Crunchtime also enables easy inventory transfers between parks within the system, helping to eliminate waste and cover any shortfalls between properties.
The information is readily accessible in Crunchtime for whatever you wanna look at, whatever metric for year over year. For the four-week trend, for the same day last year. And also, the AI projection that it has for you for the week. So it really does add incredible insight to help you feel confident in what you’re forecasting.
By putting Crunchtime in place, the operators have real-time knowledge of their data. They can turn around in the same day that they complete their inventory and see their variances and their issues, troubleshoot, and make changes.
I think the back-of-house technology has definitely been more embraced by the large pub groups as the benefits can be delivered at a much bigger scale. So things like new inventory systems (Crunchtime) have really supported improved reporting, improved availability, reducing waste, and really helps those large operators to have more control of the costs and more access to the data that can help inform their decisions.
What was so appealing about using Crunchtime for labor management is the reporting side of it to really dig deep to show my team and my managers how to really hone in on actual vs theoretical labor and making sure that they're using that labor percentage to the best that they can for the business.
We started using Crunchtime in 2011, and since then, we've seen a 2600 basis point reduction in ADT—it's been huge for us.
Having consistent COGS allows franchisees to reinvest in their business. The more money that our franchisees can make, the more stores they can build and the faster our footprint can grow.
Crunchtime has empowered us to operate smarter, scale faster, and deliver high quality customer service across Gong Cha stores.
Women in Restaurant Tech: How 7 Brew's CTO Led Digital Transformation to Drive Rapid Growth
Within my team, we track where we invest our time. Based on just the needs of our business partners, it's one-third on continuing to build out our data lake, continuing to put analytics on top of that, continuing to push out reports.
Crunchtime Ops Execution is our operations excellence software. It's basically a task management platform that Crunchtime offers, and it's a way for our users to utilize the checklist that the corporate office has worked together with our area directors and our top performing stores to generate the best use of their time in store for the opening, the afternoon, and then the closing. This way, they're making the best use of their time; They're getting the necessary tasks done at the store level, and then the manager and then the franchisee can oversee all of that without having to go to the store and check it. For example, Ops Execution can receive and upload pictures and videos. So we can get a visual representation of what the store looks like for a specific task. If we notice something off, we can say, "I'd like you to focus on this today." It gives our franchisees the ability to communicate what their game plan should be, what their focus is for the week.
A lot of our franchisees are multi-unit franchisees. The majority are multi-unit franchisees. Some with 3 stores, 5 stores, 10 stores, up to 50, 60 stores in some instances. So, from a franchisee and a district manager standpoint, to have some insight into the store on a day-to-day basis without actually physically having to step into the store is a huge benefit for them. They're now able to look at a store's checklist for whatever day and make sure things are getting done, getting done at the right time. They can add specific tasks for a certain day and say, Hey, upload a picture of your frontline looking great, and each manager or team member has to do that inside their store. So it adds some insight to the store on a day-to-day basis. As you grow, it just gives you more control.
How DMCP Group, a Dunkin' franchisee, uses Crunchtime to optimize labor cost and maintain compliance
7 Brew brews up operational excellence and scales growth with Crunchtime's data-driven insights
So within 6 weeks of launching Crunchtime, food costs (COGS) were reduced by 1.7%. So it was an immediate and huge impact just getting recipes built, just getting the ending inventory to be accurate on a week-to-week basis. To put it in perspective, that 1.7%, is $1,700,000 on a $100,000,000 in total food sales.
Between 2021 and 2022, we doubled our store count by acquiring six concepts. Crunchtime became essential to ensure initial inventories and smooth operations from day one for all acquisitions.
Customer Spotlight: Gong cha’s Franchise Business Leader, Rebecca Kahn
I knew Zenput was the right choice on some of the first initiatives we rolled out across the Americas because it is easy to use and makes complete sense. We are moving in a very tech-focused direction as an industry, and if we aren’t incorporating technology like Zenput to digitalize everything on paper, but also to get more creative on how we drive performance, then we are going to fall behind in our growth.
Customer Spotlight: Sizzling Platter’s Learning and Development Specialist, Matthew Smith
If you can sell the idea or show the value of something and you have a great organization set up, it becomes much easier for it to start at the top and work its way down.
3 Common Challenges with Tasks and SOPs that Can Obstruct Unit Growth
Customer Spotlight: Wingstop’s Manager of Operations Excellence, Stephanie Herrington
How Fazoli's Improved Profitability and Cut Turnover in Half with Crunchtime
Thanks to Crunchtime, we kept our food costs within 1 or 2 tenths of ideal and managed labor to within 1 or 2 hours per restaurant per week—consistently across all 52 weeks of the year. Since food and labor are the two biggest expense items in a restaurant, this level of control is crucial for managing our business effectively.
Fazoli's Cuts Turnover in Half and Drives Internal Promotions with Mobile-Enabled Training and Career Development
How Kent Companies Drives Accountability and Great Guest Experiences
How Fazoli's Achieved Precise Labor Management and Elevated Guest Service with Crunchtime and TeamWorks
How Landry’s Consolidated Training Across 60+ Concepts to Drive 95%+ Completion Rates
Introducing the snapshot reports also increased engagement for several key departments, including: Overall, these positive changes have allowed Landry’s to exceed their completion baseline goal with an impressive 98% training completion rate.
How Whataburger Scaled Operations in Less Than 3 Months Across 800+ Restaurants with Crunchtime Ops Execution
The improved reporting and enhanced forms allow Whataburger to be much more confident that essential processes are being completed as planned. Increased transparency, more detailed reports, and improved time management have each made a tangible impact on the business.
