Business View Magazine | November 2019

87 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 2019 TAZ I K I ’ S MEDI TERRANEAN CAFÉ our guests. “Also, you can order catering through our website or through our app – you can pick it up, or we’ll deliver it to you. While many in the industry have either avoided delivery or they’ve gone all in with third-party delivery that charges 25-30 percent, we try to be both aggressive but also thoughtful in our approach. So, this year, we’ve elected to do a parallel pilot. In two markets, we’re doing in-house delivery with our own drivers and vehicles, and it’s going very well. And we had to build new technology just to support that. We’ve also partnered with some third-party delivery companies so we can analyze the best customer delivery options.” Simpson adds that, in order to keep the brand consistent, all stores are required to adopt mobile and online ordering, but because each restaurant may be in a different phase of maturity, flexibility is key. Simpson believes that unity and consistency as a brand, as well as flexibility and collaboration on how the company rolls out new initiatives, is of Finally, Simpson says that his background in technology was one of the main reasons he joined the Taziki’s executive team. “Technology is only worthwhile when it solves a problem,” he states. “Restaurants have needed to catch up a lot; that was also true at Taziki’s. Major brands are spending millions on their mobile apps and their technology ecosystems, and Taziki’s was committed to an equally dynamic ecosystem of technology. So, we made significant investments in the last couple of years. Today, we have a mobile app that, a couple of years ago, was just a bolt-on, take-out kind of app. Now, it’s a fully integrated app where guests can pre-order and pre-pay and use for take-out or for curbside. It has an ‘I’m here’ feature for guests when they order curbside and arrive at the restaurant; their phone pops up with a big ‘I’m here’ button they can tap to send us a second message, so we can run an order just in time to make it really convenient for that overwhelmed mom with her three kids in a minivan on her way to a soccer game. We’re focusing on the right technology to deliver the right conveniences to