The Restaurant Technology Guys Podcast brought to you by Custom Business Solutions
The Restaurant Technology Guys Podcast brought to you by Custom Business Solutions
Enhancing Restaurant Order Pickups with Apex Automated Lockers
In this episode of the Restaurant Technology Guys Podcast, the host interviews Ashley McNamara, VP of Marketing at Apex Order Pickup Solutions. They discuss the efficiency and security of Apex's automated locker systems designed for restaurant order pick-ups. Ashley explains how these lockers streamline the order retrieval process, improve data visibility, and enhance customer and staff experiences. Topics include the comparison with traditional shelves, the role of geo-fencing, and the impact of integrated digital ordering systems. They also touch upon the benefits for third-party delivery drivers and the flexibility of the locker system in various restaurant settings.
00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome
00:10 Meet Ashley from Apex
00:34 Apex Order Pickup Solutions Overview
01:24 Challenges with Traditional Pickup Methods
02:50 Automated Locker Solutions
03:47 Sponsor Message
04:12 Enhancing Customer Experience with Technology
05:55 Food Quality and Safety
08:36 Smart Solutions and Geofencing
15:56 Handling Large Orders and Special Cases
18:37 Third-Party Delivery Integration
21:13 Implementation and Space Requirements
25:53 Integration with Existing Systems
30:24 Conclusion and Contact Information
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Jeremy:Welcome back to the restaurant technology guys podcast. I thank everyone out there for joining us. As I say, each and every time I know you guys have lots of choices. So thank you guys for hanging out with us today is going to be a fun episode. I am joined by Ashley from Apex, Ashley. why don't you introduce yourself to your audience a little bit, and then we can talk a little bit about what apex does. Cause I am, I'm quite frankly excited to get this podcast out. We've been talking about it for a while and I've been hoping that. that we can get a solution like yours out to the field. So talk to me a little bit, who's Ashley. And, and then we can talk a little bit about what Apex gets a chance to do.
Ashley McNamara:Sure. Thanks. Ashley McNamara. I'm our VP of Marketing here at Apex Order Pickup Solutions. So what we do here is we specialize in kind of the last part. Of a order pickup process. think about ordering from one of your favorite restaurants and you're gonna pick it up in, on your way home from work. And so you're ordering from your mobile app, you're going and parking in the parking lot. You then, go into the restaurant and now a day is you're either greeted by. Or you're greeted by a line that you have to stand in to get the order from an attendant that's behind the counter, or you're waiting for somebody to pay attention to you so then you can go get your order. So what we do is we would work with the restaurant to put an automated locker. to where you would get the code when your order's ready, you scan it, and you're in and out of that restaurant in about 10 seconds or so.
Jeremy:Yeah, love that. and I know we, you and I talked pre show and we've been talking via email. it's fun to talk about, where it's at today and how much you guys are penetrating the market and so let's dig in a little bit on kind of the shelf technology. So in general, shelf is just a shelf, And Not a whole lot of organization, not a whole lot of security. So talk to me a little bit about the downsides of the shelf for people that are using the shelf as a, as an order pickup solution. I was just at, Shake Shack the other day here by the house and they had a shelf and you were a hundred percent, right?
Ashley McNamara:Sure. So if you think about that entire digital journey, you're ordering from a mobile app, or nowadays you're ordering from a kiosk, you have a digital footprint of everything you're doing, up until the point that employee is putting the item on the shelf. So now you don't have any visibility as to how long it's been there, really when it was put on the shelf, how long it's been there or when it was picked up. so that, that kind of data visibility goes away with that pickup shelf. You also have the issue of security. somebody could walk in and accidentally, pick up the wrong order. I actually did that the other day. I was standing, waiting for an order at a restaurant, that I had ordered to go and they utilize the pickup shelves. And she put two bags on the counter or on the shelf and the first one was my name and the second one was When I got home realized it was somebody else's name And so I was like I do I talk about this all the time and then I actually was the person that did this that I picked up the wrong order but that guest when they go into the restaurant now, they're not going to be happy, and now the staff has to stop what they're doing and remake that order because of my mistake. When, with our solution, you would put it into a secure compartment to where my code only picks up, only opens the door for my order. So it gets that security piece under control from that standpoint. and I know a lot of restaurants, will put them behind the counter if they experience that. A lot of that kind of either mistaken pickup or deliberate pickup of orders that are not theirs.
