Cinchio Eat
F&B SaaS built with the front line for the guests.
Some History
Cinchio Eat was created to meet a need within The SSA Group, one of the largest cultural attractions operators in the U.S.—and possibly the world. With responsibilities spanning F&B, retail, and admissions at nearly 100 iconic zoos, aquariums, and museums, SSA needed a way to stay ahead in the digital space. Instead of outsourcing this challenge, they decided to build a solution tailored to their unique needs, and that’s how the Eat platform was born.
The Problem
How can we build and implement a digital F&B solution that would work hand in hand with the operations of the restaurant and not be a burden for them? While also improving the overall guest experience?
The Solution
For my team and me, the priority was to work closely with the operators, understanding their daily challenges, and listening to guests to understand what they needed during their visits. But why focus so much on operators when two-thirds of the products are guest-facing? One key insight we discovered early on was that operators often told us, “When it’s not working or causes us stress, we just unplug it.” That frustration was common when it came to digital solutions within F&B operations at these attractions. Our mission was clear: build something that works seamlessly, reduces stress, and keeps them from “unplugging it.”
Over the last 2.5 years, my team has been on a continuous cycle of building, testing, researching, and refining the product into a simple yet powerful F&B solution. The mobile ordering platform was such a hit that we went on to develop our own kiosk ordering software, using an Android-based Eloview kiosk. We applied many of the lessons learned from the mobile solution, evolving it for a shared device.
Today, these products have been deployed at nearly 80 cultural attractions and are used by millions of guests each year.
The Cinchio Eat products have also been deployed outside of The SSA Group to a number of franchises and businesses throughout the US and is launching in the UK and Canada by early 2025.
~40%
Increase in guest order values over traditional point-of-sale.
3
Products in the ecosystem: Mobile, Kiosk, and Connect (Back of house).
1
Centralized system for all guest data regardless of input. (Mobile, Kiosk, POS).
Team Structure
My Role: VP of Digital Experience
1 Sr Experience Designer
1 Director of Experience
1 Experience Designer
F&B SaaS
A simple white label mobile F&B solution. Built with speed and the guest in mind. Allowing for targeted branding for a light lift on the opperations but enough to make sure the guest is confident in who they are working with.
Kiosk Ready
Sometimes you still want to go up to the counter and not use your phone, so why not use a kiosk? This kiosk solution built with the same learnings from the mobile product and with the ops and guest in mind.
Keep it simple.
Connect, the back of house managment solution had one goal. Give them all the features that they actually needed, but keep it simple.
Field Notes
© Andrew Preble Design