How Oriana Solutions helped Balthazar modernize its website and customer experience

Balthazar is a Quebec microbrewery known for its comfort food, its shows and its live music. The company started in 2011 with the opening of its first location at Centropolis, in Laval.

My history with Balthazar goes back a long way. Having lived in Laval for more than 20 years, Balthazar was a go-to spot for my friends and me on many nights out.

There's more: Balthazar was one of the first businesses to join the Freebe virtual gift card initiative, back when I worked at the Centre québécois d'innovation en commerce. So I've known them since 2020, and six years later, getting the chance to work with them is one of my proudest professional achievements.

Balthazar has three locations, namely Laval, Boisbriand and Dix30, but had a single website for all of them.

Every evening, thousands of people visit that site, largely because the menus are reachable through QR codes placed on the tables. The existing site had aged and didn't deliver the UX/UI experience a company of that size deserved.

On top of that, searches like “best microbreweries in Laval” or “events in Laval” didn't surface Balthazar well enough in the results.

The menu isn't one page, it's three: food, craft beers, and cocktails and wines. Each has its own navigation logic and its own update cycle.

It's the most visited part of the site, since customers reach it through the QR codes on the tables. So it had to be flawless on mobile, load instantly, and reflect what's actually available at the location the customer is sitting in.

Our goal was to fully modernize the website and build a platform that would last for the next 5 to 7 years.

The goal was also to position Balthazar better against competitors such as Belle et La Bœuf, Les 3 Brasseurs and Shaker.

We designed a fully custom, responsive, mobile-first website with more than 25 pages and 6 complex integrations.

1. Centralized event calendar. A calendar letting the team easily create and manage events for each location.

2. Untappd integration. The beer menu is connected to Untappd and updates automatically based on what's on tap at each location.

3. Loyalty program. Their MyLoyaltyHub loyalty program is built directly into the web experience.

4. Group reservations. Their Libro booking tool is integrated to turn visitors into reservations more easily.

5. Custom CMS. A tailored CMS letting the marketing team manage site content without constantly depending on the development team.

6. Automation with Excel and Facebook. Integrations with their existing tools to automate tasks and cut manual work.

The new site transformed both the customer experience and internal operations.

I want to thank the whole Balthazar team, and especially Jolène, their marketing director, for her trust throughout the project.

Working with a company I've known since 2020, that I frequented for years myself, and that has been part of Quebec's entrepreneurial ecosystem for more than a decade, is an achievement I'm particularly proud of.

Mathieu Morin-Lamy, co-founder of Oriana Solutions

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