Jeremy:Yeah. And I think going down that same path, Ashley, that's how a lot of brands still are. Cause unless digital orders are a huge part of what it is that you're doing for pickup or. delivery for that matter. And it's continuing to grow. I think there's still people that are, there's this queuing system where you have to wait to get your food and you go up to the counter, you might have to wait in the main line. Some places have gotten to a place where you've got to pick up line only and such. But you've now got the, you've got this need to now go stand and deal with staff to go get that from behind the counter. Talk to me a little bit about what you're seeing when you're talking to brands that are still in that mode. And now a word from our sponsors. Growing your business can mean big time logistical questions like, how am I going to keep up with all of these local deliveries? Let UberDirect offer you a helping hand. With UberDirect, you can take orders directly from your website, app, or by phone. Then drivers who are part of Uber's courier network will deliver them to your customer's doorsteps. Sound too simple to be true? Check out uberdirect. com to learn more.
Ashley McNamara:Yeah. So that actually a lot of times can deter customers from coming into the restaurant. So you think about a really busy line or really busy lobby. If I drive up and walk in and I see a lot of people, I'm going to think the wait's going to be long. It's going to take me a long time to get my order. When in all reality, half of it might be people waiting for their to go order. And so we've seen a lot of brands separate that experience. So think about what the customer wants to do today. Today, I want to get my order and go home and eat with my family. The next time we're going to all go out together. So it's giving those consumers the option to do what they want to do today. And today I want a mobile order and pick up my food as quickly as possible. And separating those experiences then helps your staff pay attention to those people that want to be paid attention to when they come into your restaurant, give them that extra customer service that experience when they go there because, experience is still a thing in hospitality and people still want to go out and have great experiences. And so you can do that and focus. The people that you have there in your time on those people, while you can still give the other people who do want to grab their order and go also a great experience because that's what they want to do today.
Jeremy:Yeah, no. And I talk about that often is different people experience different brands and different either phases of life. we're talking pre show, about having kids. And sometimes when you're on your way home from soccer practice or baseball practice or cheer or dance, like you just want to get food and want to get the kids in the bath and get them to bed. And then there's other times you want to go out and enjoy a meal. And so depending upon what the, to me, Technology has to be an enabler to enhance that guest experience, not deter that guest experience. And if it's deterring the guest experience, then it's a bad thing. But if it's enhancing that guest experience, it's critical. And so you talked a little bit about that digital ordering and the ability to know when the food got put into the locker and when the food got, got pulled, talked to me a little bit about why that's such a valuable piece that you guys are tracking that. Cause. To your point on the counter, or even if it's behind the counter, nobody knows when the, sometimes they know if they've got kitchen automation, when the food got done getting prepared, they may or may not know when it got done getting boxed and put into those things. And so talk to me why it's so critical in all of that guest journey. Cause I think it's a big deal for consumers, quite frankly,
Ashley McNamara:It absolutely is. as an, another experience that I had, I went into a place that they had the shelves and it was after work. So maybe six o'clock or so. And I went to go pick up my, to go order. And I looked at the shelf and there was an order on there and it said ready by four Oh five.
