Case Study:
Drive-thru Coffee Chain Poised for Growth After Deploying Enterprise Cloud POS
Dutch Bros selected Xenial cloud-based ordering and reporting to streamline drive thru service while respecting the brand’s guest-centric mission.
Dutch Bros Coffee realized going into growth mode that it would need an enterprise-ready POS that could integrate with its other systems and provide easy access to business insights. The company deployed Xenial Enterprise Cloud POS on iPads in all 400 locations. The independent coffee chain is now equipped with a complete, cloud-based ordering and reporting solution that streamlines its drive-thru service model, respects the brand’s guest-centric mission, and provides valuable insights at both the store level and above store.
Key Benefits include:
- Modern ordering interface speeds up line-busting
- Integrations elevate guest experiences, drive efficiency
- Powerful data management and reporting cut down on labor
DUTCH BROS FAST FACTS
number of locations as of early December 2020
of sales occur in the drive-thru
year founded
the quantity of coffee beans the Boersma brothers started Dutch Bros with
funds Dutch Bros customers helped raise to fight ALS (all time, as of February 2021)
The Beginning
Dutch Bros Coffee stands out from the crowd in many ways. Its founders, two brothers of Dutch descent, started selling coffee from portable stands when they needed to pivot away from working on a dairy farm. Today, more than 400 Dutch Bros coffee locations continue the tradition of serving coffee to go, keeping people and a personal touch at the heart of its approach.
The company views its people as its product and coffee as the means to enable employees to make an impact on guests. Its wild success and extremely loyal fan base could be attributed to a combination of three things: its people-first approach, a very creative and not-so-secret menu, and an engaging company culture that’s nearly as addictive as caffeine.
Off-premises is the core of its business model; in fact, approximately 97% of all sales go through the independent coffee chain’s drive-thru lanes. Founded in 1992, the company is also unusual in that as recently as 2015 it didn’t have a point of sale system. Dutch Bros accepted cash and processed transactions and gift cards but avoided adopting POS.
To take and manage orders, the company ‘bootstrapped’ various order-taking methods over the years:
- For many years, the guest interaction happened entirely at the order window.
- At some point, order takers started running outto take orders from
- Next, order runners started using sticky notes,and, later, white boards to take customerorders and communicate them to baristas inside the store.
Finally, someone had the idea to go high-tech and began using text messaging to send customer orders from the drive-thru to baristas inside the store.
“For a long time, we avoided technology, specifically POS, fearing that it would get in the way of that direct customer interaction that we place such a high value on,” says Brendon Gilbert, Systems Architect at Dutch Bros Coffee. ”We realized that we simply couldn’t get any faster without investing in technology. That’s when we decided to make the jump to a true POS.”
The company tried a couple different POS systems but had issues with each. “Planning for rapid, aggressive growth, we knew that our next technology evolution would need to be an enterprise-level POS, to help us go even faster in the drive-thru with line busting—a POS that would support integrations with other systems in our tech stack, and that would simplify above-store insights and analytics that the POS systems we had tried simply didn’t provide.”
The Transformation
Dutch Bros selected Xenial as its partner and rolled out Xenial Enterprise Cloud POS across its 400 locations. Here are some of the reasons Gilbert and Dutch Bros chose Xenial.
Enterprise experience. “We wanted a partner that had worked with customers larger than us and who knew the obstacles and challenges we were likely to face,” says Gilbert.
Support for existing operational excellence and speed of service, and not forcing Dutch Bros to change its service or operations to fit the POS.
Excellent fit, culturally. “The people at Xenial understand and respect us and our culture, and we come together for the common goal of helping each other succeed,’ explains Gilbert. “We —Dutch Bros and Xenial—actually like working together, and that speaks volumes about the culture fit.”
Expertise, wisdom. “I knew we’d need to work with a team that had a fairly deep bench, technology-wise, that could augment our rather lean team,” says Gilbert. “Xenial’s expertise and advice has been invaluable. It’s been great to work with a company that has previously worked with the Taco Bells, Burger Kings, and Paneras of the world before working with us. They are passing along decades of experience and wisdom. These insights continue to help us be better.”
Commitment. “Our teams are mutually excited to roll up our sleeves, dig in and solve problems together,” remarks Gilbert. “There were bumps and we knew there would be, because there always are. But I’ve been incredibly happy with everyone’s attitude and willingness to dig in and solve the challenges.”
Ability to easily integrate Xenial Cloud POS with Dutch Bros’ Gift Card partner as well as business applications like shift scheduling, time reporting, and payroll.
