Every internet or phone outage meant missed orders, frustrated customers, and lost revenue. Jimmy John’s franchisees partnered with Vivant to keep more than 1,300+ restaurants connected, eliminate downtime, simplify support, and save hundreds of thousands of dollars each year.
A franchise-operated QSR brand where online orders, phone orders and card payments all depend on the connection at each store.
"Before Vivant, it was an absolute nightmare. Lost revenue, unhappy customers, delayed orders.And then multiply that across 35 locations every single day. Now, if our primary internet goes down, we usually don't even know about it. We get an email saying the backup connection was activated. We don't have to do anything."
— Brandt Bacus, FranchiseeAs Jimmy John’s expanded across more than 1,300 restaurant locations, reliable internet and phone service became essential to keeping stores running, orders flowing, and customers satisfied. But frequent outages were disrupting operations, preventing online and phone orders, and creating frustrating experiences for both employees and guests.
Every disruption meant lost sales opportunities, interrupted credit card transactions, and valuable time spent troubleshooting technology instead of serving customers. On top of that, franchisees were managing PCI compliance challenges and paying more than necessary for communications services.
Jimmy John’s engaged Vivant’s services in 2018. We began by deploying our backup solution, SmartCONNECT, across their stores.
Business-grade primary connectivity at every location, with SmartCONNECT backup that fails over automatically.
Phone lines that stay up during an outage, so orders keep coming in and no customer call goes unanswered.
Managed firewalls and segmented networks separating payments,
staff and guest Wi-Fi at each restaurant.
Compliance handled for the franchisee, protecting every card transaction without added work for store teams.
"You can go with Comcast if you want to talk to their support team every day. If not, you can go with Vivant. If I could go back in time and choose a phone and internet provider when I was opening my first store, I would choose only Vivant. In fact, I recommend anyone launching their new business to let Vivant manage their network."
— Deborah Merrill, FranchiseeThe solution was designed to keep restaurants connected, protect customer transactions, and reduce the burden on restaurant staff. The impact was immediate.
Restaurant teams refocused on core operations.
Internet and phone outages were eliminated, helping restaurants stay open, process payments, receive online orders, and never miss a customer call.
By consolidating communications and improving efficiency, Jimmy John's franchisees saved $828,000 per year in internet and phone expenses.
Instead of working with multiple providers, franchisees gained a single nationwide partner for internet, phone, and network support, making it faster and easier to resolve issues whenever they arose.
Restaurant employees no longer had to spend valuable time dealing with communication issues. Instead, they could stay focused on preparing food, serving guests, and delivering the fast experience customers expect from Jimmy John's.
"The biggest cost savings we’ve experienced with Vivant is the customer service. We have saved countless hours not waiting on hold, getting immediate live support, and receiving relentless follow-up until an issue is resolved. That’s priceless."
— Jeff Collier, Franchisee