Choosing the right software for your restaurant can feel overwhelming, especially when you’re tasked with comparing multiple options, evaluating features, and justifying the investment to your operator. That’s why we’ve created the Software Comparison Playbook—a step-by-step guide designed to simplify the process and help you make confident, data-driven decisions. This playbook walks you through everything from identifying key priorities and essential features to conducting side-by-side comparisons and calculating potential returns. Whether you’re looking to replace outdated systems, consolidate tools, or introduce new technology, this resource will give you the framework to analyze your options effectively. With a structured approach to software evaluation, you’ll not only streamline the selection process but also present a well-researched proposal that demonstrates clear value to your leadership team. Download the playbook today and take the guesswork out of finding the right solution for your store!

Presenters

Arturo Pardo
Marketing Coordinator

Transcript

Hello, everybody. What I wanted to do was get on here and create a template that's really gonna help you to excel and succeed at something that I've noticed is really needed in the industry.
You are most likely a leader in your store or in your restaurant, and you've been tasked by your operator to go ahead and vet several different types of software to see which one's gonna be the best one for your store and for your needs. You're gonna have specific needs that other restaurants or other stores are not gonna have, and this may actually be the very first time that you've ever been tasked with something like this, and nobody's ever trained you on the power of having what's called a request for proposal or an RFP or something like a software comparison chart.

So what I've done is I've actually created this template for you so that it can be a tool for you to be able to make the best decisions and be able to report to your operator and say, "Hey, I've done the analysis. These are side-by-side comparisons. This is the return on investment that we can expect."

That way, you and your operator can make the best decision for your business based on the requirements that your store needs.

I'm gonna get started here. I'm gonna put a link to this template so that you can download it and be able to use it.

Once you open the document, you're gonna see a few things. I'm gonna walk you through it. A lot of people refer to this as a request for proposal or an RFP. You could just call it a software comparison chart.

Here's the project title: whatever you wanna name it. Put your name. Put your store name right here. Put the date.

Here's the level of priority. You're gonna want to number these priorities based on what you want the software to do for you.

So this could be used for any type of software. It doesn't have to be used for the same software that One Click does.

Let's say you just need a checklist. Okay, that's all you need for your restaurant: different types of software based on checklists. What do you want the checklist to do? Do you want the checklist to add pictures to the checklist?

So if somebody's given the task to clean the bathroom, they can take a picture of it, and they can add it to the checklist. They can put their virtual signature on it to say, "Hey, at this time I cleaned the bathroom. Here's a picture of it. Here's the end result."

They upload it to the checklist, and maybe there's another feature of reporting.

On the reporting page, you can actually see who completed what checklist and who didn't at the end of the day, right?

You can make all of this feature-specific, or you can make it different software-provider specific.

I'll show you also how to edit this to customize it for your needs.

So, Priority 1, for example; Priority 2; Priority 3; Priority 4.

Then you get the list. I've already put One Click on here.

These are checkmarks that you can say, "Yes, this company provides that feature that we want," or "No, they don't."

This is XYZ Company. You can fill in the name of any other company. Here's Jolt, for example. I also put Trello up here.

Move me out of the way in the Trello notes.

Right next to the provider, there are notes that you wanna put in there about that provider.

A lot of times, in context, you've got to add notes so that your leader—let's say your operator, who's gonna be reading these notes that you're putting together—is really gonna be helpful.

So, just a couple of tips on using Google Sheets that are gonna really help you out:

No. 1 is if you are on a Mac or a PC, I believe it's Shift.

Here, in a single cell—this is a big hack—click "Control" and then "Enter," and you're gonna be able to add more lines to a cell just to add more notes.

That is super helpful.

The second thing is if you wanna add an additional line or an additional column, for example:

I'm gonna do "Insert Row Above."

It just added an extra row. Let's say you wanna use this as a template—then do that.

You can start the numbering again.

You're gonna see how they're out of sequence, so let's do a 3 right here.

