Hunterdon Healthcare’s E-Cafe2U program brings new customers, higher checks

Last month, Hunterdon Healthcare in Flemington, N.J., launched its new E-Cafe2U initiative with the goal of feeding more customers and offering greater variety.

Director of Nutrition Services Angela O’Neill aimed to serve 40 people a day through the program—and she’s getting there, with numbers slowly climbing.

The first week of E-Cafe2U, which is offered via CBORD’s GET app, saw 20 orders; the third, 27, and she thinks she’ll reach 40 soon. 

An added bonus? The people ordering through the app are new customers, she says: “They’re people who weren’t coming to the cafeteria, so I think they’re sales above and beyond what we would have had.”

Plus, check averages are higher when employees order through the app—by at least $1.50, for a check average of $6.45. O’Neill says this is likely due to the on-screen prompts to add cheese, toppings, fries and other items.

GET was created for hospital employees, who often have difficulty leaving their units for meals. They can now order while working and have their food delivered. Emergency room staff use E-Cafe2U most frequently, followed by staff on the maternity ward.

Payment is made through payroll deductions, but eventually, O’Neill may open up the program to hospital visitors and accept credit cards. She was hoping to avoid allowing credit cards due to the associated fees, but it will be inescapable if the program is expanded to guests as the hospital admits more post-COVID.

Because Hunterdon has a large kitchen but a small cafeteria, it doesn’t have the capacity to offer a wide selection of food and stations to its guests. “We’re very limited in our real estate to put things out,” O’Neill says. This expanded considerably with the launch of the app. The food, she says, “is a meld of our room service options, cafeteria menu specials and favorites like burgers, chicken sandwiches, grilled cheese and breakfast items, too.”

Photograph courtesy of Hunterdon Healthcare

Chicken sandwiches in various forms, such as bourbon BBQ chicken and Southwest chicken, are the most popular choices, followed by grilled cheese. At breakfast, the best-sellers are omelets and egg sandwiches, and dinner items are the same as at lunch. There are also daily specials—soup of the day, entree of the day, a protein specialty salad and a veggie salad—as well as Bowl Tuesdays. 

Lunch is by far the busiest daypart for the app, she says.

O’Neill first launched the program using Google Forms to test the tickets, process and flow, then held a three-day soft opening prior to the app’s full launch. During the test, customers would input their details and requests, and she would monitor them during meal periods. 

To let employees know about the program, O’Neill used flyers in the cafeteria, sent out email notifications and puts a mention in the employee newsletter that’s sent out several times a week.