Tell me a bit about Concept Eight - what do you offer and who are your target customers?

We are a national Franchisor with 26 years of experience. We have 130 restaurants and 200+ virtual brand sites trading under the brands of:

• Noodle box

• Wokinabox

• Pattysmiths

• Supreme Leader

• Double Dragon Dumplings

• Alabama Chicken and Wings

What made you decide it was time to look for a new POS platform provider, and what were the key factors you were looking for? 

Why we changed:

Poor service levels because our old provider was expanding in the USA and focussed on growth there. They did not understand our business goals and how the QSR market was rapidly changing. Being a large software provider, they were too slow to change anything and when they did it was too expensive.

What we were looking for was a software house:

1. One that was nimble and could respond in weeks not months.

2. A partner who was local, so we were not in line with large overseas companies and would get preferential treatment.

3. A partner who was relevant - had kept up to date with where the QSR market was heading.

4. Most importantly, a company that could increase sales – we wanted a business partner not a software supplier. At Concept Eight we believe an integrated point of sale system can drive revenue and profitability – and does not belong on the accounting expense line.

You changed your Loyalty system to Redcat during the pandemic, what did you see as the key benefits of changing to Redcat Loyalty?

For an integrated POS to drive revenue, it needs to connect to your home delivery partners, your loyalty program, your ordering App, your website, your kiosk, your drive thru – we wanted one company that could provide all these services and after an extensive RFT Redcat was the only company that we believed could.

Your restaurants have a loyal following. How do you generate and retain customer engagement with your brand, and what part does Redcat’s technology play in that? 

Redcat provided an “off the shelf” loyalty program integrated with their “off the shelf” ordering App – which integrates with their POS ordering, be it kiosk, drive thru, walk in, home delivery or order ahead. This was important to Concept Eight because we did not want to deal with multiple software vendors.

Specifically, the loyalty program enables Concept Eight to communicate with customers and reward them. However, the magic of the Redcat software is that enables us to reward customers who order via take-away, home delivery, drive-thru, or kiosk, for all 7 of our brands. I don’t believe any other POS in the world can do that today.

One of your key drivers is delivery, how important are delivery partners to your business?

Home delivery is a large part of our business now and Redcat POS integrates with all of the Delivery Partners, so we don’t have tablets in our restaurants anymore; we have a single sales report for all restaurants enabling us to receive real time sales data from all customer ordering channels.

How does white label delivery impact your business? Is it important?

White label delivery, enabled by Redcat, has saved about 15% from the aggregator's commission for our franchise partners. Its dramatically increased the average profitability for each franchise partner. This is an example of what I was taking about earlier on when I said our POS should help grow revenue and profit.

Is there a higher ATV (average transaction value) with loyal customers, and if so, what is the percentage difference? 

We are experiencing a dramatic increase in the ATV with our loyalty customers using our Redcat App. Apart from a few orders in excess of $300, the ATV has increased by about $15 per order.

Tell us a bit about your Concept Ate cross-brand loyalty program. Are you seeing customer loyalty spreading across different brands?

Being a multi brand QSR it was important that our customers could be rewarded when they purchased any of our brands, be it burgers, noodles, dumplings, or chicken. On top of this complexity, it was equally important that our customers could choose how they want their meal; drive thru, home delivery, kiosk, dine in or pick up. We searched the globe and only Redcat could offer this functionality today. Other vendors said they may be able to build it but could not commit to a cost or timeframe.

Virtual Brands are a relatively new concept to Australia. What are the advantages and how has Redcat helped enable them?

Obviously, virtual brands offer the potential of extra revenue. However, they also come with many challenges, such as operational complexity, aggregator margin, brand dilution, increased marketing, packaging challenges, and last of all but most importantly, meal quality.

All of that aside, Virtual brands are part of the Concept Eight offering and Redcat have helped us make them successful by working closely with all our delivery partners. Through Redcat’s mobile app, loyalty program, and integration with DoorDash Drive and Uber Direct, we now able to do our own home delivery. And customers can place a multi-brand order to be picked up or delivered – it’s fantastic.

It’s been just over 12 months since you switched to Redcat, how would you describe the relationship.

During the tender process, when choosing any potential business partner, many promises are made. In the case of Redcat, I am pleased to say that they have delivered everything they said they would, but more importantly they have delivered on time and on budget.

And it’s not just with us; we meet a few times a year with other QSR partners of Redcat to prioritise software functionality and can see that everyone is happy.

It’s great to be able to pick up the phone and talk directly to the Australian owners who are always looking to provide a solution, rather than tell you why it can’t be done, will take an eternity or cost a fortune.