Jeremy:and
Ashley McNamara:So it had been sitting there for two hours. So in that experience alone, that food's been sitting there for a really long time, but the team isn't trained or doesn't go in there to retrieve those orders, they still think somebody's going to come and pick them up. so what is really critical and what our solution does is it'll, it knows when you put that order inside that compartment. It'll then tell you how long it's been sitting there. So from a food quality and food safety perspective, each brand that we work with can set that time of how long they want it to be inside the locker before they're alerted that says, Hey, it's been in here for 10 minutes, 20 minutes, two hours, whatever that time threshold is that works with their customers. So a lot of times in restaurants and QSR, we see shorter times, 10, 12 minutes or so. Okay. Of how long they want something to sit there and then the brand can decide what do they wanna do with it? Do they wanna call the customer, do they wanna keep it behind the counter? And then ask the customer if they want it remade, do they remake it automatically and re-put it in the locker? we also have some customers, especially on the college campus side, that if the food can stay out a little bit longer, they will. They will leave it in the locker longer because they know students are in class, they know particular students are in class, or they have special dietary restrictions that they can only get from one. of the concepts that closes early and so they order it so they can pick it up later. Like they've learned their customer base so then they can make the decisions in that way to be able to do that kind of stuff. So it really depends on, and that's something too, we've tweaked a lot of it throughout the process with customers. We start at 20 minutes and realize, oh, we can now bring it down to 10. People are learning how to use the system. They're not leaving it in there longer. We don't want it to go for 20 minutes now. So a lot of that stuff can be adjusted. But it's really around food quality. how long do you really want the food to sit in there from your brand's perspective? Because again, it's all in, still wanting that, that great brand experience when they get home and open the package. So it's however long you want it to be sitting there, and then for that food safety in the event that there's something in there that shouldn't be sitting for that long.
Jeremy:and I think that leads to the next question, which is this whole idea of, is the solution getting to a place where it's going to, I don't want to say smart enough to know that this is a salad and it can probably sit for 20 minutes and this is a burger that might, you might not want it to sit for 20 minutes. And talk me through even, are we to that point? Point quite yet. Or is it still a little ways away from getting there where it knows what's even on the ticket, because I could see them allowing a cold sandwich, a turkey sandwich with no condiments on a turkey sandwich with lettuce and nothing else that probably can sit a little bit longer than a burger.
Ashley McNamara:I think it's less about what's in the compartment, and more so in how you, optimize the process to get somebody to pick it up quickly. and I think some of this is utilizing other technologies within the restaurant, integrating those within the locker solution so you can use, geofencing, for example, to know, okay, I'm getting really close to the restaurant. I'm going to make sure I finish that. that package and put it in the locker for me to pick up. So it's some of that kind of stuff. So to us, it doesn't, you could put, a milkshake, a burger fries, a chocolate cake, whatever you want to in that compartment. because our whole goal is to keep it in there the least amount of time as possible, maximizing the technology investment you've already made and seamless for somebody to come in, grab the order and leave.
Jeremy:Yeah. So talk to me about, so I know that some of your. Your guys solutions or solutions out there have dealt with cooling and heating. Are you guys at a place where we've got it staying warm in a certain, in this locker, or is it just sitting there static again, my, my family will at times go to, to, little Caesars and they've got the locker, a similar locker system and it's always interesting. when my wife says, Hey, can you go pick a pizza? Cause again, kids were at sports and we need something on the way home. Talk me through where that journey is at for you guys.
Ashley McNamara:Sure. so we partnered with little Caesars on the pizza portal there and, in Their whole notion was a hot and ready customized pizza for you, which was a great strategy for them. And I think one of the things we learned from that is that the heating is not necessary in most environments other than pizza. pizza is generally put in a hot holding cabinet. But when we look at the breadth of most other restaurants menus, It's so many different things. It is a burger fries and a milkshake, so being able to think about that and making it efficient for the restaurant and efficient for the customer pickup. We optimize ambient lockers to be able to put it all in one place and optimizing that technology to get people there. most of the time things don't sit in our lockers for more than four to six minutes on average across all of our solutions. So they're probably sitting that long behind the counter in the current state that restaurants are doing things now. So
Jeremy:Yeah. Or on the shelf, like we talked about earlier.
