SmartSense acquired Jolt in 2025. The two teams now operate together, combining SmartSense's monitoring solution with Jolt's task-management and operations software. The result is a single service, equipment, and software offering built on both companies' technology. The story below originally described this customer's experience with Jolt, which is now part of SmartSense. Learn more about the SmartSense platform.
Ask any multi-unit operator about their biggest headache and you'll hear some version of the same answer: keeping product and service consistent with brand standards across every location. Brett Lewis, a Jersey Mike's franchisee overseeing seven stores, knew the feeling well.
"What makes consistency difficult over multiple stores is that you can't be in the store everyday, and there's only so many hours."
At three stores, Brett could still visit each one daily and keep his arms around the operation. Growth changed that.
"Once I opened that fourth store, that's when I found myself stressing more and more because I couldn't do it all on my own."
There was a second cost to that stress, and it hit the thing Brett cared about most. Part of what drew him to Jersey Mike's in the first place was the brand's emphasis on employee development, and he takes seriously the job of turning a young workforce into tomorrow's leaders. As the business grew, that got harder.
"As I looked at employee progress, it was clear that I wasn't able to dedicate enough time to that process, where it's most useful to employees, developing them as leaders."
His days followed a frustrating pattern. He'd arrive at a store with an agenda and goals for individual team members, then lose most of his time reconstructing what hadn't been finished on the previous night's closing shift. By the time he sorted it out, he was already due at the next store. Good managers helped, but something was still missing, and it kept him up at night.
When Brett heard about the solution from other franchisees, his first reaction was that it sounded too good to be true.
"When I first heard about Jolt, I thought it sounded like the tool I had always dreamed somebody would make."
Getting started turned out to be the easy part. He logged in, imported a few date-code labels and a closing checklist, and handed the iPad to his team.
"It was so intuitive. Touch the label you need on the tablet and the printer spits it out. Need to ensure the drop-in cooler is cleaned correctly? Touch the item, the camera pops up and you capture a photo to complete. I didn't have to explain any of it to the team."
Brett is quick to say he hasn't scratched the surface of everything the platform can do. But he's settled on what matters most to him.
"It's a better process. It allows us to be better at what we are currently doing."
Brett's Jersey Mike's stores rely on: