Hen n' Bun — MaxCommerce, MaxMarketing, MaxMedia & MaxMen

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How Hen n' Bun scaled its injected fried
chicken brand and multi-location growth across Canada with MaxLabs AI

Hen n' Bun is a fast-growing Canadian QSR brand built around a single bold product — injected fried chicken — with 3 active locations across Ajax, Bolton, and Mississauga, and 4 more opening in Scarborough, St. Catharines, Brampton, and Laval, Quebec. MaxLabs deployed a targeted stack of MaxCommerce, MaxMarketing, MaxMedia, and MaxMen — optimizing online ordering conversion, scaling customer acquisition, building brand content at velocity, and automating the operational overhead that slows multi-location restaurant growth.

The Challenge

Hen n' Bun has a genuinely differentiated product — injected fried chicken is a distinct format in a crowded Canadian QSR market — and a clear expansion roadmap with 4 new locations confirmed. But rapid multi-location growth creates compounding operational challenges: each new city needs its own digital presence, local marketing campaigns, customer acquisition playbook, and support layer. Without AI infrastructure, these challenges scale linearly with headcount. MaxLabs' brief was to build a system where each new Hen n' Bun location opens faster, markets smarter, and converts better than the last — automatically.

DELIVERABLES

INDUSTRY

Hen n' Bun

QSR · Multi-location Food Brand · Ontario & Quebec, Canada

+34%

Order Conversion

2.4x

AOV Lift

Content Output

Before — Pain Points

The key bottlenecks MaxLabs was engaged to solve:

Online ordering was losing customers at the cart. Traffic was arriving from UberEats and Toast — but a meaningful percentage of sessions were abandoning before completing an order. No cart recovery system existed. No upsell prompts were surfacing the sauces, sides, and add-ons that represent the highest-margin items on the menu.
Menu discovery was flat across platforms. Hen n' Bun's full menu was not being presented in a way that maximized basket size. Customers ordering a sandwich weren't being shown the wing combo deal. Customers ordering tenders weren't being upsold to the sauce bundle.
Paid marketing was not location-specific. Running one campaign across all of Ontario misses the granularity that makes local food marketing effective. Without location-level campaign optimization, budget was being spread thin rather than concentrated on the highest-converting audiences per city.
New location launches had no digital playbook. Each time Hen n' Bun opened a new location, the digital launch had to be built from scratch — social announcements, Google Maps optimization, local paid campaigns, UberEats listing setup. With 4 new locations confirmed, doing this manually four more times would consume the entire team's attention.
Social content was inconsistent and under-resourced. Hen n' Bun's injected chicken is inherently visual — steam rising from a freshly injected piece, the cross-section pull, the crunch — but content production was limited by team bandwidth. Posting frequency was irregular and not optimized for TikTok and Instagram Reels.
Customer support was entirely manual and unscalable. Order status questions, delivery issue queries, menu FAQs, and catering enquiries were all handled ad-hoc. With 3 active locations and 4 more opening, the support volume will grow proportionally — without automation, so will the overhead.

Our Solution

MAXCOMMERCE · ORDERING CONVERSION

AI-optimized ordering flow across UberEats & Toast — identifying exact drop-off points and implementing conversion optimization. Menu item sequencing restructured to surface high-AOV items first. Combo presentation redesigned to make bundle selection the path of least resistance. +34% conversion within 60 days.

MAXCOMMERCE · UPSELL & AOV ENGINE

Cart-contextual upsell system triggering sauce bundles, side add-ons, and combo upgrades based on what's in the customer's cart. A customer ordering tenders sees the wing add-on. A customer approaching the combo threshold sees a “add $2 for free side” nudge. 2.4× AOV lift.

MAXCOMMERCE · CART RECOVERY AGENT

Abandoned cart recovery for online ordering sessions — timed re-engagement messages at optimized intervals (15 minutes, 2 hours) with direct deep-links back to saved carts. Recovery messages convert at significantly higher rates than cold acquisition — pure incremental revenue.

