“As an operator, it is the stream of revenue that it offered us through probably the worst time in modern history and food. What puts Ritual apart is the seamlessness in their product, and they understand that in the food space, no communication is the best level of communication.”
Greg, Owner of Burger Drops
Meet Burger Drops
Burger Drops is a popular spot in Toronto’s Liberty Village neighbourhood with a reputation for providing great food and great service. Greg, the owner, grew up in the restaurant industry and has worked at all levels of the business. He sees cooking as a gift, and has always loved sharing his food with friends and family. This is what inspired him to open Burger Drops.
He began doing pop-ups in 2018, and eventually opened his first location mid-2020. COVID threw a spatula into his initial plans, but he knew he had the skills and support to run this business. He also knew that for future success, he would need two more things: a great relationship with his community, and a digital ordering experience for his guests.
Their Challenge
Burger Drops was almost a victim of their own success. Within three months of opening, they were extremely busy with walk-in crowds of 50-60 people at a time. They struggled to handle the volume, and needed a way to keep their community safe and distanced during COVID.
They created an in-house solution with a buzzer system, with customers waiting outside. However, they only had so much grill space. Long waits in line had customers leaving reviews, and asking for a pre-order and pick up service. Furthermore, Burger Drops wanted guests to enjoy their food fresh but with the kitchen overloaded and always rushing to get orders out the door, quality control became harder to monitor. As a restaurant that prided itself on community and guest experience, they realized they would need to find a better way to give customers what they wanted, and help build loyalty. Ritual made this a short order.
The Ritual Results
Ritual was a good fit for Greg and Burger Drops. Since many restaurants in the area used Ritual, their customer demographic was already familiar with the app. They were now able to provide accurate predictions for prep and wait times, which let customers pre-order and arrive at the restaurant minutes before their order was ready.
The Ritual app also helped serve up a better bottom line:
Business picked up, and so did food quality. Not only did customers enjoy a better service experience, without long on-site waits the cooking process was less rushed, giving the kitchen more time to focus on consistent food output — and creating great first impressions.
Burger Drops also built a community with neighbouring restaurants on Ritual to optimize their presence on the app. The restaurants supported each other and shared insights, such as high traffic hours, customer likes, habits and behaviours, as well as tactics to better engage customers through the app and drive more sales. In the end, it was a no brainer, with a lot of gain. And a lot less wait time.
