Chicago’s Yolk Boosts Revenue by 358%

Yolk, a rapidly expanding family-run breakfast and brunch chain, revolutionized its takeout operations and significantly increased revenue by partnering with ChowNow. By consolidating third-party platforms, automating order acceptance, and leveraging comprehensive data analytics, Yolk streamlined its processes, saving time and costs while boosting online ordering revenue by 358%.

Yolk, a family-run business founded by Taki Kastanis in 2006, began as a single location in Chicago’s South Loop and has since expanded to 17 locations across four states. This growth was fueled by a unique approach to breakfast and brunch that strikes a balance between quality and affordability, making Yolk a standout in a crowded market.

We sat down with Gianluca Pesce, Director of Marketing and Communications, to hear how Yolk uses ChowNow to double down on takeout and increase their revenue almost four-fold.

GETTING OUT OF TABLET HELL

When Yolk decided to go all in on their takeout operations, they enlisted the help of third party ordering platforms like UberEats, DoorDash, GrubHub, Caviar, and more. They used these platforms to bolster their takeout strategy and gain new off-premise customers, but they realized very quickly that the takeout process was inefficient with all of these third party platforms – each one had its own tablet and intake process, which required individual entry into their POS system, Silverware.

Yolk decided to streamline their multiple tablets and messy ordering processes with a new solution, now called ChowNow Premier. ChowNow Premier consolidates third party ordering systems into one single tablet that is integrated with their POS so all of their orders can flow through one system.

“We’re on all the platforms, and each one came with a tablet that took up valuable real estate on our counters. Bringing all those orders into one tablet and having them flow through our POS is a very seamless process. Efficiency is the main thing we were trying to achieve and we have that through [tablet consolidation].”

SEAMLESS MENU MANAGEMENT

With each 3rd party ordering platform, Gianluca had to manage each one individually, for each location. That means if there was a menu change, he needed to update every menu, on every app, for every region or location (based on the app). This equated to upwards of 30+ individual menus that needed to be manually updated and multiple painstaking hours spent every time there was a menu update.

With ChowNow Premier, Yolk is able to consolidate all of the apps in one place and make one update that pushes out to every system and location. Gianluca can now update menus across all of his ordering platforms within 15 minutes.

AUTO-ACCEPT TO DRIVE MORE ORDERS

Before ChowNow Premier, 3rd party orders had to be manually accepted on their respective tablets. This means orders were sometimes not immediately accepted, which can make a big difference for restaurants’ rankings on 3rd party platforms. The faster orders are accepted, the more visible your restaurant will be on the marketplace.

Gianluca called out that one of the most valuable aspects of ChowNow Premier is the Auto-Accept feature. This allows for takeout orders to be automatically accepted as soon as they are submitted. Gianluca said, “3rd party platform algorithms value order quickness, so when we enabled the auto-accept feature, we were more visible in the marketplace. We saw a real dollar impact on our takeout business.”

COMPREHENSIVE DATA ANALYTICS

When Yolk wanted to look at the performance of each of their takeout platforms, they needed to look at each platform independently. It made it very time consuming and difficult to gain insights about the systems, menus, and locations that were excelling so they could make data-driven business decisions. 

Through ChowNow Premier, Yolk is able to “see tips, total delivery fees, order totals, total cancellations and their corresponding dollar amount, total discounts that you gave out, and whether those were through your own channels, ChowNow, or through your delivery platforms. So you can get a real dollar amount really easily, and you can see which platform is performing better versus another.”

“[The reporting] is very comprehensive. You get a lot of data in a way that’s easy to use and read, even if you’re not really a numbers person.”

GETTING COMMISSION-FREE ORDERS  

Yolk not only accelerated their takeout business through third party platforms, but they also wanted to increase their direct orders to save on hefty commissions that those apps charged. They were looking for a solution that would provide them a direct ordering source where they could fully customize it to their brand and own their customer data.

ONLINE ORDERING

Gianluca mentioned, “Before ChowNow, [collecting takeout orders] was a mix-match of things. Most locations would only take over-the-phone pickup orders, and very few offered delivery. People weren’t able to go to our website and order online. It was strictly either walk-in or you called in your order.”

Yolk now uses ChowNow to power their direct ordering and delivery on their website, which creates a better experience for customers, an easier process for restaurant staff, and tons of money saved for Yolk. When Yolk’s customers order directly through their website, Yolk gets to save on 15-30% of commissions that other 3rd party platforms would charge. We’ve done the math, and over the years Yolk has been with ChowNow, they have saved upwards of $32,000 in commissions. Plus, they get to keep all of their customer data, which Gianluca uses for marketing campaigns. 

BRANDED MOBILE APP

Yolk doesn’t just power online ordering on their own website through ChowNow, they also use ChowNow’s branded mobile app to drive repeat orders and customer loyalty. As part of their ChowNow subscription, Yolk is able to offer their customers a downloadable iOS and Android app to interact with their brand. “Using the Branded Mobile App increases our brand strength and loyalty, which provides a tremendous value to us.”

Yolk also uses their branded mobile app to send push notifications directly to their customers’ phones and increase direct orders through the app. With 5/5 stars in the Apple App Store, Yolk is providing their customers with a positive ordering experience while saving 15-30% of commissions that third party apps would charge.