How modernizing their POS helped Jacks Urban Eats add delivery

When you have an established business with a devoted following, you want to stick with what’s working for you. But that doesn’t preclude evolving to better meet customers’ changing preferences. Not that long ago, Jacks was using an old-school system that had worn out its welcome. Employees were still creating handwritten tickets and using clunky legacy point-of-sale (POS) software that slowed things down. They also weren’t yet set up to offer online ordering and delivery, something they recognized that customers increasingly wanted.

In late 2019, they began bringing their processes up to date with customers in mind, while making things easier on employees—and not a moment too soon.

“We got ourselves into the 21st century just in the nick of time,” explains Jeremy Goebel, Corporate Manager of Jacks Urban Eats. When the pandemic hit in March 2020 and interest in delivery spiked, they had already switched from their legacy POS to Toast and were in the early stages of offering online ordering and delivery.

The move to Toast was important because the POS offered easy integrations with third-party delivery providers. In the past, Jacks had worked with delivery companies where nothing seemed easy. Getting started was slow and difficult. Outages and integration issues were common. And getting the support they needed from the provider was a struggle.

The time employees spent dealing with technical issues was time away from the most important work of the business: making great food and taking care of customers. Worse, anytime the systems weren’t working right, it inconvenienced customers. After so many years of earning customer trust, risking their disappointment due to technological glitches wasn’t an acceptable option.

The Uber Eats integration with Toast made offering delivery options to customers a breeze. The tech itself didn’t add any problems. Which isn’t to say there were no challenges. “Operationally, we didn't build our restaurants to do delivery or online ordering,” Goebel says. “Taking these existing footprints and figuring out how to bring in additional business—while still taking care of the guests who dine in—that’s been pretty challenging. The integration piece is really what’s made it possible for us.”

Jacks used the Uber Eats self-signup (SSU) feature, which makes signing up through Toast simple and nearly immediate—you don’t even have to talk to a sales rep to get started. The fast onboarding process meant Jacks could get back to focusing on food and customers, instead of worrying over tech questions.

Before they started offering third-party delivery, Jacks knew they were missing out on a sizable portion of customers who preferred the convenience of ordering online. But Jacks wanted to provide delivery in a way that met the standards of customer excellence they already brought to the business. Partnering with Uber Eats and Toast made that possible.

“Uber Eats has really helped us have better customer service by providing the thing that our customers always wanted. Now we’ve removed this whole barrier for them to be able to get the food that they want. The integration has definitely helped us continue to evolve our relationship with our customers.” Jeremy Goebel, Corporate Manager, Jacks Urban Eats

Jacks has now successfully expanded their business, getting their food to even more of the customers who crave it. And they’re able to do so without any time-consuming tech headaches.

Goebel continues to be impressed by the consistency of the Uber Eats integration and lack of issues. “We very, very rarely, if ever, have experienced any sort of downtime.” A system that works consistently makes life easier on employees and means that customers get the orders they want when they want them. That benefits everyone.