Burgerville

Results

Burgerville has deployed digital menu boards at around half of their locations to date (March, 2025). In the drive-thru, they are using two DT-Flex boards – a single digital board for the preview board and a triple hybrid board for the main board, featuring two backlit static panels and a digital screen in the middle.

The digital screen in the middle serves two purposes: it is where they place their LTOs, and it serves as an onboard order confirmation screen. When a guest starts their order, the order confirmation screen appears, and the LTOs are rearranged to be minimized but still visible. Recently, they have expanded the available real estate on the boards by adding a wing and topper, which allows them to give special attention to their breakfast items, LTOs, and specialty drink line.

The indoor menu boards feature five digital screens. They leveraged many of the resources available from The Howard Company to design their menu boards for the greatest possible return on investment. The Menu Boards Best Practices Guide was particularly helpful.

“The menu board really is your primary revenue generator outside of your crew at the restaurant; guests have to be able to navigate it easily. And I felt like Howard have some really good documentation on how to layout your menu boards so your most popular items get the most attention. That informed where we placed the Burger board, the Shake board, and the Sides board to make it a better experience for the guests. It was very helpful"

An underestimated result of adding these boards is that they completely refreshed the look and feel of the restaurants. As a sixty-year-old brand, there is a balance between maintaining the nostalgia and keeping up with contemporary consumer expectations. By utilizing Design Best Practices in conjunction with The Howard Company’s graphic design team, they were able to achieve an updated, fresh new feel, while holding on to what makes them beloved.

Simplicity on multiple fronts has been the most significant return for Burgerville.

First, they have been pleased with the service offered by the Howard Company team.

The customer service aspect of it has been great for us. We probably know five or six people over at The Howard Company that we feel comfortable reaching out to and saying, ‘Hey, we’ve run into a bit of a glitch here.’ We’re always able to talk to the content manager.

Second, their team has worked closely with The Howard Company to set up their content management instance to meet one of their most pressing needs – setting LTOs as “temporarily unavailable” as they run out of them at a particular store. Our content management team, working very closely with Burgerville’s marketing team, designed a custom template that allows them to easily log into the content management system and mark things with a “temporarily unavailable” digital sticker. When a location runs out of a menu item, an agent on the Burgerville Customer Service team quickly 86s it. When the restaurant puts the item back on the menu, the customer service agent simply removes the digital sticker. According to Chapman,

“The ability to 86 and then repopulate it at individual restaurants supports an improved guest experience."

Finally, even changing out the graphics in the wings and toppers is easier. Although these graphics don’t change as frequently, it is a much better experience for the on-site teams.

To summarize the experience with indoor digital menu boards, DT-Flex digital drive-thru menu boards with wings and toppers, Chapman says,

“Having digital menu boards saves time and energy for our restaurants. The Marketing team simply turns on the new items which allows the restaurant to stay focused serving high-quality, delicious food to our guests."