Visit the College of the Holy Cross’s campus in Worcester, Massachusetts, and you’ll find a bustling community of students engaging in social activities, participating in D1 athletics, and enjoying a variety of delicious dining options. If you are looking to order from one of their many on-campus dining and retail locations, you’ll have the option to order directly from your phone or a kiosk. And if you enter two of those retail locations on campus, you’ll notice there are no cashiers or long lines—that’s because the only way to order is through a mobile phone or kiosk.
Launching an innovative dining model
Since 2014, Holy Cross has been a pioneer in dining technology as an early adopter of Tapingo (eventually acquired by Grubhub in 2018), rolling out mobile ordering to many of their on-campus retail locations. They have remained a long-standing partner and, last year, they came to Grubhub noting they were interested in utilizing technology to reduce congestion and long lines in the residential dining hall by pushing students to retail locations on campus, and ultimately, saving their busy students time. Between academics, sports, and work, students are often on tight schedules, so having the ability to order ahead from their phone can be the difference between having time to eat a meal or not.
They found that the locations with mobile ordering enabled were seeing a surge in orders and students were raving about the ease of use, while operators loved the increased efficiency and diminished congestion at their outlets. The initial mobile ordering rollout was well-received by the students and staff, so Holy Cross started thinking about scaling the program to further enhance their dining experience across campus. Aside from their diverse variety of campus shops already offering the option for mobile ordering, they decided to maximize Grubhub’s Campus solution to its full potential by launching two digital-only retail locations with a focus on mobile, complemented by the introduction of self-service kiosks for on-site ordering. This allowed the school to lean heavily into mobile ordering as students, staff, and guests were encouraged to place their orders through the Grubhub app, with kiosks available as a second option.
Increasing revenue and boosting student satisfaction
By making it simple and streamlined to order meals, according to Holy Cross, nearly 100% of their students are ordering on the Grubhub app. And since going digital-only, both retail locations have doubled the order volume and increased operational efficiencies according to Holy Cross.
“We received no complaints, we doubled the orders, and the staff loved it. The fact that we were able to take a retail location and enable mobile ordering with a brand new staff who have never used this technology before, and then see the sales double within a few days, speaks volumes as to why the mobile ordering system should be trusted.”
-Rich Perna, Executive Director of Dining, Hospitality & Auxiliary Services, College of the Holy Cross
Based on Holy Cross’s calculations, it was taking on average two minutes for a staff member to ring in a customer’s order. Now they are able to reallocate that labor to fulfill the increased volume of orders, truly maximizing efficiency. It’s a better experience for the staff, as they’re able to focus on one task instead of running from the front to back of the house. For students, they’re now able to avoid the line and order ahead, offering enough time to eat during short break periods and giving them time back in their day.
Not only has satisfaction gone up from students and retail staff, but Holy Cross has also seen an increase in credit card sales. When Holy Cross introduced mobile and kiosk ordering, they unlocked an entirely new set of faculty, staff, and guests who weren’t previously ordering due to long student lines.
Overall, Holy Cross served 250,000 additional meals year-over-year, which would not have been possible without mobile ordering.
The future of dining at Holy Cross
With the success of going digital-only at two locations, Holy Cross has rolled this out to a third location and are actively exploring additional opportunities for this functionality. In the Fall of 2024, they are looking to enhance the ordering experience within their athletic concessions by enabling mobile ordering. This will not only help busy student athletes looking for fuel during the day, but also the guests attending games at night. Looking ahead further, Holy Cross is laying the foundation to enable in-seat delivery while students watch the game.
Whether you have mobile ordering set up today, or are thinking about implementing it for your campus—Grubhub can help. Reach out to the Grubhub team to learn more about how you can elevate your campus dining experience.
