Crunching Numbers with a Side of Cheese: The App That’s Changing the Game for Restaurant Owners

Xorbix embarked on a journey to overhaul the Restaurant App with a clear focus on the user experience, especially catering to the requirements of restaurant operators. Here’s how the revamped app stands out:

Pizza Profit Calculator – The centerpiece of this update was the Pizza Profit Calculator, designed to enable restaurant operators to make swift, informed decisions on their menu items:

• Control Pizza: By inputting details regarding their standard or ‘Control’ pizza, operators can set a benchmark for comparison. This includes parameters like Selling Price, Pizzas sold per week, Dough Cost, Sauce Cost, Cheese oz per pizza, and Cheese cost per pound.
• New Pizza: This section allows operators to hypothesize changes by inputting details for a different ‘New’ pizza. This could be an experimental recipe or a pivot from their traditional offering.
• Results: The results, displayed in a user-friendly table format, allow for a direct comparison between the Control and New pizzas. A dedicated variance column provides a quick snapshot of the financial implications of any change, with color-coded results for instant interpretation.
• This tool is expected to be a favorite among operators, particularly for those who might not have the luxury of time to go through a detailed cost analysis. With the Pizza Profit Calculator, operators can effortlessly gauge cost implications and potential profitability shifts arising from changes in ingredient quantities or pricing.

Intuitive User Experience – To ensure that the app’s utility is maximized, Xorbix prioritized a user-friendly experience. The decision to present most inputs in a table format, limiting scrolling and making navigation intuitive, stemmed from this focus. An introductory message, which users have the option to skip in subsequent sessions, was added to familiarize new users with the tool’s capabilities.

Flexible Navigation – Bearing in mind that users might need to revisit previous steps, arrows were added to navigate both forwards to results and backwards to input stages, ensuring flexibility and ease of use.

Comprehensive Results Analysis – The calculator not only gives direct cost comparisons but also dives deep into annual margins, shedding light on the long-term financial implications of decisions operators might make today.

Innovations

The application integrated several innovative features and technologies:

• Push Notifications: Clients wanted the ability to send push notifications to users of the Restaurant app. Push notifications were implemented using the React Native Firebase module to integrate Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) for iOS and Android. Notifications appear as a banner at the top of the user’s screen on iOS and Android devices and can be sent through the Firebase console, avoiding the need for a back-end for sending notifications.
• Pizza Profit Calculator: A new tool accessible from the Home Screen after the user logs in. The calculator requires 12 unique user inputs split up between two steps to form a results table that shows how pizza ingredient prices can impact their profit margin.
• Sort Cost Building Items: The ability to sort cost-building items for menu items and batch recipes by item name or date added. A sort icon was added to the “Your Ingredients” menu, allowing the user to sort the ingredients and batch recipes according to user selection.
• Swipeable Screens: The ability to navigate the screens like the pizza profit calculator by swiping left and right in addition to using the bottom navigation buttons. This feature makes it easier and more intuitive to navigate the pizza profit calculator screens.
• Firebase Analytics: The app was updated to log events in Firebase Analytics. Automatic logging was disabled, and event logging was implemented in the app so every time a user visits a screen, the screen title & class is recorded in Firebase. Custom events were also logged for when the user accessed the pizza profit calculator and food cost calculator buttons on the home screen.

High-Level Architecture

Components

• Mobile Application: A React Native application available on both iOS and Android platforms.
• Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM): A cloud solution for messages on iOS, Android, and web applications. It provides a reliable and efficient connection between the server and devices that allow server applications to send messages to the client.
• Firebase Analytics: A cloud-based tool to track and analyze user interactions.
• Pizza Profit Calculator: A tool that helps in calculating how pizza ingredient prices can impact the profit margin.

Core Technologies

• React Native
• Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM)
• Firebase Analytics