How Mrs Gu Skewers Hot Pot Improved Efficiency, Experience, and Earnings by Switching to Chowbus POS and using Online Ordering

Mrs. Gu Skewers Hot Pot is the first one that brought spicy shish kebab hot pot to Chicago. The team brought on Chowbus POS, QR code ordering, and the Online Ordering in December 2021.

Have you been to China in the 80s? Walking down the street in Chinatown, a store filled with a savory smell has the magic to bring you back to 80s Chengdu. Red brick, the wall newspaper, and benches. All these typical 80s-style decorations bring customers a brand new dining experience.

This is Mrs.Gu Skewers Hot Pot, the first one that brought the spicy shish kebab hot pot to Chicago. It already was a well-known Szechuan chain in China with many celebrities visiting. Now, it came to Chicago, combining American bar style with bar counters and big screens, and providing consumers a perfect place to hang out, watch events, and enjoy the food.

At first, Mrs. Gu’s team had a tough time dealing with the operation. Viki, the waitress at Mrs.Gu said it was time-wasting and inconvenient to run back and forth while dealing with customer check-outs. “We used to work with the Clover POS system, but the swiping speed was too slow, and it caused a time-wasting and printing cost issue for us,” said Viki. Mrs.Gu’s team later changed to Chowbus POS. “I super like the product since I can just bring the iPad with me and do the check-outs for customers in front of them,” said Viki, “it connects to the WIFI directly, and the swiping speed is super fast!” Viki also mentioned that checking out digitally immensely helped the team save the printing cost.

Regarding the Chowbus POS system, Viki mentioned that it dramatically improves the efficiency of placing orders. Viki used to walk to the kitchen and tell the kitchen customers’ notes, such as allergy or spicy levels, but now she can simply add or edit notes on POS and use the “send to kitchen” button. “It greatly saves our time,” Viki said.

Another feature that the team really love is QR ordering, which smoothes the process of placing orders for Mrs.Gu’s team. “QR code ordering really gave us peace of mind,” said Viki. Since Mrs.Gu is a Chinese restaurant, it has dishes that might confuse non-Chinese customers. Chowbus QR code ordering showcases thousands of HD photos to visualize the menu for customers to better understand what's inside the dishes without confusion and misunderstanding. “It helped us save time to explain the dishes to customers,” said Viki.

QR code ordering also allows multiple diners to add dishes to order simultaneously. “Customers can still add dishes after an order is placed whenever they want,” said Viki, “it helped us increase the order size a lot.” Viki also mentioned one cool feature: everyone can see what others have added in real-time so that it could avoid double ordering. Moreover, Chowbus' customized royal program also helps Mrs.Gu’s team attract customers to come back with a customized discount rate and cashback benefits.

Another cool feature that Chowbus POS provides, is the Online Ordering. “Online Ordering system that allows guests to order takeout and delivery directly from our own website. There are no fees to any third-party platforms.” Viki adds.

Since Mrs Gu Skewers Hot Pot started to use the Chowbus Online Ordering system, they’ve been able to deliver a better customer and staff experience when it comes to takeout and delivery.

The Online Ordering system offers a White Label product that restaurants can customize with their own logo and brand. Meanwhile, Chowbus handles delivery so restaurants don’t have to worry. Most importantly, there are no third-party fees, restaurants can make their website the most profitable order source.

By leveraging Chowbus POS to reduce the amount of time their staff dedicates to manual tasks, and then keep guests coming back through their loyalty program. Overall Chowbus Online Ordering helped them increase their revenue by 20%.

Chowbus's 24/7 customer service also impressed Viki. “I just shout out at the group chat, and the support team responds immediately,” Viki said, “I also recommended the Chowbus POS system to my aunt. She owns a massage store, and now she is using Chowbus as well.”