Ashley McNamara:that's exactly right. So in thinking about it in that aspect, if you really wanted to try to use heated or cooled compartments, you're now looking at maybe doubling the size, like the capacity that you need, you'd have to guess how many you would need on a given day. And maybe, today, like in Cincinnati, it's 95 degrees outside. So I bet there's a lot of ice cream being sold. So it may be more milkshakes and you have a bunch of heated compartments with no cooled compartments. How are you going to make that work operationally? So we've just found It's a much cleaner and a much more efficient process to use that ambient temperature locker. put everything in there and just, utilize the process that's there. and it's the most optimal way to get people in and out quickly.
Jeremy:Okay. I love that, that's, discovery because a lot of the, a lot of the brands, when they start down this path, at least with us, they go, I need heated and cooled. And and I always go, do you really, what are you doing now? You're not heating and cooling it when you're setting it on the shelf. You're not heating it and cooling it when you're keeping it behind the counter. So why do you feel the need to do this? And I think that's great that you guys statistically have found out that other than pizza, that's something, that's something that, that is less necessary. Okay.
Ashley McNamara:I think there's some, I think there's some kind of connotation to a locker being something that holds something. In our solution, while it does hold it, the whole point of it is to, expedite the handoff of it. we call it an asynchronous handoff to where I don't have to be there to hand you the order, but we're getting this in a really efficient way. And so I think that's, where some of that kind of initial thought process comes in is Oh, it's a locker. I got to put stuff in there to store it. And that's not quite what it does.
Jeremy:Yeah, I could. And I'm old enough to remember when we still had lockers in school and in the quads and it's that probably is not where I would want to store my food nowadays. So from that perspective, but I do think it's, I do think it continues to be one of those things that is going to help, everybody's struggling with getting labor. Having enough people to serve the guests that are there, as well as get the guests that don't really want to interact with the staff member to do that. And so you actually, you talked a little bit about kind of the guest process, walk me through it again, as I walk into the restaurant. So you. You stop by and if Apex was in this brand where you picked up somebody else's food, we'll pick on you here for a second. What would the experience have looked like for you picking up your family's meal for that evening?
Ashley McNamara:Sure. So in that very specific instance, I would have handed my phone to my daughter and she would have taken the QR code that was passed to me through the brands app. And would have scanned it at the scanner at the locker, the door would have opened. It changes colors. I grabbed my food and I'd be out the door. So really 10 seconds in and out, from that standpoint versus, standing and waiting at the counter or, waiting for it on the shelf. Cause I think that's the other, as a consumer, it's funny we sell a solution that to, to restaurants, but I'm also a consumer at a lot of these restaurants. And so I see a lot of different things in the. The ability to give an active and, and a good notification of when the order is actually ready is another huge benefit to our solution because it's there, it's not giving me a time estimate. It's not giving me anything like, it'll be ready in approximately 20 minutes and you show up and it's already on the shelf and be like, how long has it actually been sitting there? I don't, the food might have already went past that expiration time and we just don't know. But now with this type of solution, when it was put in there because you're going to get a notification right when it was put in that locker that says your order is ready, come get it. And I think that's a huge benefit to a consumer as well.
Jeremy:and I think it's, ironic cause, big brands like Domino's have the Domino's pizza tracker and all brands are trying to get to that for their digital ordering. They're trying to figure out, okay, we've received your order. Okay. It's starting to get cooked. Okay. It's got finished getting cooked, cause we, as consumers, we can see it, I know when the Amazon driver is eight stops away, why do I need to know that they're eight stops away versus six stops away? I really don't, but it gives me this false modicum of control that I have control over what's going on. And so Amazon and Domino's have given that to people, but. Unfortunately, most restaurant brands are catching up because digital and, digital and really take out was not as big of a piece of their play until COVID really, the last couple of years, it's really accelerated that.
