La Madeleine, a Dallas-based, 60-unit French country café, named Exit41 as “Vendor of the Year” at its 2010 Leadership Conference in Las Vegas. Exit41 partners with la Madeleine to grow the restaurant’s to-go business with its “all channel” ordering solution, which includes 
integrated online, mobile, phone-in, and Facebook applications. Exit41 also provides centralized phone-in ordering services for la Madeleine at its Andover, Massachusetts–based Call Center, staffed with ordering specialists who seamlessly extend in-store operations and represent the la Madeleine brand.
“Exit41 was the clear choice for our Vendor of the Year. Each day, Exit41 interacts directly with our most valuable asset—our loyal guest base—they help us increase revenue, and they enable us to be part of the growing social web,” says Phil Costner, chief operating officer of la Madeleine. “What more could a restaurant want in a partner?”
La Madeleine first began working with Exit41 in November 2009 as part of a multiphase strategic growth initiative to increase overall same store sales, optimize in-store operations, and provide a superior level of service to their guests. In Phase I, la Madeleine implemented online and Call Center services from Exit41. Phase II includes the roll out of la Madeleine’s iPhone application, now available on Apple’s iTunes App Store, and a soon-to-be implemented Facebook ordering application. Phase III is planned to include an iPad mobile kiosk.
The initiative has garnered the following results to date: overall to-go sales have increased 6 percent; after taking hundreds of thousands of online and Call Center orders, average checks are 50–60 percent higher than the in-store company average to-go check; in the initial pilot test, online and Call Center orders represented 11 percent of to-go business and in less than one year it has grown to 20 percent; positive feedback from guests on ordering ease, convenience, and accuracy as well as la Madeleine’s ability to instantly “recognize” the guest with identification and order history across channels.
Exit41’s applications are PA-DSS compliant, certified by the PCI Security Council. Additionally, guest data, order history, preferences, and more are consolidated across ordering channels into a single database—key to building guest loyalty through targeted marketing and CRM.
“We have the distinct pleasure of partnering with la Madeleine and are honored to receive this recognition,” says Joseph Gagnon, CEO of Exit41. “We look forward to innovating with la Madeleine and taking our partnership to the next level. La Madeleine has an extremely loyal guest base and with this data we are capturing we are beginning to develop insights and see patterns of consumer buying behavior that will allow la Madeleine to better serve guests with targeted promotions and deliver a personalized experience.”
