Zaxby’s Operator Reverses a 10 % Slide by installing Berry AI Drive-Thru Timer in Georgia

Zoe Chen
Jun 20
3 min read

Updated: 4 days ago

“Berry has been very good for our drive-thru. It holds us to a higher standard and keeps us accountable.”

Snapshot

Customer: 4-unit Zaxby’s franchise

Product: Berry AI Drive-Thru Timer

90-Day Wins:

Drive-thru comps jumped 7 points — from -10 % to -3 %.
US $15 k in weekly sales reclaimed at the lagging store (gap cut from 24 k → 9 k).
Best store now runs 13–20 % higher in weekly revenue.

1 | Meet the Operator

Operating four Georgia locations, this Zaxby’s franchise sees almost 70 % of revenue generated from its drive thru. While dining-room orders still matter, the drive-thru is the volume engine; if the lane stalls, the day’s numbers feel it instantly.

2 | The Challenge — What the Numbers Weren’t Telling Them

Drive-thru sales had sagged for months—about 10 % below the previous year—yet no one could pinpoint why. The owner felt something was clogging the lane, but frontline managers pushed back.

“Both of my managers don’t believe it until they see the data Berry’s camera timers reveal.”

The only timing tool on site was an aging loop-detector system that spat out one blurry average for the entire lane. It couldn’t show whether seconds were leaking at the speaker or the window, and because it never measured the queue before the ordering speaker itself, the old timer revealed nothing about guests who bailed before ordering. Meanwhile, one location was trailing its sister stores by about $24k every week, squeezing margins across the portfolio.

3 | The Turning Point — Bringing Berry AI into the Lane

Fed up with the loop timer’s fuzzy readouts, the owner installed Berry AI’s camera timer. As Berry AI’s cameras started watching the lane, live numbers poured onto a kitchen monitor and into a cloud dashboard. For the first time, managers could see every stage of a car’s journey:

Queue time — how long each car waited before reaching the speaker.
Speaker time—the exact seconds guests spent ordering.
Window dwell—from the card-reader tap to the moment the bag left the crew member’s hand.

Instead of blind guesses, managers had proof to change staffing ratios, tighten order-hand-off scripts, and pre-stage high-volume food items before the rush. The question flipped from “Where’s the problem?” to “How many more seconds can we win tomorrow?”

4 | Results — 90 Days, Plain and Simple

Berry’s Dashboard exposed a clear choke-point: just after noon, queue time doubled and speaker dwell time shot past 90 seconds. Acting on the data, managers put a second order-taker on the headset moments before the rush and streamlined the window hand-off.

Seconds shaved at the speaker and window quickly turned into dollars:

In three months we clawed back 7 percentage points of lost drive-thru sales (-10 % ➜ -3 %)
The lowest-performing store used to trail the best by $24 k a week; now the gap has already decreased to about $9 k
At the location that acted fastest on the data, weekly sales now run 13–20 % higher than before.

Customers sensed the speed, employees felt the relief, and repeat traffic rose—all because every second was finally on the radar, proving that when every moment in the lane is visible, every moment can pay you back.

5 | Advice to Fellow Operators

“Data made everything crystal-clear. The moment Berry’s metrics spotlighted our speaker choke-point, we corrected it that same shift—and the sales surge was immediate.

Better yet, the benefits dominoed outward: crews felt calmer because they finally knew where to focus, customers praised the speed and teams rallied around daily goals to trim even more seconds. Put eyes on every second and let the data guide you—you’ll wonder how you ever ran blind.”

Ready to uncover hidden seconds in your drive-thru?

Book a 20-minute demo and see what Berry AI can do for your lanes.