Ashley McNamara:some do a really good job. I can remember ordering from Buffalo Wild Wings, over COVID time and they have the little Buffalo that goes across the screen. And I knew when my order was ready to be able to then go inside the restaurant and get that and leave. So they, so some brands do. Do you have that experience? But again, in, in a normal time it would be going inside and waiting for somebody to hand it to me or, or things like that. Like depending on what the, what the brand then does on the inside of the restaurant, makes a huge difference. I see a lot of, there's been a lot of really good investment and enhancements and a lot of that front end, technology, the mobile apps, the loyalty. all that kind of stuff since covid. I think this is just like the last piece of that experience of being able to give that full digital experience of going in and picking up from the locker.
Jeremy:just a question that comes to mind, Ashley, when you're talking through this is what happens if your order was too big for a single locker, talk me through, you're ordering for a soccer team and now you've got, Six bags that need to get picked up. Talk me through what that looks like and how do you, and how does the restaurant really manage those larger orders? do they still use the lockers? Do they keep them behind the counter and do something different?
Ashley McNamara:Yeah. it really, honestly, a lot of that stuff we work through with brands on, their own specific use cases on that. Like we do have some brands that you, that do have ice cream, so they'll put a little sign in there that says, please come to the front to get your ice cream cone. Cause we can't really put an ice cream cone in, safely in the lock and compartment. When it comes to large orders. You can use multiple compartments to load that order and then they'll all open up at the same time. So from, so it's really up to the team as they're loading it, okay, I need another one and they just hit a button and it opens, they load another one, hit a button, it'll load another one, whatever they need for that particular order. So we can do that in those instances and then it'll open all of them for them.
Jeremy:just cause your wallet might not be an Apex solution. I'd love to understand a little bit about the geo fencing, technology that you alluded to. I was talking with a brand just the other day. very popular bakery brand out of Southern California. extremely popular. And they'll have people that they say the order is supposed to be picked up at four o'clock and they show up at six or the order is supposed to be ready at six and people show up at four o'clock. So on both sides of that spectrum. And so they don't use geo fencing. They make you come to the counter and the food can get prepared pretty quickly. And so they do. they had to change their business operation because guests are guests and they're going to do whatever guests want to do. Even if I tell them it's not going to be ready, they may get stuck there and now they're queuing up and causing pain and suffering. So I'd love to just help educate our listeners. What have you seen on the geofencing and how does that kind of. Trigger, and then you can see the rest of the Domino's pizza tracker, if you wouldn't mind.
Ashley McNamara:Sure. So as a consumer, if I order from a mobile app that's utilizing geofencing, a lot of times you'll see it shift to where you can tell when you cross that geofence. And that's generally when they start making the order for you. So again, it's utilizing a lot of the technology if they know how long it takes to make certain things within the restaurant, wherever the ticket is in the process that they could pull that and make sure that it's ready then for the guest or when they arrive at the restaurant. So it's helping eliminate that wait time, either in the drive through or in the lobby. for you to be able to get that order. So it's just, it's another tool in the toolbox to be able to utilize, especially on high volume restaurants, different things like that. your team can prepare that I'm coming, have my order ready kind of thing. so then that helps also then with our locker, cause then they can load it in there when they're at this particular part of the geo fence. And it's then sitting in there, it's sitting in there the least amount of time. So the team member could put it in there, go out back to the next thing that they were doing. And me as a guest can come in and grab that really quickly.
Jeremy:I'm going to shift gears a little bit here, Ashley. order off premises, lot more people are using third party delivery or online orders. you've got the app, you've got the traditional consumer that comes in on their way home from work and they do that. We've talked through that journey. Have you guys gotten to a place where you guys are helping with those other people that are coming in to pick up food? Because nothing is more annoying than standing there watching 12 DoorDash ScrubHub UberEats drivers clogging up the line. And I can't order food with my family because they're trying to get their food.