Your priorities all the way down are now out of sequence.

Just highlight the first two or three because it's 1, 2, 3, and then drag this down. It's gonna be 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, as far down as you want it to go.

Anyway, those are really helpful tips that are gonna help you manage this Google Sheet properly for you.

Let's go through these.

For example, let's say your operator says:

"I need you to vet a shift management system for us, and I want them to be the best. I want them to have stellar customer support, stellar shift management interface, something to track breaks to keep us in compliance with federal and state laws, you know, positive reward point systems, accountability infraction systems, waste management, group chat, checklist—basically all in one app."

Then there are additional things that are really important for the operator that should be important for you too.

They're like, "You know what, actually, I want to work with a company that already has traction, that already has tenure."

For example, One Click—we've been developing this for seven years.

"I also want a company that's been focused specifically on our niche. So, let's say you're a Chick-fil-A operator, 'I want a company that's only focused on us.' Take a look at our homepage—it says it right at the top. We have made a decision to focus exclusively on Chick-fil-A."

Think of it this way: If you have all employees for seven years, and now we have roughly 30 employees that are laser-focused—all the developers, all customer support—laser-focused just on Chick-fil-A, every line of code is meant to help you succeed and all other Chick-fil-A operators to succeed.

So let's say a new competitor comes into play, and maybe they came on board 1.5 years ago. That, compared to seven years, means there's a lot of coding that they have to do to catch up. Five years down the line, when they finally catch up, then we're gonna be five years ahead of that.

Software—really, if you've been in the business for this long—think of all the customer support requests that we get on a daily basis. All of the feature requests from the hundreds and thousands of ticket requests that are opened. All of the development cycles that we've been through, having been in this business for seven years, serving Chick-fil-A specifically.

So then, there are other things, for example, here at the top. I've actually broken these down per feature specifically. If you scroll down to the bottom, I've given you a second example—other layout examples.

For example, checklists. You can say, "Okay, you know what, let's break this down. These are the most important things to us."

Then, what I did in these columns here, you did right justify. You can also even add italics just to kind of make them stand out.

I didn't bold these, so let's say:

• Can assign multiple people to one checklist—very important, right?
• Can upload images.
• Can schedule and automate.
• Has templates for us to use.
• Can import from other systems with copy and paste.

Let's say you're moving from Jolt. Can you copy and paste from other systems and copy and paste into this, and it just creates new ones for you as you're trying to launch with One Click?

Customizations as permissions on who can see what.

You can change the titles, so let's say, for example, your titles are in English. You can put a slash, and you can put the Spanish translation, so that anybody who speaks Spanish can also understand the titles or the descriptions.

You can customize the layouts, descriptions, easy copy and paste import.

The strength of the company: How long have you been in business?

How many Chick-fil-A operators do you serve, right?

As of today, November 2024, operators connect their data to One Click. We know what we're doing.

Is this company strong enough to withstand the test of time and make correct foundational decisions now so that a year from now, I'm not having to look for another software?

Basically, do they have the strength of, let's say, a Fortune 500 company?

So, One Click in our background—we have experience with Chick-fil-A, of course, Yellow Pages directories, the Munch restaurant finder app, and the tenure of the executives of the company.

We worked with Ancestry, MyFamily, eBay, United Airlines, Hilton, BASF, Adobe, and other companies.

Do they understand technology, and do they understand the restaurant industry as well?

Also, Chick-fil-A—do they understand Chick-fil-A?

The way One Click got started—and you're gonna wanna ask them, "Hey, how did you get started?"

Well, One Click got started with a team member looking over the shoulder of a director in Ammon, Idaho, trying to find out, saying, "Hey, why are you using pen and paper to manage people on shift?" Or checklists, or anything like that.

How many people are working at the company?

Are they trying to conquer the world and serve all different types of restaurants or all different types of businesses, which dilutes the power of the business and how well they're gonna be able to support you over the years?

Or are they specifically focused on what our needs are?

