The Wills Group's previous web environment ran on WordPress at a cost of about $60,000 a year, and it still didn't give the team what it needed. Governance was thin, and changes to the site could be done by multiple parties with little to no visibility into who had done what. 

Roughly 80% of content updates required a developer, and most of the work landed on IT rather than the marketers eager to make content. 

"We didn't want to be dependent on a development ticket for every content change, and we didn't want to insource or outsource 100% either," said Chris Thomsen, EVP Chief Information Officer at The Wills Group. "We needed a platform our marketing team could actually operate." 

The fragmentation showed up for customers, too. Dash In's messaging shifted from one property to the next, and those inconsistencies were surfacing just as the company was refreshing the Dash In brand and expanding into North Carolina.

The deeper problem was that the website mirrored the org chart rather than the customer. Fuel, food and car washes are separate lines of business, where they are rarely separate errands. 

"The customer doesn't experience those as separate businesses. They experience one trip," Chris said. "Fuel up, grab breakfast, run the car through the wash. The old digital experience didn't reflect that at all."

The Wills Group chose Contentstack for its pairing of enterprise governance with tools marketers can use on their own. The support model and ease of doing business also weighed in the decision, which CEO Blackie Wills was personally involved in. 

For the implementation, the company brought in MSQ DX (formerly Arke), a partner experienced with Contentstack. The Wills Group arrived with a work-in-progress site map and a set of goals rather than a finished specification. 

"We weren't looking for a vendor to execute a finished spec," Chris said. "We wanted a partner to help shape strategy, design and creative with us. That turned out to be the right instinct." 

The work ran in defined phases, starting with a Design Vision engagement and moving through website redesign and implementation. Discovery came in the form of audits, journey mapping, a workshop to define business goals and KPIs and a prioritization exercise. This allowed the team to make hard calls before the build rather than during it. 

The project had executive sponsors from both business and IT. Marketing, Communications and Operations were all engaged. The team phased deployment by capability and by site. The first site launched within a few months, and the full project wrapped within nine.

The consolidated Dash In site launched on December 15, 2025. Menu, Fuel, Rewards, Car Wash, Locations, Careers, Community and News content now lives in one place, managed by one team on a common set of components. 

Location pages are built as a structured, repeatable content type rather than by hand, which matters for a network of more than 55 Dash In stores. A customer arriving from a local search lands on a page showing what that store offers, with paths onward to the menu, Rewards, fuel and the car wash. 

Visitors are staying longer and going deeper. Average engagement time on landing pages nearly tripled, from 11.7 seconds to 34.8 seconds, and menu category pages generated 92,682 pageviews, or 47.6% of all menu activity within six months. 

Rewards emerged as the clearest signal of commercial intent. The main Rewards page became the site's top landing page, and in six months drew in 49,247 sessions, or roughly one in four entries to the site. Across all Rewards pages, the site logged 61,431 landing sessions and 93,608 pageviews.

The site also brings the company's values and commitment to its communities into the digital experience. Community and careers content are more prominently featured alongside the products, services and experiences that define the Dash In brand. 

"Our Careers content posted the strongest click-through rate of any major content group at 14.8%," Chris said. "That tells us people come to us as a potential employer, not only as a customer." 

Internally, the change has been just as noticeable. The marketing team can now maintain the site with existing staff, plan promotions and limited-time offers further ahead and push urgent changes without waiting in a development queue. 

"If we have an urgent change, it can be published in minutes," Chris said. "Our ability to update and manage content is multiple factors faster than the prior tools and site." 

That speed has changed how the team feels about the site itself. A team that feels empowered, Chris noted, wants to keep the experience "fresh, clean and inspiring" for customers.

The Wills Group is now building a full omnichannel roadmap on the foundation it laid with Contentstack. Plans include deeper integration with Dash In Rewards and new e-commerce capabilities for both Dash In and Splash In. 

Those plans were part of the brief from the start. The platform positions the company to pursue deeper integration with Dash In Rewards and explore new digital capabilities that create a more connected, convenient guest experience across Dash In and Splash In. 

Composable architecture also created an economic opportunity — rather than spending on upkeep for an aging WordPress setup, the company can direct its budget toward new capabilities. 

For other organizations considering a similar move, Chris pointed to the implementation partner as the deciding factor. 

"I would strongly recommend a partner who has experience with Contentstack but also takes the time to understand your business, your goals and your objectives," Chris said. "We found that with MSQDX, and they have proven to be a valuable partner that we are looking to grow with." 

A century in, The Wills Group's business still comes down to the same thing it always has: getting people where they're going. Its website is finally built the same way.