How Culver’s added 130K+ repeat customers in one year with Radar

“Radar removes obstacles faster than almost any partner I’ve worked with. Their responsiveness and technical depth make them feel like an extension of our own team.”

About

Culver's is a fast-casual restaurant chain famous for their signature ButterBurgers, cheese curds, and fresh frozen custard. Founded in Wisconsin in 1984, the family-owned and operated franchise focuses on cooked-to-order food made with farm-fresh ingredients served with warm, Midwestern-style hospitality. Today, they have over 1,000 locations across 26 states.
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The challenge

Building a flexible and reliable foundation for location-aware ordering

Senior Director of Digital Experience, Dan Cardamone, oversees Culver’s guest‑facing digital channels, from the website and mobile app to third‑party delivery and the loyalty program.

As the company leaned into digital convenience, Dan and team set out to create a seamless yet uniquely Culver’s guest experience from discovery to pickup and delivery. That meant rethinking their previously undifferentiated digital ordering setup, starting with a custom store locator that could do more than link guests to a restaurant page.

For a cook‑to‑order brand that doesn’t compromise on quality, accurate order timing is paramount. Culver’s needed to know when guests were on their way, and most importantly, when they were approaching and arriving at the restaurant. With accurate location details, the restaurants could prepare orders closer to arrival without food sitting for too long or teams having to scramble during crucial, busy periods.

At first, Culver’s experimented with a web only, templated locator. But the tool often had issues and allowed for little control over configurations or troubleshooting. So, they started looking for a platform with a robust geolocation layer. They needed a solution that could make finding the right restaurants easy for guests, track trips in real-time, and support frictionless order handoffs at scale.

As Dan and team evaluated vendors, one offered a turnkey platform that combined location services and trip tracking. On paper, it covered the right use cases. But in practice, it forced a one-size-fits-all implementation. Culver’s had ambitions for more robust digital offerings, so it really needed a developer‑friendly, API-first platform that would integrate into Culver’s custom stack without rigid workflows.

At the same time, they wanted to avoid building and maintaining an in‑house solution. Managing maps, geofences, restaurant listings, and trip tracking would tie up engineering resources that they’d rather dedicate to guest‑facing innovation.

When Culver’s was introduced to Radar, they immediately recognized it as the flexible, reliable solution they’d been looking for.
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“When you're dealing with perishable food, timing is everything. You need to know exactly when a guest will arrive so meals are prepared at the right moment.”

The solution

An API-first location platform that powers loyalty-building experiences

Right away, Radar gave Culver’s the building blocks they needed to create customized ordering and pickup experiences. Even better? The platform fits directly within Culver’s existing tech stack.

To support a smooth implementation, Radar paired the team with a dedicated customer success manager and solutions engineer who guided both the business users and engineers through every step of the implementation. “It was one of the best onboarding experiences we’ve had,” Dan says.

During Culver’s first year on the platform, Radar provided customized technical documentation and integration recommendations. They also shipped several platform enhancements tailored to Culver’s unique needs.

Today, Radar powers the restaurant search and selection behind every digital order. Guests simply share their location or enter in their city, state or zip code to find their nearest restaurant and check the local Flavor of the Day. Results appear on a Culver’s customized map powered by Radar Maps.

Once an order is placed, Radar ties it to a specific restaurant and uses geofences to track trips and detect guest ETAs and arrivals. Culver’s also has the flexibility to refine their own UI and business logic on top of Radar. This means they can use location events to identify guests who are too far away or headed to the wrong restaurant. From there, teams can adjust workflows to ensure every order is picked up fresh.

“We’ve seen a sharp drop in wrong‑location arrivals and support tickets,” Dan says. “And that encourages repeat visits.”

Beyond trips, Culver’s also leans on Radar to store restaurant-specific details in one easily accessible place. Once Culver’s uploads restaurant data into Radar, including new locations, operating hours, and Flavors of the Day, the platform remains synced. This ensures guests always see accurate information across key areas of the app and website, including the restaurant finder.

“Radar gives us containers for all kinds of custom details,” Dan explains. “We push the platform in unconventional ways, and they consistently support us.”

Now, Radar is part of Culver’s everyday infrastructure. With location services running seamlessly in the background, the team can focus on building new digital experiences. Last year, that led to the launch of a new loyalty program.
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“Even if we’re stretching feature boundaries, Radar can get our ideas cleared within weeks. They’ve saved us from standstills and helped us give customers the best possible experiences.”

The results

Culver’s increases tracked customer by 5X YoY

With Radar, Culver’s has created a faster, more reliable order‑ahead experience for guests and scaled digital ordering across their growing restaurant footprint.

Since implementing Radar: 

• 130K+ growth in repeat customers in one year
• 35% increase in online ordering volume
• 50% cost savings from choosing Radar
• 50% decrease in wrong-location arrivals

Next, Culver’s plans to expand how they use Radar for location-based marketing and customer engagement, particularly across their loyalty program. The team is also evolving the company’s digital ordering capabilities, with Radar’s location intelligence supporting more location-aware experiences across the app and website.
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“We’ve only scratched the surface of what we can do with location-aware restaurant experiences. Radar gives us the flexibility to keep innovating as our digital business grows.”