Here are other things, going back to the top:

• Do they have an accountability infraction system?
• Waste management?
• A positive reward system?
• Break management system?

At One Click, we filed a patent on our system to help keep you compliant with state and federal law so that you don't get in trouble.

Onboarding—how well do they do onboarding? Do they do onboarding with a live person? How is that used?

Customization—other applications want you to use their app the way that they want you to run your store. At the core of One Click, we've built One Click so that you can customize the app to work exactly how you want to run your restaurant.

It's very important.

Also, there are other apps that require your team members to carry mobile devices around.

That's also an issue in a restaurant. You don't want them to be spreading germs. You also don't want them looking at their phone and getting notifications from home or from friends or anything like that.

Why would they want you to run your restaurant the way they want you to run it, not the way that you want to run it, right?

• Can you customize the system?
• What's the price?

At One Click, you can get started with our central price for roughly $3.33 per day. It's a no-brainer.

Is there an approved connection between Chick-fil-A and this third-party company that you're looking to work with?

The secure connection through Chick-fil-A corporate is called a Vendor Bridge, and we are approved on that list—One Click is.

If a company is asking you for username and password information not through Vendor Bridge, I suggest you shy away from that.

Now, the privacy of the data of your team members—that's extremely important.

What's the strength of the platform, technological strengths, and security, for example?

If you take a look and click on the security link at the bottom of our website, it talks about SOC 2 compliance, which is one of the highest levels of security in the industry.

You'll see the progress that we've made in that and how seriously we take providing the highest level of security for the data that you entrust us with.

• Available on desktop, tablet, iPad, iPhone, Android, and web browsers—extremely important.

Let's say a team member comes in, and you want them to download the app, and they're like, "Hey, you know what? I'm tapped out on all my apps. I can't download another app."

Well, hey, there's a web browser. You have a web browser on your mobile device—log into One Click with that. Problem solved, right?

Or you want to use it on a computer. A computer can actually use the web browser as well.

But we're also available through iPhone and Android.

That's been a challenge with other apps that are only developed for mobile devices.

Ours was developed for PC first and then the mobile devices so that you can use it on all devices and web browsers.

Do they have a dedicated customer success representative?

Yes, we do.

• Training, ratings, and feedback.

I'll show you an example. Here's a training and rating feedback system.

Do they have, for example, an assumed rating?

Let's say this person, Jace—there is an assumed rating of 4.7 on beverages or in the window, 3.5.

If you were to put this person who's never worked on the window before, the system assumes that this person will at least do a 3.5 or will at least do a 4.7 on beverages.

Another question you may want to ask is:

Does each team member have a contact card?

The best thing about having an all-in-one app is that you can actually have all the information in one place so that all your leaders can get all the information about a specific team member in one place.

So Jace can look on here and see their hot schedule, schedule—they don't need to go ahead and log in to Hot Schedules anymore.

They can see the breaks that they've taken. They can see the positive reward points that they have, the total infractions that they have, the ratings of the trainings, how they're doing in each position, Passport—how they're doing and certifying for all these different things in your restaurant.

For training: What areas Jace works in.

The permissions Jace has and the history of what's occurred or what's happened with this team member.

Very, very important to have things like that, right?

Is there a Hot Schedules view?

Is there a view only on iPads?

Can you go to the iPad that's locked and bolted on the wall in the front of house and back of house, and can the team members self-serve?

Can they actually click and say, "Hey, you know what? Let me put it on view-only mode so that the team member can come and see where they're supposed to go on their shift, right? What position they're gonna be in."

Can they log in through a PIN number on this view-only iPad so that they can check their checklist, see their schedule, and then can they log out so it goes back to view-only mode as well?

Also, can a leader come in and see on the iPad, take a look, and make leadership-type changes and then log out so that no other team members can mess with their shifts or put people on breaks? Only the leaders can do that, right?

One Click allows you to do that.

• Do you have rotating buddies?

