Technology

Smoothie King testing order-to-text platform

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February 15, 2022

Smoothie King is testing a text-to-order platform in Chicago and Jacksonville with the goal of offering a more modern guest experience while driving top-line digital sales for franchisees. Through a partnership with HungerRush and its platform OrderAI, the platform allows customers to order and pay using a four- to five-digit code via SMS text message.

"At Smoothie King, we are 100% dedicated to two things — providing our guests with more ways to enjoy our smoothies — and increasing sales and profitability for our franchise owners," Smoothie King CIO Chris Andrews said in a company press release. "The rollout of our text-to-order platform is just another way that our brand continues to innovate and stay one step ahead of our competition. We are the first to market in the QSR space for this feature and look forward to launching it in markets across the country throughout the year."

How it works
Through the use of Artificial Intelligence, OrderAI learns and understands Smoothie King's menu and begins to track preferences and predict orders — ultimately increasing the likelihood that guests will order again, according to the release. Once an order is placed via text message, it comes through like any other order at the store but reduces the number of time employees spend fielding phone orders and improving order accuracy by an estimated 99%.

Smoothie King has 1,300 stores open.