Drive-thru order accuracy is THE game changer with customer experience. Call it the upside of the pandemic – drive-thru lanes saw an all-time high order volume in the last year and a half. Many food chains, including Taco Bell, Chick-fil-A, McDonald’s, Wendy’s, increased the number of drive-thru lanes to meet the growing demand.
The speed of service and order accuracy remained the focal points for excellent customer service. After all, it’s for fast food of their choice that customers line up at drive-thru lanes. But if the order is wrong, the customer is likely to remember the awful experience more than the drive-thru’s service speed or friendly interaction.
The 2021 Drive-Thru Order Accuracy Study
Graph Credit: QSR Magazine
It’s also true that during the pandemic peak hours, the drive-thrus service speed was longer than expected. You would have heard an occasional honk from the other car prodding the staff to speed up their order. And imagine in this situation, the customer repeatedly specifies ‘no lettuce,’ and he still gets a burger with lettuce on it. The drive-thru can lose both lose a long-term customer and brand value.
Drive-Thru Performance Amid the Pandemic
A quick-service restaurant typically determines its speed of service by calculating the time between the customer’s arrival at the drive-thru window and their order delivery. According to the latest SeeLevel HX’s annual report, order accuracy slowed in 2020 and dropped from 87% to 85%. (Lucas 2021) These slow and less accurate orders continued in 2021. It wasn’t a good sign.
While the efficiency of any drive-thru depends upon various operation elements, the order accuracy and speed of service are the most important ones. Fast forward to 2021; restaurant operations have adopted new technologies to help drive-thrus improve these two critical elements, thereby boosting productivity and ROI.
Here are a few technology innovations that can change the game for drive-thru restaurants and help them increase order accuracy.
A Robust Communication System
You will find most drive-thrus located on a busy highway, at malls, or near a bustling street. In each case, the surrounding noise is likely to be way more than at any dine-in restaurant experience, located in a quiet neighborhood. Restaurant operators understood the need for a robust communications system for their staff to serve customers better – from interacting with the customer to taking orders and delivering accurate orders quickly.
The leading manufacturers like Panasonic, HME, and Partech have designed a new generation of wireless communication systems equipped with a suite of cutting-edge features. For example, the Panasonic Attune II HD3 headset has advanced DNR (digital noise reduction) technology that uses three microphones to suppress unwanted noise and excessive sound across the spectrum.
Drive-thru Timers
Drive-thru timers are a modern-day solution to enhancing customer experience at drive-thrus. They are essentially designed to calculate and display service times from multiple points of the drive-thrus. HME and Partech, for many decades, have been creating timer systems catering to the evolving needs of restaurant operators.
These new and advanced timers have digital screens and offer a graphical presentation of the live situation at a drive-thru – like the number of cars in the queue, order details, wait time, etc. It also allows the staff to customize additional detection points such as preview boards and greet time.
HME’s Zoom Nitro is a popular choice amongst restaurant owners. It’s not just a timer but a comprehensive drive-thru management system. The multi-colored dashboard provides an actionable dashboard so the staff can instantly identify bottlenecks and take immediate action.
Drive-thru Digital Signage
Until 2020, restaurant operators were giving mixed reactions to installing outdoor digital signs at their drive-thrus. Some of them embraced it while others resisted it, thinking it was an added cost to the restaurant. Who knew a pandemic would hit us, and as we advance, it will be an advantage to have digital signs at drive-thrus.
These outdoor digital signs offer flexibility to update menu items, promotions & discounts in real-time. Customers can quickly choose their order while waiting for their turn, which means faster order placement, and the drive-thru team can work more efficiently to deliver accurate orders swiftly.
All these factors result in streamlining operations, boosting sales, and delivering a heightened customer experience.
Equip Staff to Use Technology Better
Digital technology impacts every drive-thru restaurant irrespective of the size. While all these innovative technologies make the customer experience better, it’s equally important to keep your staff trained to use these tools effectively. Remember, any human error can disrupt the whole chain of order accuracy. Drive-thru order accuracy depends on this
Train, organize, and communicate with your team in interactive ways that work well for restaurants and customers. It will help better streamline processes, build better communication, and overall improve operational efficiency.
Business Sound & Communications is happy to assist you in navigating through the landscape of digital communications and service the equipment needed to create customer experience excellence.
For more information, connect with us at 281-590-3400 or sales@bsctx.com.
Work Cited
Lucas, Amelia. “It’s Not Your Imagination: Restaurant Drive-Thrus Are Slower and Less Accurate.” CNBC, CNBC, 23 Sept. 2021, www.cnbc.com/2021/09/23/its-not-your-imagination-restaurant-drive-thrus-are-slower-and-less-accurate.html.
