Dearthwood Case Studies

Improving Customer Ordering While Supporting the Ongoing Development of a Commercial Food Ordering Platform

Prafs Kitchen already had a website and online ordering system in place, but customers were finding the ordering process more difficult than it needed to be. The business wanted a smoother experience for customers, a more modern website and a platform that could continue evolving alongside the needs of the business.

Rather than replacing everything and starting again, the goal was to improve both the customer-facing experience and the underlying systems that supported day-to-day operations.

What We Did

The project began with a full review of the existing customer journey. We rebuilt the main menu experience to include clear food photography, pricing and descriptions, making it easier for customers to browse and order.

We also:

• Redesigned the ordering process into a faster step-by-step workflow.
• Created SEO-friendly page URLs.
• Improved the contact page.
• Added a dedicated Food Standards page.
• Developed a custom meal deal accordion system that guides customers through each stage of building a meal deal before adding it to their basket.

The work extended far beyond the website itself.

The existing platform contained legacy code that had been developed several years earlier. This required careful modernisation while ensuring the live ordering system continued operating without disruption.

As part of the redevelopment, we significantly enhanced the security of the platform, introducing improvements across both the customer-facing website and supporting systems. Security standards were strengthened considerably compared to the original implementation, while GDPR compliance measures were introduced to help ensure customer data was handled appropriately and responsibly.

The frontend was rebuilt into a CMS-driven system, making future content updates significantly easier to manage.

Working Alongside the Platform Developer

One of the most significant aspects of the project was the trust placed in us by both the business and the platform developer.

Under NDA, we were given permission to work directly on parts of a live commercial food ordering platform. Rather than working in isolation, we collaborated closely with the original developer to improve both the Prafs Kitchen implementation and elements of the wider platform itself.

This included work on:

• Customer ordering workflows.
• Backend operational processes.
• Station and kitchen screen functionality.
• User experience improvements.
• Security enhancements.
• GDPR compliance improvements.
• System enhancements identified through real-world use.

Our involvement did not end once the initial work was completed.

We continue to work alongside the developer and remain actively involved in ongoing improvements, enhancements and feature development as the platform evolves. This allows real-world feedback from the business and its customers to directly influence future platform development.

Advanced Discount and Promotion Engine

A major addition to the platform was the development of a highly flexible discount engine.

The system allows the business to create and manage a wide range of promotional offers and discount structures, giving far greater control over marketing campaigns, customer incentives and special offers.

The aim was to provide flexibility without increasing complexity for staff or customers.

The Result

The finished system provides a significantly improved ordering experience for customers while giving the business a more capable, secure and maintainable platform behind the scenes.

Customer feedback has been extremely positive, with one customer describing the new ordering experience as “1000x better” than the previous version.

The business has seen more orders placed online, customers have found the process easier to use and the platform continues to benefit from ongoing development and improvement.

Project Highlights

• Customer ordering experience redesign.
• CMS-driven frontend rebuild.
• Legacy code modernisation.
• Major security enhancements.
• GDPR compliance improvements.
• Step-by-step ordering workflow.
• Custom meal deal configuration system.
• Kitchen and station screen enhancements.
• Advanced discount and promotion engine.
• Direct collaboration with the platform developer.
• Ongoing involvement in platform development.
• Continued enhancement and feature improvement work.

Building a Website and Intelligent Booking System for a Local Tech Support Business

TechFaulta provides technology tutoring and IT support, helping customers with email problems, slow computers, smart device setup and general technical issues. A key part of the service is supporting older customers who need clear, patient help with technology.

When the project began, there was no website in place. The business needed a professional online presence that explained its services clearly, supported local visibility and made it easier for customers to enquire and book. Because so many of its customers are from the older generation, the brief was for a site that stayed simple and easy to follow while being optimised for those users, so they could read about the service, see what was on offer, and then call or book without any friction.

The project became more than a website build. It developed into a practical booking and scheduling system designed around how the business actually works day to day.

What We Did

A full WordPress website was designed and developed from scratch. The content was written around the services TechFaulta provides and the searches potential customers are likely to make, so the site explains the business clearly and helps people understand what support is available before they make contact.

The largest part of the project was a custom booking system. Rather than a basic off-the-shelf form, we built something that actively helps plan the working day.

Before an appointment can be booked, the system checks whether the customer is inside TechFaulta’s supported service area. Rather than relying on a simple distance-from-base radius, the owner defines the real-world towns, villages and places they actually want to cover, and the system retrieves the relevant postcodes for those areas to decide whether a customer can book. The interface was kept deliberately simple so the service area can be managed without any technical knowledge, postcode retrieval is fast, and a radius-based check remains available as a fallback. Postcode validation and the Dearthwood Maps API make sure customers outside the area cannot book unsuitable appointments.

It also checks available slots against travel time, existing bookings and the owner’s working day. Starting from the owner’s home base, it calculates travel to the first customer and then between later customers across hourly slots, and where there is a gap it can work out whether the owner should return to base or stay on the road. The result is realistic appointment times rather than impossible bookings that look fine on a calendar but fall apart in the real world. In effect, the booking engine became part of the daily scheduling process, cutting wasted travel and making better use of the day.

Because TechFaulta supports a lot of older customers, many still prefer to phone rather than book online. So the owner can also enter a booking manually, on the customer’s behalf, using exactly the same scheduling logic, service-area rules and availability checks as the public flow. Once a manual booking is added, that slot is no longer treated as available and the day reorganises around it, keeping phone and online enquiries in one place instead of a separate diary, notebook or inbox.

The system sends confirmation emails to both the customer and the owner, and if an appointment needs rearranging the owner can propose up to three valid alternative slots for the customer to choose from. It is also linked directly to TechFaulta’s internal ticket system, so enquiries and appointments feed into the business workflow rather than sitting separately.

The system has continued to evolve around how the business actually operates, refined as TechFaulta’s needs changed and call volumes grew. That is how we prefer to work: not building something and walking away, but improving it around real, day-to-day use.

The Result

The finished website gave TechFaulta a professional online presence, clearer service information and a booking process built around how the business actually operates.

The owner stated that the brief was followed closely and that the result shows in the finished website. The site is easy for the target clientele to use and has helped generate more enquiries and customer contact.

The custom booking process has significantly reduced time wasters and non-paying bookings by requiring customers to commit to appointments, and it has streamlined appointment handling, improved scheduling and made the working day easier to manage. Because the service area is defined as real places rather than a flat radius, bookings are accepted only from the areas TechFaulta actually wants to cover, and because phone bookings run through the same system, availability and travel planning stay accurate however a customer gets in touch.

Rather than simply creating a website, the project delivered a business system that supports customer acquisition, booking management, service-area control and day-to-day operations.

Project Highlights

• Full WordPress website built from scratch.
• Website copy written around relevant long-tail search terms.
• Custom booking and scheduling platform.
• Place-based service area: towns and villages converted to postcodes for accurate booking validation.
• Radius-based service area available as a fallback.
• Simple, non-technical service-area management.
• Dearthwood Maps API integration.
• Travel time calculations between appointments.
• Daily route and schedule planning.
• Logic to determine whether to return to base or remain on the road.
• Manual booking option for phone enquiries, using the same scheduling logic as online bookings.
• Phone and online bookings feed into the same working-day schedule.
• Automated customer and business notifications.
• Appointment rearrangement workflow with up to three proposed alternatives.
• Internal ticket system integration.
• Reduced risk of double-booking and unrealistic appointment slots.
• Reduced time wasters and non-paying bookings.
• Improved enquiries and booking quality.
• Streamlined day-to-day business operations.