Case Study: Chicken FilA

By Sarah Al-Waleed

Chicken Fila has been one of Cairo's favorite fast-food restaurants since it first opened its doors in 2016. It started with a single branch, and in no time, it expanded its operations to 15 branches spread across Cairo and Alexandria. This rapid progression was primarily due to their dedication to providing a product of exceptional quality as well as outstanding customer service. 

At the beginning of Chicken Fila's journey, it sold online solely through intermediaries. But as COVID-19 swept the globe and the demand for delivery and take-out orders increased, Chicken Fila felt that it needed to create new sales channels to address the growing needs of its customers.

That's when it realized that direct online ordering was the future and felt it was necessary to build its own online platform, leading it to partner with Zyda.

After one month of partnering with Zyda, Chicken Fila was receiving hundreds of orders through its Zyda site. It has also been creating special offers that increased its online sales all the more.

 

 

Problem

After the corona pandemic, the need to find more ways to keep up with customers' demand for online ordering became clear to Chicken Fila — especially since its collaboration with intermediaries such as Talabat and Elmenus started having some drawbacks.

As intermediaries managed the entire process, from placing an order to delivering it, Chicken Fila felt a lack of control over its customer's experience. This manifested itself in multiple ways, one of which was repeated delays in order deliveries — something that Chicken Fila could not tolerate.

That's when it decided to build its own online ordering platform. After all, it had reasoned that:

A. Customers craved a digital concept that was an alternative to going through intermediaries to reach their favorite restaurant. They also wanted to avoid reverting to calling in to place an order.

B. Its own website would spare it from the costly commission that had to be taken out of every order as a result of working with intermediaries. This was especially important as Chicken Fila's expansion plans were still ongoing, and a solid, commission-free revenue stream would greatly help with the next phase of its business development.

So It reached out to independent web developers who agreed to take on this task in exchange for a sizable sum of money. They also gave Chicken Fila an estimated time frame of 4 months for the website to go live and be fully functional.

Seeing no other options, Chicken Fila agreed to those terms in the hopes of providing its customers with a direct digital line to their favorite fast-food chain and regaining control of the ordering process.

Around that time, Chicken Fila's owners became aware of Zyda's services. And soon after, they decided to take the leap and get their own platform through Zyda.

Solution

Chicken Fila chose Zyda for a few reasons:

  1. 1- The speed with which its online ordering platform went live. Zyda offered Chicken Fila in a matter of days the same website capabilities it would have taken web developers four months to build from scratch.
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  3. "One of the main factors that led me to choose Zyda was its speed in building our website. I had been working with a website creator for four months with no concrete results. Alternatively, after a few days of signing with Zyda, our website was live and ready to receive orders."  Mohamed Magdy, Chief Executive Officer of CHFI group (Chicken Fila)
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  5. 2- Zyda's competitive pricing meant that it was a much more affordable solution than the one posed by intermediaries. With Zyda, Chicken Fila was able to retain its profits and gain a considerable amount of commission-free revenue.
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  7. 3- Zyda gave Chicken Fila complete control over the customer experience, allowing it to manage orders and deliveries in real time. This enabled it to offer its customers a fast, reliable service that exceeds expectations each time they place an order.
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  9. To see their Zyda site in action, click on the image below:
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  11. Chicken Fila's Zyda site
  12. 4- Zyda's team was available around the clock and worked diligently to fulfill all of Chicken Fila's requests in record time. This was a huge relief for Chicken Fila, as it knew it could count on Zyda to help it keep its online ordering platform running smoothly.
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  14. 5- Zyda's multiple features made it possible for Chicken Fila to find answers quickly and consistently to all of its business needs, even when some of its other operating systems fell short of their intended function.
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  16. "Two of the best features I was able to utilize through Zyda's dashboard are outlining the delivery zones and creating manual orders. I've been facing trouble with my POS system because it couldn't correctly outline the delivery zones. That's when Zyda came to the rescue. It enabled my staff to create orders manually through Zyda's dashboard. And once created, those orders would automatically land on their designated branches for delivery with zones that I had previously outlined. This was a game-changer for Chicken Fila; it saved us so much time and effort."  Mohamed Magdy
  17. Impact

  18. Chicken Fila's management predicted that it would take approximately six months for their Zyda website to make any noticeable impact on the volume of incoming orders and, consequently, their revenue. To their surprise, they only had to wait one month.
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  20. That month, their Zyda website managed to bring in hundreds of online orders, which later translated into 20-25% of Chicken Fila's overall monthly revenue. 
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  22. This monumental success was the result of the joint effort between Zyda and Chicken Fila. On Zyda's part, it fulfilled its promise of providing a reliable online ordering platform that could handle any amount of orders with consistent speed and accuracy. 
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  24. And on Chicken Fila's part, it raised awareness for its new online ordering platform through social media campaigns. It also used the Zyda site to create special offers to encourage its customers to order through it, such as "free delivery on all orders."
  25.  
  26. "Zyda provided me with a great solution. And I knew that in order for us to fully unlock its potential, we needed to bring it to our customers' attention."  Mohamed Magdy
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  28. Today, the partnership between Zyda and Chicken Fila is stronger than ever. And as Chicken Fila gears up to increase its number of branches to 36 by the end of 2023, it's clear that Zyda will continue to be an integral part of Chicken Fila's successful journey. 
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  30. "Zyda has never let me down. Our partnership has proven to be a great success, which something that I personally experience every day. That's why I'd be excited to join Zyda on any future endeavor it chooses to take on."  Mohamed Magdy