Grand Rapids restaurants own their diners on Zayos

Zayos is commission free online ordering on a Grand Rapids restaurant's own site, at a flat $499 to $699 per location per month. The restaurant keeps the customer list, the order history, 100 percent of food revenue and 100 percent of tips. Diners pay $0.99 pickup or $2.99 delivery.

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Who actually owns your customer list?

This is the part of the marketplace deal nobody explains at signup. When an order comes through a delivery app, the restaurant receives money and a ticket. It does not receive a customer. The name, phone number and order history stay on the app's side of the wall, which is why the app can advertise a competitor to your best regular and you cannot stop it.

What a restaurant keeps on a marketplace order versus a direct Zayos order
After the order Marketplace Direct on Zayos
The diner's name and phone number Held by the app Yours
Their order history Held by the app Yours
Who can email them a Tuesday offer The app You
Cost of their second order Another commission $0
Whose brand is on the checkout page The app's Yours

Why does that matter more in a city like this one?

Because Grand Rapids diners are loyal on purpose. This is a brand first food town, built around taprooms and neighborhood rooms on Bridge Street, Wealthy Street, Eastown and Creston, the Grandville Avenue corridor, and the kitchens out in Wyoming and Kentwood. People here pick a place and stay with it. Loyalty is the asset the apps monetize hardest: every repeat order from a regular you already earned is charged again at 15 to 30 percent base, 25 to 35 percent blended.

Why should a pickup order cost a percentage at all?

A large share of West Michigan online ordering never touches a driver. People order ahead, park, walk in and carry it out, and in January they do it because they are already in the car. The restaurant does the cooking, the packing and the handoff. A percentage still takes its cut of a transaction it barely touched.

On Zayos a pickup order costs the restaurant no commission and the diner a flat $0.99. Dine in from a QR code is $0. Delivery is $2.99 to the diner. Catering is 10 percent, paid by whoever places the order.

The restaurant keeps 100 percent of food revenue and 100 percent of tips at every tier.

Are any Grand Rapids restaurants running this today?

No, and we are not going to imply otherwise. Zay Revenue Group is in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and we serve West Michigan from Fort Lauderdale. Every restaurant on the platform is in South Florida. Naya Grill, a Lebanese fast casual brand with two locations, is live and taking orders, and on the commission model at 3,000 orders a month it keeps more than $48,000 a year that would have gone to the marketplaces. Eight more South Florida storefronts are built with ordering opening at launch.

Modeled across order volume, a location keeps $48,000 to $300,000 or more per year at 3,000 to 12,000 orders a month. That is a model stated with its basis, not a Michigan case study.

What does Zayos cost per location?

$499
Operator
Ordering site, menu, payments, tablet, customer list.
$599
Operator plus Marketplace
Marketplace tickets pulled onto the same tablet through Otter.
$699
Concierge
Five virtual brands from one kitchen, billed per location.

Flat, per location, per month. No setup fee, no contract. Live in under two weeks, first direct order usually inside the first week.

Grand Rapids operator questions

What does owning the customer actually get me?
A list you can reach without paying a toll. On a direct order the diner's contact details and order history sit in your own dashboard, so a Wealthy Street kitchen can message its regulars about a Thursday special instead of buying its way back in front of them.
Is Zayos live anywhere in Michigan?
No. Zay Revenue Group is a Fort Lauderdale, Florida company and we serve the Grand Rapids market from Fort Lauderdale. No Michigan customers, no West Michigan office. The one restaurant live and taking orders on Zayos today is Naya Grill, two locations in South Florida.
We already have a strong local brand. Does direct ordering matter more or less for us?
More. A restaurant nobody has heard of needs the marketplaces for discovery. A Grand Rapids room people already drive across town for is paying 25 to 35 percent blended on customers who typed its name into an app on purpose. Strong local brands hand over the most margin for the least discovery, and their regulars move to a direct site fastest.
Do I have to leave DoorDash, Uber Eats and Grubhub?
No. Operator plus Marketplace at $599 a month per location runs both, with Otter pulling every marketplace ticket onto the same kitchen tablet. Keep the apps for the ArtPrize weekend visitor. Move the regulars to your own site, where the repeat order carries no commission.
How does this handle a taproom kitchen or a second concept out of one building?
Concierge at $699 per location covers up to five virtual brands out of a single kitchen. That is the shape for a brewery kitchen that also runs a wing brand, or a West Side building putting out two menus from one line.
How long until we are taking orders?
Live in under two weeks, and most operators take a first direct order within a week of signing up. No setup fee, month to month, no contract.

Get your list back

See what your Grand Rapids restaurant paid the marketplaces last month, and what a flat fee would have cost.