Highlights — TLDR

1. Innovative Adaptation to Pandemic Challenges: SPIN NYC’s swift pivot to a virtual food hall, Eatside, featuring eight different restaurant concepts, showcasing adaptability and creativity in response to the pandemic.

2. Operational Efficiency with Deliverect: Implementing Deliverect streamlined operations, consolidating 24 tablets into one, greatly simplifying order management.

3. Significant Time Savings: Deliverect’s system saved approximately two minutes per order during peak times, enhancing efficiency and customer satisfaction.

4. Easy Integration and Onboarding: The ease of onboarding with Deliverect and the supportive customer service facilitated a smooth transition to the new system.

5. Menu Management Simplification: Deliverect’s Menu Builder allowed efficient menu updates and consistent management across various delivery platforms.

SPIN NYC uses Deliverect to spin up a brand new concept during closures

Soon to be in eight US and Canadian cities and still growing, SPIN has quickly built a legendary reputation for its ping pong clubs, from New York to Seattle and San Francisco to Toronto.

The clubs are known for a lively atmosphere, excellent hospitality, and quality food and drinks served to the table as you play.

As Johnny Destra, Area General Manager for NYC, explains: “SPIN started close to 12 years ago now with two friends who started throwing these great ping pong parties.” 

“We have 19 ping pong tables, which we rent out,” Johnny continues, referring to the club on 23rd Street, “We have a full bar, a great cocktail program, and an amazing kitchen.”

But when pandemic restrictions came into play in March 2020, the fun had to stop, and the team had a tough decision.

A sudden pivot to a virtual food hall

With clubs, bars, and restaurants forced to close, the team had to think of a way to keep serving customers or cease operations altogether. With much of the club’s revenue coming from corporate events, they had to devise an idea that would replace this income.

“Over the following three months, all of the GMs and the executive team got together and came up with a concept that could survive any pandemic,” Johnny explains, “So from there, we launched an eight-restaurant virtual kitchen, and that helped us get through it.”

Eatside was born, offering hungry New Yorkers gourmet burgers, artisan pizza, and healthy salad bowls, among other concepts. The virtual food hall utilized the club’s empty kitchen to prepare meals for delivery and pick-up.

Deliverect immediately alleviates tablet chaos.

The virtual food hall was born, but now came reality. The team had to operate an entirely new business model at the drop of a hat. They soon ran into operational roadblocks that had to be quickly overcome.

“When Eatside started - eight restaurants on three platforms - we quickly realized that that could mean 24 tablets for us,” Johnny says, “24 tablets going off at the same time during a busy operation could drive even the smartest men insane.”

Being a tech-savvy company, SPIN implemented Deliverect to manage all incoming orders from one device.

“We wanted to get to a point where it could be as optimized as possible operationally,” Johnny reveals, “Deliverect came in super handy because it consolidated those 24 tablets into one tablet that is easy to navigate through and easy to manage by our staff.”

Executive Chef Chad Bowser saw firsthand the difference the new system made to day-to-day operations. “With Deliverect, everything is just streamlined, so tickets come in faster, food goes out faster,” he recalls.

He reveals the impact it had on the business as a whole: “Since Covid, delivery has been essential to SPIN. It’s actually kind of kept the company going. Now it’s a huge part of SPIN and will continue to be.”

Easy onboarding for quick implementation

Due to the speed of implementation required by the sudden change in the model, the new system needed to be pain-free to get running. Johnny was delighted with Deliverect’s onboarding process and the personalized support from SPIN’s dedicated rep.

“The onboarding process with Deliverect was amazing,” he raves, “Whenever there was a question he was quick to respond and adjust for us. Whenever we had things we needed specifically for our operations, he was able to step in and tell us what could and could not be done. Together we’re really able to optimize it to exactly what we need.”

The support didn’t stop with onboarding – Johnny says someone was on the end of a phone whenever they were needed. 

“We don’t have to reach out to the support team very often,” he reveals, “But whenever we do submit a ticket, everyone is super responsive and takes care of it right away.”

Deliverect transforms menu management.

With eight brands to manage, another unforeseen problem was the tiresome task of keeping all the menus up to date and accurate on multiple delivery platforms.

Using Deliverect’s Menu Builder, Johnny, and the team were able to update a master menu from one dashboard and automatically push the changes out to all the platforms, no matter the different formats and processes on each one.

“We do the menu pushes as the menu items change,” Johnny explains, “We snooze the menu items on the Deliverect platform as well. In that regard, it’s super helpful.”

Deliverect saves SPIN two minutes per order.

Johnny says that with Deliverect replacing all those tablets with one easy-to-use screen, the whole ordering process has been streamlined:

“It ultimately gets the ticket to the kitchen faster, speeds up our ability to deliver food to our guests, and with that speed and customer satisfaction, we’re able to grow our business because we’re seen as more efficient.”

Johnny estimates the astonishing real-world difference Deliverect made: “Our busiest time, which is during the dinner rush, I would say we save about two minutes per order.”

“The biggest benefit of Deliverect is that every platform is on one tablet,” he concludes, “Because that saves us time, that saves us mental energy, and it just makes the operation function so much smoother.”