70% of Jeremiah’s Italian Ice Locations use 7shifts to schedule smarter—Here’s why

In 1988, Jeremy Litwack was a high school student, slinging Italian ice from a pushcart outside the Philadelphia Mint. By 1996, he was still selling the frozen dessert—but this time, it was his own recipes at the very first Jeremiah’s Italian Ice store in Central Florida. 

It didn’t take long for customers to fall in love. The brand grew to 22 locations before pivoting to a franchise model in 2019. Franchising allowed local owners to build stronger community connections, and with thousands of inquiries coming in, the move just made sense.

Fast forward to today: Jeremiah’s has grown to more than 170 locations across the United States, expanding into 11 states. But with fast growth comes operational challenges, and Jeremiah’s needed a scheduling system that could scale with the brand. The solution? A preferred vendor partnership with 7shifts.

 

 

Meet Julianna Blackhurst & Connie Walker

We sat down with Julianna Blackhurst, Senior Director of Franchising Operations & Development, and Connie Walker, Regional Manager in Houston, to hear about their journeys with Jeremiah’s Italian Ice—and their experience with 7shifts.

For Julianna, what started as a high school gig at 16 turned into a rewarding career in the franchise world. She cites the people and the growth opportunities as reasons behind her 12-year (and counting) tenure with the brand. Today, she oversees operations for all franchise locations across the country. 

 

 

Connie joined the brand shortly after the owner of her stores, Amir, relocated from Florida to Texas. Having grown up with Jeremiah’s, he wanted to bring the frozen desserts from his childhood along the way. Connie started as a store manager in 2021 and later became the regional manager. Today, she oversees five locations across Houston, Texas.

The problem: No standard process & no integrations

Before 7shifts, there was no preferred scheduling system across Jeremiah’s locations. Julianna explains, “Franchisees were able to use what they wanted—everything from as archaic as an Excel spreadsheet to going out and finding their own vendor.” She adds, “Our POS station does have a scheduling platform, but it certainly isn’t as robust.”

“We didn’t have a system that integrated with all our technologies as a preferred system yet. So, if franchisees were signing on, we would get questions: ‘How do I do scheduling based off sales? How do I enter all of my employees into the system?’ And you just have to do it all individually for every store.”

Connie also experienced challenges firsthand at the store level. Her team was using Deputy for scheduling, but it came with limitations. “The biggest thing with Deputy was that the system was a little outdated and wasn’t as user-friendly, especially the app on your phone.” She adds, “That was huge because the majority of college kids and the staff that we have—they’re on their phone, and that’s what they’re going to look at.” 

The solution: A preferred vendor agreement with 7shifts

Rather than mandating a top-down solution from corporate, Jeremiah’s took a different approach: they listened to their owners. Julianna shares, “Quite a few franchisees had spoken up about needing scheduling systems.” At first, she suggested they ask multi-unit owners what they were using. But as 7shifts was repeatedly mentioned, our team reached out to put a preferred vendor agreement in place, making the partnership official.

 

 

Julianna adds, “Being a benefit to franchise owners is the best way to get somebody to use your business. There’s only so much corporate can [say], but if peers are telling them to use a platform, it’s sold.” At the time, 35 out of 60 Jeremiah’s locations were using 7shifts. Today, that number has grown to 120 out of 173—about a 70% adoption rate. And as the brand continues to grow, it’s only going up from here. 

For Julianna, the process of signing the agreement was also positive: “I’ve worked with other vendors to sign an MSA, and there’s usually a lot of back and forth over legalese and different stipulations in the contract. But working with 7shifts has been really great because everyone has been straightforward. The service agreements are in layman’s terms—it outlines the goal of 7shifts, the goal for the brand, and if that’s aligned, we’re in good shape.”

 

 

For franchisees, she adds, “Having that preferred vendor setup where they don’t have to do anything for the integrations—it’s a lot easier when you’re onboarded through Jeremiah’s. The 7shifts onboarding team already knows how to get your system up and running.”

Connie has also developed a strong working relationship with 7shifts’ team: “[They] have been very responsive and quick to reply when we have questions.” For onboarding, she says, “We had six locations at the time, so it was a lot to pull over. It was fairly easy when we were coming from Deputy to 7shifts.”

 

 

How 7shifts helps managers and employees day-to-day

Using 7shifts, managers at Jeremiah’s can create schedules in 15 minutes or less. Connie says, “With the copy feature, it’s super easy to fill in those gaps or move people that need to be moved if they’re unavailable on a certain day.” 

And beyond the quick scheduling process, Connie also shares a few other reasons she loves the platform:

✅ Effortless shift management

The shift swap feature has been a game-changer for Connie and her team: “[It’s] been super helpful for staff members who want to swap shifts, and it’s easy for our managers to go in and approve the swap.” 

“We can focus on other things that need our attention, not having to worry about those last-minute schedule changes where we had to be in front of our computer to approve.” Now, everything is easily accessible with just a few taps in the app.

✅ Integrated employee communication

When managing more than one store, keeping everyone informed can be a challenge—but 7shifts makes it easy. “The messaging feature has been extremely beneficial with us having multiple locations,” Connie says. “Being able to message out the same message to everyone definitely helps us all stay on the same page.” 

 

 

✅ Multi-location visibility

For staff working across different locations, 7shifts also eliminates another major pain point: “[With Deputy], they were never able to see all their shifts scheduled at the same time. They had to go into one store to see their schedule there, and then go into another store to see their schedule there.”

“That’s really been great with 7shifts—just being able to see it all laid out: ‘I’m at this location this day and this location the next day.’”

✅ POS integration & labor management 

Another advantage for Connie’s team is the integration between 7shifts and their Revel POS system. Instead of logging into the POS separately, she can view daily sales and labor performance directly within 7shifts.

She adds, “It’s just super easy for our managers to go ahead and look at the current schedule for the week and see what their projected labor is for the week. That way, they know they can make some adjustments to try to stay within a labor goal—and just really make sure they’re paying attention to their schedule and scheduling strategically.”

As a result, many locations have seen tangible results in labor cost savings with the platform. We tracked these improvements by comparing three months of data from the first year of using 7shifts to the same period this year at a few popular locations.

 

 

The final scoop

As Jeremiah’s Italian Ice continues to expand, 7shifts is evolving alongside them—empowering operators, managers, and employees every day. And beyond scheduling, many locations have also adopted the platform’s tools for tip management and payroll. Together, we’re scooping up success one shift at a time.

To wrap things up, we asked Julianna what she believes led to the partnership’s success. And in her words, “If franchise owners are really advocating for something, other franchise owners generally get on board.”