Ashley McNamara:Yes. Yeah. So we do have quite a few brands that are utilizing our lockers solely for delivery drivers. So they're still giving, their first party guests that, that hospitality touch while they're having the third party, the third party drivers going to the locker. And so that does a couple of things for them. One, again, it gives that security of this is the order that they need to pick up and it's the complete order. again, like there's human error and all these types of things that if the drivers are picking up from a shelf, they may grab one bag and not two, they may grab two bags like I did, there's a lot of that kind of thing that can be eliminated by that experience. And again, it's also giving the team a place to put the order that then can be picked up quickly and leave. I've experienced times in restaurants where, they'll call out an order for a delivery service and that person's not there yet. And so then the team members touching that order, putting it down and then going to the next one and then they're going to have to come back and touch it again, which just adds to the cost of that order. And so our solution allows you allows them to put the order away and know that then it's going to be picked up by the right person there.
Jeremy:it's funny that you say that I was on a trip. with my son a couple of weeks ago and we were sitting having breakfast, breakfast at a place and it was a little small cafe. So we were the only ones in there and, a delivery driver. I don't know what brand, it doesn't even matter, came in and they, show their phone to the staff member. Don't talk, don't engage. Don't, and it was like, I could have been standing there in the middle of ordering and this person still, and so you watch those experiences versus, and it's terrible to say, but I think that they're, they're paid by the number of deliveries. So they don't want to wait any longer than they have to. And they get penalized when they get penalized, when the food is not ready and not getting delivered to the guests on time because DoorDash or whoever it is that sent them there needs to make sure that they ensure that quality. Thank you.
Ashley McNamara:yeah, the locker pickup from a driver standpoint to your point is hugely beneficial because they can come in, they grab the order and they can leave. And so it makes it really efficient for them to not have to grab somebody's attention or, do any of that kind of stuff. they can literally grab the order and leave. I was observing one restaurant and there was one particular driver that came in three times in one hour. because they were able to, go deliver, come back, and come back and keep moving because it was that efficient and just said that they love, love picking up from the lockers because of that.
Jeremy:Yeah, so for those that I'm familiar with what it is that you guys do, how much space do these things take up? Where do people typically put them? Are they, in place of the shelf? Are they customer facing? And they're at the front of the lobby. And so they're walking back and forth. talk me through, you talked about even some college campus stuff. yeah. most people probably listen to the show cause they're on the early adopter side have seen the, the, lockers that they had in San Francisco where they'd make the food and then stick it in the locker in the back, and do those QR talk me through what does it look like, paint me a picture for those people that may not be familiar with it or haven't experienced it, whether it be at little Caesars or at any other place.
Ashley McNamara:Sure. So there's a variety of different, shapes and forms that this can make depending on the store layout and the opportunity to put it in either with construction without construction, however, it's building the most efficient way is to put it. To where the kitchen can load efficiently either from the kitchen or near the kitchen on the backside of the locker, and then the guest picks up the front. So you'll see that at like maybe the end of a counter of POS systems or something like that. Or we have some that can actually go right on the countertop, like we've got some of those in a couple of cinemas and things that they've got big counter spaces, and so they put it on top of the counter to expedite that order handoff. we've seen clients that will utilize them in more of a ghost kitchen model in that same way. So the front face of the operation is only the locker pickup, and then you only order via kiosk or mobile app. And it's hugely efficient then for those, Those operations we've got some of those at airports or college campuses, you know to where The people are constantly ordering on their mobile phone and those experiences to where then they're picking it up efficiently They're getting those notifications that the order is ready and they can go up and grab those In other places where maybe space is a little bit more challenging We do have a model that can load from the front so it sits up against a wall So again, if you have a blank wall with roughly 40 41 inches wide and 18 inches deep. You'll be good to go. So
Jeremy:roughly 41 inches.
