makes every purposeful step of the ordering process incredibly simple. This has resulted in industry leading conversion rates, time-to-order statistics, and repeat usage.
In-Store Kiosk
Habit’s in-store kiosk is a perfect fusion of digital and physical experiences. Guests who were historically deterred by long lines can now skip directly to these self-service kiosks and rapidly place their orders. These kiosks boast markedly higher check averages than other ordering platforms, are designed for ADA height compliance, are resilient to connectivity outages, and seamlessly integrate with Habit’s mobile app for reward redemption.
Delivery Integrations
Many restaurants struggle to manage an unwieldy number of delivery services and incoming orders. Rather than relying on an overwhelming fleet of tablets to handle each delivery source, Habit’s system programmatically ingests orders from DoorDash, Postmates, Uber Eats, and other sources. It then uniformly funnels all of these orders down to the in-store POS, in such a way that all orders appear the exact same to staff. This drastically increases order efficiencies, ensures order accuracy, and radically simplifies the order fulfillment process.
Automated Curbside Pickup
During the start of the Covid pandemic, many restaurants were devastated by a lack of in-store orders. In response to this alarming trend, we quickly and iteratively added curbside ordering across the Habit platform. By releasing a tightly streamlined version, Habit was able to not only rapidly regain lost business, but also expand business beyond these temporarily lost orders. Building upon that initial success, the Habit platform now enables opt-in automated curbside check-in and vehicle and location-informed messaging to staff for easy order fulfillment.
Customer Rewards Program
The Habit web, mobile, and kiosk ordering applications integrate with a robust rewards platform. Marketers are able to create campaigns, define user segments, and issue rewards. They are able to monitor detailed individual and aggregate metrics on each of these efforts. Guests are, optionally, notified of new rewards and are then free to utilize these through any desired ordering channel.
Order Throttling & Scheduling
Orders from all digital and delivery sources are processed and validated through a single order throttling and scheduling system. This system utilizes real-time in-store data to determine available pick-up times. It also dynamically triggers order prep times based on desired pick-up times and current store output. This well-balanced, data-driven system ensures that orders are made fresh and that no store is ever overwhelmed with orders.
Iterative Application Extension & Refinement
Actions taken in all aspects of this ordering system are captured. These purposefully measured analytics are utilized for continuous feature enhancements and refinement. As opportunities and deficiencies are identified, changes are quickly made to meaningfully improve the user-experience and improve key metrics.