I have been at Chick-fil-A restaurants where the leaders have said that they've had team members pass out because they were outside for far too long on a really hot day.

During cold and hot days, it's really important to have a rotating buddy clock-in system.

Are there day notes so that you can actually put a day note? It's like a banner across the top, and everybody sees it, and it expires at midnight.

Can you schedule day notes for future days?

Can you click on a single button and auto-schedule, like a single magic button that puts all your aces in their places?

One Click has that.

Are there indicators for:

• Who’s a minor?
• Who’s not a minor?
• Who’s new?

Reporting:
Do they have reporting dashboards to see, for example:

• Checklists?
• Who’s completed checklists?
• Who’s completed training?
• Passport progress?
• Infractions?
• Positive reward points?
• Negative reward points?

App consolidation:
How many apps can I get rid of if I contract this app?

For example, can I get rid of Trello by using One Click?
Absolutely.

Can I get rid of Jolt?
Yes, absolutely.

Can I get rid of Google Sheets, for the most part, Google Docs, pen and paper, or the whiteboard?
Yes, absolutely.

Is it an all-in-one app?

Are they committed to data security?
Yes.

Do the team members have to have their own phones as they're going through the restaurant throughout the day, so that they're distracted with personal things?

With One Click, they don’t.

I hope that this template and training have been useful for you.

I'm gonna post it so that you can copy it to your Google Drive.

Also, another thing you’re gonna wanna look at here is the Return on Investment Calculator.

This is critically important.

As you compile this side-by-side comparison based on what needs you have as a company, you’re also gonna wanna go to the ROI Calculator, type in these numbers, work through these numbers with your operator, and say:

• On schedules: How many hours a week does it take for us to copy things from Hot Schedules onto pen and paper or a whiteboard of leadership hours, right?
• How much per hour do we pay that leader for those hours?

Let’s say that leader could save three hours a week.

Those three hours that leader could be putting towards training employees, finding new people, interviewing more people, and serving more customers and selling more chicken.

Faster setup savings:
Tracking training savings:

There are a lot of stores that I still see that track the progress of people's trainings on pen and paper and through filing cabinets.

Break manager:
Even though you may be tracking your breaks and your state labor laws are not too strict, the federal labor laws may come and bite you, okay?

Break management savings:
Team member retention savings:

Let’s say, for example, the people that demand the most out of you are the team members that are actually aces—those who have leadership potential, those who want to be leaders, those who want to stay with you for a very long time.

Those are the ones that demand that you have systems that are better than pen and paper.

If you don’t implement good systems for higher levels of communication, for higher levels of being able to run a smooth shift without a lot of mass chaos, well, then those people are gonna quit more often.

Imagine if it costs $3,000 to find, train, nurture an employee who’s 100% on their own without the need for anybody helping them, and they’re fully trained.

If it costs anywhere between $3,000 to $5,000, if you were to just save one employee per year from quitting because you have a system that helps in communication, then this system pays for itself, right?

Software simplification savings:

You may be paying $80 a month for Trello, and you can remove that expense.

Then it shows you the return on investment.

You can put how much your restaurant earns per month, but think of it this way:

If you’re running a restaurant that’s in the millions, if you’re selling millions, and you’re like a CEO of a multi-million-dollar restaurant, as an operator, you really need to empower your people with software that really helps them to succeed and excel.

I hope that this template is helpful to you.

You can download it. You can use it to do side-by-side comparisons.

This is something that I thought would be just super helpful to you—just super helpful to you.

If you do find that it’s helpful to you, please email us and let us know.

Even if you don’t choose to go with One Click, email us and tell us the reasons why. Say, "Hey, thank you for that template. It really helped me to make that decision."

But I do hope that this also helps you to make the best decision.

At One Click, our passion truly is your success—your success as a leader and as a team member to become a leader.

If there’s anything that we can do to help you, let us know.

Find us at oneclickapp.com.

You can email us anytime at support@oneclickapp.com.

Here to help you.

I hope you have a fantastic day. Take care.