Dallas-based Which Wich is tackling the restaurant labor issue with virtual cashier platform

Step into the newly reopened Which Wich sandwich store in downtown Dallas, and also you’ll be greeted by an ordering kiosk with a financial institution of screens the place there was once a wall of brown sandwich luggage and pink Sharpies. The brand new ordering system ditches the checkbox-style methodology of previous for a Zoom-like interplay.

It’s a brand new tech platform that Which Wich CEO (or chief vibe officer, as he likes to be known as) Jeff Sinelli and his staff rolled out to deal with labor shortages within the restaurant trade and alter the face of customer support. The brand new ordering system, together with menu modifications and a restaurant redesign, is a part of a pandemic-induced push to convey the corporate into the digital age and tackle labor shortages.

YellowLAB, a digital customer support platform, was born from Sinelli’s concept to merge the gig financial system and the restaurant trade, or actually any customer-facing trade. He figured that giving folks the power to work customer support jobs from the consolation of their very own houses and through the hours of their selecting would assist brick-and-mortar companies like his personal work across the labor scarcity. And so he and his staff developed YellowLAB, which they rolled out on the downtown Which Wich location (now rebranded as Wich!) when it reopened in April 2022 after being closed for a yr.

“I feel we had to do that as an organization that wishes to evolve itself,” Sinelli stated. “After 18 years of baggage and Sharpies, we actually went full tech. However through the digital transformation of manufacturers, the human interplay has been lacking, and we wished to convey that again.”

With the YellowLAB ordering system, sensors ping out there distant cashiers when a buyer steps as much as the display screen. Assume Uber’s trip share mannequin, the place a trip request pings out there drivers within the space. A digital cashier who has been skilled on the menu comes on the display screen to greet the shopper, reply their questions and take their order. That order is then despatched to the kitchen, and the shopper picks up their meals from the pickup counter when it’s prepared.

The ordering platform provides cashiers extra flexibility and autonomy over their schedule whereas lowering employers’ struggles to search out and retain expertise, Sinelli stated.

“We constructed this mannequin to cut back labor,” he stated. “We used to have six to eight folks working in a retailer at a time, and now we’ve lower that quantity in half.”

Sinelli stated he sees purposes for YellowLAB in nearly any customer-facing trade, and that talks are within the works to have the know-how in airports, pharmacies and different eating places. For now, although, YellowLAB is just out there on the company-owned Which Wich location in downtown Dallas, but it surely might turn into out there at among the model’s 400-plus franchise places quickly.

“Throughout COVID, lots of people retreated, however we created,” Sinelli stated. “And we’ve had the posh of actually taking our time throughout COVID to essentially do it and do it proper.”

That creativity additionally prolonged to the Which Wich menu that now features a build-it-yourself meatball sub equipment, shock cookies within the folds of each sandwich wrapper, canine treats, and a handful of absolutely plant-based sandwiches.

Sinelli’s aim is for the menu to be 20% plant-based inside the subsequent 5 years, so he began with essentially the most difficult sandwich — the Depraved. With 5 totally different meats and three cheeses within the sandwich, sourcing plant-based options was troublesome, however Sinelli was decided to do it.

“It was actually a Herculean effort,” he stated. “However we need to enchantment to the overall client, and meaning providing loads of plant-based choices.”

Many eating places have been investing in know-how through the pandemic as they face ongoing labor points, both with robotic servers, self-serve ordering kiosks, and even “automat” eating. Dallas-based Chili’s simply introduced that they are going to be increasing robotic servers to extra eating places, and different native spots like La Duni have invested in robots and even named them — Alexcita, Panchita and Coqueta. The robots are skilled to do jobs “no person desires to do,” proprietor Taco Borga informed Sarah Blaskovich in 2021.

Wich! is situated at 1410 Fundamental Road, Dallas. whichwich.com.