Ashley McNamara:Roughly 41 inches and 18 inches. Yes. because that's an exact number. Yes. but that's something, that again can be very easily added into any sort of restaurant that has that. We see that a lot of times that they'll try to, maybe they want to put those lockers near, nearer to the front door. So their goal is to really focus on that guest experience in the restaurant. So they want those to go customers to just come in and out as quickly as possible. So maybe the team walks a little bit more to do that, but that's again, like we'll walk through all that kind of stuff with a brand to see what's the best option for them. this past year, we also, introduced an exterior facing locker. So it actually was one of the kitchen innovation awardees at the national restaurant association this year. But this actually builds to the exterior wall of the restaurant. So think about it. It's on the inside, it's in your kitchen. And the outside is where the customer or the driver picks up. So they don't even have to enter the restaurant.
Jeremy:cause we've gotten so lazy that we can't park and walk the 15 feet into the restaurant. We got to do drive thru without a drive thru. Huh?
Ashley McNamara:yeah, we'll think about a lot of people really liked curbside. They liked that experience. again, when I go to places with my kids, like I have to bring the kids out of the car, this is 10 seconds in and out of the car to be able to go scan the order, come back to the car. So there's. There's some efficiency there. It's also back to that kind of lobby crowding situation that there's no need for them to come inside. If they can grab that order and go, we, the, for one of the first installs of that was with what a burger in their digital kitchen. So their whole concept was digital first in this particular restaurant. And so they use them, the exterior lockers for that type of pickup there.
Jeremy:Yeah. And and again, I was teasing about how lazy we've gotten, but the truth is we're there because we're all time stretched and any amount of time that we can get back to be able to spend it with our friends and family is huge.
Ashley McNamara:the other thing to think about with that particular solution and even some of the interior ones in a vestibule is a lot of restaurant brands, especially those of drive throughs, want to stay open late night for the that delivery option, but then the drivers are getting in the delivery line and that's blocking other, first party guests to come into the delivery rod delivery line in place in order. So utilizing our solution for late night to where the drivers come to the locker outside, that exterior locker outside frees up the drive through to where you can get your, again, you're driving past me like, Oh, that, that line's too long. I'm not going to stop there. I'm going to go to the next place. It's making sure that it's a realistic, visual of what's actually happening in the restaurant.
Jeremy:Yeah, I, I love that, that, I guess painting that picture because I think you're right. there's times that you walk in, you go, I can't wait. I, I got to get somewhere and it may not be that problem. one of our clients is the Cheesecake Factory. It's the same way when you walk in and there's a huge line and it could be those people waiting for pickup. And the truth is there no way to get a dining room table, but there's so many people in the lobby, you go, ah, I'm not even going to bother. I'm going to keep walking through the mall and go somewhere else.
Ashley McNamara:That's exactly right. Yeah. It's a, it's painting a false picture when it's not in reality what that is. Yeah.
Jeremy:Yeah. the last line of questioning, just cause we're talking tech is how does it, how does this stuff integrate with the current order management delivery platforms, the KDS solutions, the point of sale, so that they, so that they can get that timing and get that data out, because I do think it's, I do think you're going to find a correlation between food quality and timeliness, bad reviews, probably because we did a crappy job of getting the food to the guests in the timeframe that we needed to. So talk me through a little bit of that.
