What pushed Jimmy John’s franchisees to go with fully guaranteed Internet connectivity?
In fact, in this brisk business environment, some 50% of all orders are either by phone or online. Before upgrading the companyâs technology platform, Jimmy John had regular and ongoing issues with both his Internet service provider and his phone service provider. According to Jimmy John Franchisee, âthere were all kinds of problems with hardware and connectionâ. Worse still, in a business that depends so much on customer relationships, franchisees were dealing with poor connection quality and unreliable connectivity. From a bottom-line point of view, there were concerns about our âprice-to-valueâ proposition.
Lost connectivity means serious business losses
For Jimmy John franchisees, Internet connectivity is a lifeline â even a few hours of downtime is an unrecoverable business loss. âWe were experiencing downtime almost every six weeksâ, explains John. âWhen our ordering system goes down, we lose business, upwards of 50%â. Today, particularly for businesses that operate with online and phone orders, it is crucial to have a secure, reliable, and guaranteed Internet connectivity. Anything less is a prescription for disaster â lost restaurant profit lost productivity and even business failure. For Jimmy Johns, Internet downtime was calamitous. âThe minute our Internet connection went down, we were in trouble. Even when we were back online, we were totally backed up with our orders, and customers were getting frustrated â not a very good situationâ.
Solving downtime with guaranteed connectivity
In searching for a sustainable solution to connectivity issues, the team at Jimmy John set out some criteria â a worry-free phone system â a seamless Internet connection with 100% reliable backup â and an excellent price-to-value cost for the entire system. âWe want the business to be flow smoothlyâ, explains John. âWe want to efficiently process credit cards; we want to ensure simplified customer ordering; we want to easily access emails; we want to manage our back-office, and we want to connect with vendors.â As for phone orders, guaranteed connectivity means that customers can always contact a store to place their orders. Besides that, itâs possible to pay with a credit card over the phone and feel secure about the transaction â all the better for customer contact.
Switching over to Vivant for technology solutions
In an effort to achieve restaurant business profitability, Jimmy John has switched over to Vivant for a new approach to technology. âWith Vivant, we donât have hardware costsâ, explains John, the owner of one of Jimmy Johnâs franchisees. âBest of all, our monthly fees are much less than our previous providerâ. One of the most fundamental benefits of Vivant technology is 100% connectivity. For Jimmy John outlets, any Internet interruption activates an automatic switchover to a backup connection. Once the Internet comes back online, the backup system retreats seamlessly.
SmartCONNECT⢠is the answer to your needs
SmartCONNECT⢠was the answer for Jimmy John franchisees â a cutting edge technology that ensured 100% Internet connectivity. Franchisees enjoy worry-free phone orders, online orders, payment processing, and more. Even when thereâs a service outage, SmartCONNECT⢠switches to a secondary connection within a matter of seconds â thereâs never any noticeable impact. With SmartCONNECTâ¢, restaurant business profitability is sustained with secure, reliable, and guaranteed connectivity. If thereâs any type of interruption, the system activates, monitors the connection until it fully recovers, and then switches back to your primary system. Thereâs no impact on customer sales, employee productivity, and most of all, your restaurantâs profit. For the team at Jimmy John, switching over to Vivant has been a trouble-free experience. âFrom our phone service to our Internet connectivity, weâre operating at full productivityâ, explains John. âAnd when we do have an issue here and there, the remote support from Vivant is very responsive. Our issues are immediately addressed, diagnosed, and remedied online.â
Read the blog Downtime Disaster: How Internet Connection Interruptions Lost Profits.