Xenial Cloud POS runs on iOS. Dutch Bros is a loyal user of Apple devices and wanted its POS to run on iOS.
Powerful data management, analytics, and reporting, built into the Xenial Cloud.
“It’s been great to work with a company that has previously worked with the Taco Bells, Burger Kings, and Paneras of the world before working with us. The Xenial team is passing along decades of experience and wisdom. These insights continue to help us be better.”
- Brendon Gilbert, Systems Architect,
Dutch Bros Coffee
“Our entire on-location POS consists of a few iPads, a couple WIFI printers, Bluetooth payments devices, and cash drawers. No bulky server or messy cords, anywhere.”
- Brendon Gilbert, Systems Architect,
Dutch Bros Coffee
The Outcome
Dutch Bros now has a complete, cloud-based ordering and reporting solution that tightly integrates with the company’s other systems and provides valuable insights at both the store level and above store. With Xenial POS running on iPads, Dutch Bros delivers its drive-thru service faster than before, while keeping its legendary personal touch at the center of the guest-server experience.
Modern Ordering Interface Helps Crew Deliver Legendary Dutch Bros Personal Touch
“The speed we can accomplish with Xenial POS has been a game changer,” says Gilbert. “Anecdotal observations in our drive-thrus show that Xenial POS really enables us to move lines quicker, which is especially helpful in locations where we don’t have a lot of car stacking space. Our team members can line bust, take orders, run drinks, and keep the line moving while we deliver our famous Dutch Bros personal touch.”
“I worked a grand opening in California recently, and it was one of the busiest store openings I’ve ever experienced,” remarks Gilbert. “Still, only about one-third of all customers ever reached the window; two-thirds of customers were taken care of completely while they were still in the drive-thru lane.”
“There is powerful yet simple configuration functionality in Xenial POS that previous POS solutions didn’t have, and it has really allowed us to optimize the ordering experience for staff and guests,” adds Gilbert.
Integrations Elevate Guest Experiences, Drive Efficiency
The ability of Xenial POS to integrate with other systems was transformational as the company geared up for rapid growth. “We needed to get rid of inefficiencies, because little things become huge when you scale to several hundred locations and tens of thousands of employees, which is where we could be in a few years,” says Gilbert.
“Past POS systems were an island and didn’t talk to anything, which created inefficiencies,” says Gilbert. “For example, selling and activating a gift card or accepting a gift card as payment required the server to sign into and out of two separate systems. It was hugely time consuming.”
Xenial Cloud POS has open APIs making it easy for merchants like Dutch Bros to integrate Xenial with other systems. “Xenial Cloud POS is talking with our workforce management app including scheduling, timecard, and payroll, as well as our Gift Card provider. It also talks with our loyalty provider.”
“Having our HR solution integrated with Xenial POS saves so much time,” adds Gilbert. “Instead of clocking into two systems, for example—the POS for tip sharing and HR for timecard and payroll—team members only need to clock into one. And the time saved on payroll is significant, due to the direct integration with Xenial.”
Xenial architecture also seamlessly and easily powered the integration of the newly released Dutch Bros App that lets users track rewards and pay for purchases. Dutch Bros is exploring adding Order Ahead capability to the Dutch Bros App.
“Anecdotal observations in our drive-thrus show that Xenial POS really enables us to move lines quicker...Our team members can line bust, take orders, run drinks, and keep the line moving while we deliver our famous Dutch Bros personal touch.”
- Brendon Gilbert, Systems Architect,
Dutch Bros Coffee
“With Xenial Data Management and Reporting, one
person can do what it used to take five people to do.”
- Brendon Gilbert, Systems Architect,
Dutch Bros Coffee
Powerful Data Management and Reporting Cut Down on Labor
Data management and reporting is another place that Xenial really shines for Dutch Bros. Company leaders that need to keep tabs on sales or other metrics find it easy to access, view, and analyze the data and report against hierarchies or store groups.
Data Management and Reporting in Xenial significantly streamlined analytics and reporting. “With Xenial Data Management and Reporting, one person can do what it used to take five people to do,” says Gilbert. “With Data Management and Reporting in Xenial, we can know and do a lot more to fuel our growth than we ever have in the past in terms of understanding customers, their purchase habits and preferences, and actionable insights.”
Company Overview
Dutch Bros Coffee was founded in 1992 by Dane and Travis Boersma, brothers of Dutch descent, in Grants Pass, Oregon. The company has stayed true to its mission to be a force for good through outstanding customer service and killer coffee. As of December 2020, the independent coffee chain had just over 420 locations in nine western states, with plans to add 85 stores in 2021. Learn more about Dutch Bros.
