Most restaurant operators want more catering sales.
The problem is that catering growth creates new operational challenges. Someone has to prepare the order, coordinate the delivery, and still run the restaurant.
For Chicken Salad Chick, that challenge became impossible to ignore.
Expansion
As Chicken Salad Chick expanded to 335 locations, Makayla Ekiss helped lead the brand’s off-premise growth strategy. On Digital Hospitality, she shared how partnering with DeliverThat allowed restaurant managers to stay focused on operations while supporting a growing catering business.
As Chicken Salad Chick expanded across 24 states, catering became an increasingly important part of the business. But there was one problem.
Managers were spending large portions of their day making deliveries.
“We were wanting to push more catering sales,” Ekiss said. “But if they were getting all these deliveries and we were requiring managers or assistant managers to deliver the orders, it was pulling them out of the restaurants sometimes all day.”
DeliverThat Solution
The solution came through DeliverThat.
Instead of relying on store-level leaders to leave the restaurant, Chicken Salad Chick partnered with DeliverThat to handle catering deliveries. The shift gave managers more time to focus on guests, team members, and restaurant operations while still growing catering revenue.
For Ekiss, the partnership quickly proved its value.
One morning while driving into the Atlanta office, she received a call from a DeliverThat team member who noticed something unusual. Thirty catering orders had suddenly been canceled in the system.
The issue turned out to be a technology glitch.
Before Chicken Salad Chick had even identified the problem internally, DeliverThat had already flagged it and helped ensure deliveries stayed on track.
“DeliverThat really stepped in and stepped up to the plate,” Ekiss said.
The experience reinforced why operational partnerships matter.
True Customer Care
For a brand whose mission is to “spread joy, enrich lives, and serve others,” every delivery becomes an extension of the guest experience.
That attention to detail was one reason Ekiss became a believer in the partnership. She recalled watching DeliverThat drivers arrive prepared for a $6,000 catering order with the right vehicles, carts, and professionalism needed to execute at a high level.
The focus on execution aligns with Chicken Salad Chick’s own growth story.
Founded in 2008 by Stacy and Kevin Brown, Chicken Salad Chick grew out of Stacy Brown’s homemade chicken salad business in Auburn, Alabama. After selling chicken salad door-to-door and being forced to shut down by local health officials, Brown opened the first Chicken Salad Chick restaurant. Today, the brand has grown to more than 335 locations nationwide.
Through that growth, Ekiss believes one lesson has remained consistent.
“It’s execution all the way,” she said.
Many operators search for marketing tactics to increase catering sales. Ekiss believes customers remember something far simpler. They remember when restaurants solve problems, deliver on promises, and come through when it matters most.
For Chicken Salad Chick, catering growth is not built through promotions.
It is built through trust.
