a bowl of salad with tofu, corn, lettuce and tomatoes

a plate of cooked shrimp with a side of chili

Mastering the art of pricing

How we revolutionized restaurant operations with Menu Price Optimizer™

a receipt for a restaurant with a price label

CLIENT

Iris Pricing Solutions

EXPERTISE

Product Research & Strategy

Improve an Existing Product

COMPONENTS

Web app & desktop

CAPABILITIES

Discovery

UX/UI design

UX research

Web

Mobile

Back-end engineering

In a game-changing collaboration with TTT Studios, Iris Pricing Solutions introduced Menu Price Optimizer™ — an easy-to-use web application revolutionizing restaurant pricing strategies. Now, thousands of franchisee stores worldwide can effortlessly simulate and optimize their menus in minutes, unlocking the potential to maximize revenue and reach their sales goals.

Pricing significantly impacts the success and sales volumes of restaurants and food franchises.

The problem with pricing

Restaurant owners and franchisees are significantly impacted by the need to price their menu items accurately to avoid negative consequences. Setting prices too high can discourage customers, leading to a decrease in sales volume and potential loss of revenue. On the other hand, pricing items too low may result in diminished profit margins and difficulty covering operational costs. Striking the right balance is crucial to maintain customer satisfaction, driving sales, and ensuring sustainable profitability in the competitive food service industry.

Iris Pricing Solutions is a leading consulting firm specializing in data-driven price adjustments for the restaurant industry. By leveraging advanced analytics and machine learning, they help restaurants optimize their pricing strategies to increase revenue and margins.
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Scalability was challenging for their organization; their team used an Excel spreadsheet to support their client recommendations. Inherently, they needed to transition their offline consultative process to an online platform that could serve multiple users simultaneously.

"Refreshing the data was a big problem... every time you changed something in Excel, complex formulas broke. The software we had built could only support one user at a time, which was the main limitation of being offline. We wanted multiple users to be able to use the tool simultaneously."

VP of Pricing Analytics

How we improved Menu Price Optimizer™

Through a series of Discovery and Define sessions, TTT Studios partnered with Iris Pricing Solutions to understand their challenges and transform their product. By conducting an in-depth audit of their existing software and collaborating closely with their team, we gained valuable insights and clarity. Together, we delved into the core problems and developed a powerful solution that elevated their digital offering, empowering them to serve their customers confidently.

three id cards with a picture of a man and a woman

a screen shot of a cell phone with a pie chart on it

A recipe for clarity: overcoming menu mayhem with flawless execution

Contextualizing data was a big challenge throughout the project due to the many possible menu item variations. With each client having numerous menu items with different ingredients and prices, representing this data in an easily understandable and navigable way was crucial.

Our team of designers addressed UX issues, leveraging insights from Discovery sessions to revamp the user experience and information architecture. The resulting improvements consolidated the simulation dashboard by placing the pricing table and dashboard in a single view, giving the platform a more modern and minimalistic look.

Serving up speed: maintaining high online performance

Transitioning from an offline to an online environment posed unique challenges in maintaining high performance while dealing with vast amounts of pricing data. Iris Pricing Solutions handles pricing information for numerous franchisee stores worldwide, resulting in millions of rows in pricing tables.
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To ensure an immediate response and swift uploading of large files like franchisee reports, our team of engineers implemented strategic measures. They devised an asynchronous import process that allowed users to seamlessly continue using the app while files were uploaded in the background, optimizing speed and minimizing load times.

a computer screen showing a price table and other items

Through this partnership, Menu Price Optimizer™ empowers franchisee stores worldwide, changing the game for many restaurants and businesses by unlocking their full potential, maximizing revenue, and helping them achieve their sales goals.

Through our collaborative efforts, we have contextualized complex menu data, enhanced user experience, and maintained exceptional performance. This impactful transformation enables restaurant businesses to make informed pricing decisions, achieving sustainable profitability and customer satisfaction.

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