The Cheesecake Factory Inc wanted to create a mobile app to help guests explore, order and pay effortlessly
The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated is an American restaurant company and distributor of cheesecakes based in the United States. The company operates 220 full-service restaurants: 206 under The Cheesecake Factory brand and 13 under the Grand Lux Cafe brand. Along with the Cheesecake restaurants, they also acquired 20 restaurant concepts to explore other growth revenues. Our internal team was tasked to create a mobile app that help guests explore the menu, place an order and pay effortlessly.
Challenge
One of the biggest challenges restaurants face is serving guests quickly, especially during rush hour. Most times, guest have to wait for their meals. As a guest, there’s nothing worse than being asked to wait an hour for a table only to end up awaiting another hour to order and receive your food.
User Interviews
One of the first steps in creating CakePay was to interview the stake holders of the project which included the CEO, President, Senior VP of Operations and Senior VP of Marketing.
“Our busy, working guests struggle to make the most out of their dining experience because of the long waiting time right from their arrival to final billing. Our solution should be to deliver a friction-less effortless process for them to plan their experience without wasting their time.” – Stakeholder
01. What are the goal of this app?
Answer: At The Cheesecake Factory you can expect to wait anywhere between 30 mins to 2 hours. Let’s create an app that you can browse the menu and pay your check with the app.
02. Is this app a revenue driver?
Answer: It would speed up the wait time of having the guest look for 15- 30 mins through the very large and overwhelming menu and order. It would increase turnover time for the tables and speed up guests being able to pay for their meals thus increasing the number of guests and reducing wait times.
03. Who is their target audience?
Answer: College students, hanging out with friends, Busy soccer moms, family outings, large parties and the healthy conscious diner.
04. What are users’ expectations for the app?
Answer: Save time by finding the menu item they are craving while they wait. To be able to pay for their meal without having to wait for the server to bring their check.
05. What are the app’s required features?
Answer: Login, Menu item search, description of the menu items and a system to receive the bill on their mobile app.
Research
Who doesn’t love The Cheesecake Factory? After receiving information from the stake holders about business goals and features I began studying competitors and our target audience. I looked at several competitor apps like Chipotle and PF Changs to get an idea of features, customer journeys, and possible pain points we might face creating our first customer facing app.
Personas
The Cheesecake Factory has a broad customer base but I tried to narrow down and focus on particular group and categories. Some of these groups were:
a. Health Conscious guest, who trying to stay fit and watch their calories.
b. Money Minded guest, a frugal diner who loves the ambiance but wants to eat within a budget,
c. Busy family doesn’t want to cook. The parents want something for everyone.
d. The single young professional who loves consistent quality food with a lively atmosphere.
Journey Map
Journey Map
Site Architecture
Design System