MAXCOMMERCE · RETENTION SYSTEM

Customer return automation identifying dormant customers at 14, 30, and 45 days — triggering personalized re-engagement referencing their previous order and highlighting what's new. Wings customers get wing deals. Sandwich customers get sandwich promotions. Per-location targeting.

MAXMARKETING · AI PAID MEDIA

Per-location paid media across Meta and Google — separate campaign sets targeting specific postal codes, commute patterns, and demographic profiles per location. Peak-hour targeting at lunch (11am–1pm) and dinner (5pm–8pm). Budget reallocated daily. 51% lower CPL.

MAXMARKETING · LOCAL SEO PER LOCATION

Google Business optimization across all locations with accurate hours, menu links, ordering CTAs, and review response cadence. Local SEO content targeting “injected fried chicken Ontario,” “best fried chicken [city name].” Pre-launch SEO infrastructure for incoming locations — discoverable from day one.

MAXMARKETING · SMS & EMAIL LIFECYCLE

Segmented lifecycle campaigns across SMS and email — new customers receive a welcome sequence introducing the full menu. Repeat customers receive weekly deals timed to their most active ordering days. Location-launch subscribers receive early access offers. A/B tested and continuously optimized.

MAXMEDIA · BRAND & PRODUCT VIDEO

Cinematic hero brand film capturing what makes injected fried chicken visually distinct — the injection process, the fry, the cut, the steam, the first bite. Deployed as pre-roll ad, Instagram Reel, TikTok hero video, and homepage asset. Single production, multi-platform ROI.

MAXMEDIA · AI SOCIAL CONTENT PIPELINE

Systematic social content engine turning every menu item, deal, location opening, and seasonal promotion into platform-native content. Short-form video templates for TikTok and Instagram Reels pre-built for the brand identity: injection close-up, crunch reveal, sauce pour. 8× more content published weekly.

MAXMEDIA · LOCATION LAUNCH PLAYBOOK

Reusable new-location launch content kit deployable in under 48 hours — pre-launch teasers, opening day content, first-30-days community posts, deal promotions, and UGC repost templates. Scarborough, Brampton, St. Catharines, and Laval all open with this full infrastructure from day one.

MAXMEN · CUSTOMER SUPPORT AGENT

24/7 AI customer support across all locations — order status, delivery timing, menu questions, allergen information, catering enquiries, pickup vs. delivery guidance. Knows which items are available per location, current hours, and correct ordering links per city. 79% queries resolved without human intervention.

MAXMEN · OPS KNOWLEDGE BASE

Internal AI knowledge base covering menu preparation, allergen protocols, Toast POS workflow, UberEats delivery management, and customer service standards — so new staff at each incoming location onboard faster and more consistently. Operational consistency scales with every new city opened.

Impact at a Glance

Online order conversion rate improvement (MaxCommerce) +34%

Average order value lift from upsell automation (MaxCommerce) 2.4× AOV

Cost per new customer acquired reduction (MaxMarketing) 51% lower

Social content output increase — same team, same budget (MaxMedia) 8× volume

Dormant customer re-activation from lifecycle campaigns (MaxMarketing) +62%

New location digital launch time — full content & campaigns live 48 hours

Customer support queries resolved without human intervention (MaxMen) 79%

Project Results

Before MaxLabs, Hen n' Bun's digital infrastructure wasn't keeping pace with its physical expansion. Online ordering was losing customers at the cart. Marketing spend wasn't location-specific. Social content was inconsistent. Each new location required a built-from-scratch digital launch. Customer support was entirely manual.

Within 60 days of MaxCommerce deployment, online order conversion improved 34% and average order value increased 2.4× through cart-contextual upsell automation. MaxMarketing's location-level paid campaigns reduced cost per new customer by 51%, replacing the previous blanket Ontario approach with per-city audience precision. MaxMedia's AI social content engine increased weekly output 8× with the same team. Lifecycle campaigns re-activated 62% of dormant customers. Each of the 4 incoming locations — Scarborough, St. Catharines, Brampton, and Laval — will open with the full digital playbook already running: local paid campaigns live, social content publishing, ordering flow optimized, and support agent active. The system that took months to build for Ajax now deploys automatically in every new city in under 48 hours.

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