Apps can provide innovative solutions to bricks and mortar problems

Over the last two years, Mitra Innovation worked with Eagle Boys, which was one of Australia’s largest pizza makers until it was recently acquired by Pizza Hut. Mitra Innovation was engaged by Eagle Boys to develop its e-commerce platform via a process of increased scalability and platform optimisation. Eagle Boys also asked Mitra Innovation to help find a technology solution to a specific problem: the fact that their stores lacked drive-thru capabilities. Enter the Virtual Drive-Thru app – an innovative and unique solution to a bricks and mortar problem. 

Before their acquisition, Eagle Boys was one of Australia’s largest pizza makers. They started with one store in Albury, New South Wales in 1987, and grew by opening stores across Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia, Queensland, the ACT and Northern Territory.

With a passion for delivering great taste and customer service, Eagle Boys always wanted to stay ahead in the pizza industry, but a lack of physical drive-thru facilities at their stores meant they were losing customers to competitors. They solved this problem by engaging a technology innovation company to build a virtual drive-thru, accessed by customers via an app on their smartphones or tablets.

The Virtual DriveThru app allowed customers to place pizza orders, let the relevant Eagle Boys store know they were about to leave home to collect their pizza, and then have the pizza delivered to their car when they arrived at the restaurant – a ‘door-to-car’ service.

Customers could use the app to let their store know they had arrived by simply pressing a button on their handheld device. Once the button was pressed, an Eagle Boys employee knew to take the pizza out to the car park and to the customer.

By introducing the drive-thru technology, Eagle Boys not only made the pizza ordering experience even more convenient for their customers. They also eliminated the need for mums and dads to unload their kids when they arrived at their local Eagle Boys store.

The Virtual DriveThru app is the first of its kind for the pizza industry and Mitra Innovation has been proud to play a large part in the development. 

Mitra Innovation implemented the technology with the help of Australian technology company, Delivery Command.

Eagle Boys and Mitra Innovation constantly strived to achieve greater customer satisfaction. This passion and drive led to the creation of Virtual DriveThru, to enhance the customer’s pickup experience.

Innovation is the corner-stone of life improvements, with technology revolutions demonstrating major value to end-users by eliminating complex or expenses processes. Apps shouldn’t just be about marketing or gimmicks for companies. They should be about solving real-time business or customer problems. The Virtual DriveThru app is a great example of this as it enabled Eagle Boys to keep up with competition and eliminate the need for the construction of physical drive-thru facilities at their stores.

(The writer is Managing Director at technology innovation company, Mitra Innovation).