Ashley McNamara:Yeah. So what we do is we look for, we, so I guess from an integration standpoint, we just need to know there's an order that needs to go into the locker. So that could be coming from numerous different places within, a restaurants, technology stack or, any food service operations technology stack, if you will. on the CNU side, we use a lot of, Grubhub campus. It's online systems that the students are already using on campus for different things that then integrate. So then they let us know when there's an order that comes into the locker. we then send back the codes to access the locker and then they can distribute them as they need to, to the client. a lot of times they can print them on a receipt ticket, to scan at the back locker for that efficiency. but it's really that and similar than on, the restaurant side, we can integrate with some, like an OLO, an order aggregator system. They just need to tell us which ones need to go into the locker or that there's an order for that, we can, integrate to that geofencing. So again, all we need any of the systems to tell us is. There's an order that needs to go in the locker at this, at this location, at this, this time, that kind of thing. Our system doesn't like assign lockers or anything like that. Like it's a, it's an on demand type of thing. So once the order's ready, you put it in, and they're just staged. They're waiting for the restaurant to put them in. Cause again, some restaurants don't, don't use the, like what's the word I'm looking for the, the, the throttling of the orders. So they don't use the order throttling to where. you could place an, I could place an order today to pick up, at a bakery tomorrow, but the ticket may still print based on their activities and how they do those things. So there's some of that kind of stuff that can come in handy. from our locker solution, but then again, it's simply, scanning at the back or picking from a list on the back of the locker, depending again, on how that integration works, that we can put a list of all those orders on the back and they just,
Jeremy:Anybody that's ever run a restaurant knows the craziness that happens during a meal period in a rush. One of our partners, Restaurant Technologies, Total Oil Management Solution, is an end to end oil management system that delivers, filters, monitors, and recycles your cooking oil, taking one of the jobs that none of your team wants to do and takes it off your hands, allowing your team members to focus on their guests. Control the kitchen chaos with Total Uh, restaurant technologies and make your kitchen safer while maximizing your staff's time. The solution can be provided at no upfront costs. If you want to learn more, please check out rti inc. com or call 888 796 4997. They just pick it and then know that's going to this. That's great. That's great. and I think you talked about the fact that you guys are generating the QR to send back to the guest. However, that may be a text message on the app in an email, whatever it is that the brand defines as their means to
Ashley McNamara:Yeah. We want the brand to own the customer, essentially. Like we, we can send the text messages, But it's really the best experience is them still living in the brand's app or on the brand's website to be able to do all that kind of stuff. And they can communicate that back to the customer
Jeremy:I love that. Is there anything we missed before I give everybody kind of a, an idea of how they get in touch with you guys? Is there anything that, that, that I missed in our outline that we were talking about? Because I think we've gone through a lot of the really cool things. And I, like I said, at the onset, I think it's really exciting to hear how you guys have innovated, what might seem like just a big piece of metal into really enhancing the guest experience and creating something that is memorable and different to get them where they want to get to at the time that they need to get it.
Ashley McNamara:when I think that's it. that's the approach that we take for this. we're not looking at it as Oh, here's a locker. Have a nice day. we want to understand how this will fit into your specific operation, how you want you, how you want your kitchen to flow, how you want to interact with your guests and how you want to interact with your drivers and all that kind of stuff. And we build out that solution for you. or with you to be able to optimize that entire operation for you. And so it's a lot, it's a lot more, it's like the iceberg. There's a lot more underneath, underneath there than what And what is the locker itself. but there's a lot of different, softwares, workflows, experiences that we've had that go along with that.
Jeremy:and I think even to that point, you talked a lot about how to understand what the brand's desires are, and then helping use technology. We say it on almost every show tech for tech sake is worthless, but tech that enhances the guest experience is critical to seeing where those things go. And so I've now just sat and listened to 30 minutes of the show and I want this. How do I get in touch? How do I learn more? Who do I talk to? How do I figure out where it's going to fit into my brand? Because I need something like this. Cause I got a huge queue and it's. It's causing my guests, pain and I'm having a remake food. Cause somebody took the wrong food. Those kinds of things.
Ashley McNamara:you can learn more at apexorderpickup. com or you can send us an email at info@ apexorderpickup. com. And it comes to myself. And some of our team members to be able to reach out to you and start having that discussion.
Jeremy:I love that. Ashley, thank you very much for hanging out. I'm excited to see you guys continue to grow, to continue to see that, see those things that are going on within the restaurants, because it is a huge piece of, of a challenge for a lot of people, especially as both digital ordering and as pickup becomes a larger part of their revenue stream. So thank you for being on the show. to our listeners guys, like I said, at the onset, you guys got lots of choices, so thank you guys for hanging out with us. if you guys haven't already subscribed, please do so on whether it's your favorite podcast player or on YouTube and make it a great day.
