Several chains recently implemented comprehensive drive-thru programs to improve customer service. Six Dollar Service, employed at Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s, for instance, encourages employees to create the feeling customers are seeking. “Part of the experience,” Executive Vice President of Training, Operations, and Loss Prevention Mike Liby says, “is getting treated in a friendly manner.”
Dave Emberton, vice president of training at Arby’s, says that his company’s new D.A.S.H. (Drive-thru, Accuracy, Speed, Hospitality) training program came from service inconsistencies experienced across the chain’s 3,600 stores. D.A.S.H. is a compilation of best practices gleaned from stores systemwide. Divided into areas of people, organization, operations, and equipment, the kit includes a guidebook, instructional DVDs for employees and managers, a quick-shop evaluation pad, a poster for tracking progress, and the indispensable D.A.S.H. stopwatch.
One of the keys to success with the D.A.S.H. program is proper staffing. Key positions are order taker, cashier, and packer. The important component, Emberton says, is getting the right people—friendly and energetic—in those positions. Scheduling teams of employees who regularly work together takes the concept further by encouraging them to learn and play off of each others’ work habits and strengths.
In the last few years, various chains and franchisees have experimented with call-center ordering to improve service at the drive-thru. El Pollo Loco tested a call-center ordering system at its headquarters in early 2006 and, while the test has been discontinued, El Pollo did see some benefits. Steve Sather, senior vice president of operations, notes El Pollo Loco found more opportunities for suggestive selling versus an in-store order taker and there was a slight reduction in order-taking time. The key goal, reducing in-store staffing, was the big question and might only be answerable over the long term.
Service is about the whole experience, though. Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s Griggs lumps quality, accuracy, friendliness, courtesy, and speed of service under the customer service heading.
“We’ve been working on a number of fronts to improve communication and interaction with our guests using [order-confirmation boards], timers, easier-to-read menuboards, exception-based reporting, and monitoring long wait times to determine the causes and solutions,” Griggs says.
Perhaps the most interesting divergence of consumer demands and industry response is in speed of service. QSR’s consumer survey respondents are more concerned with accuracy and quality than speed. Seventy percent of respondents said speed was important, ranking it under accuracy, menuboard readability, and customer service. That said, 63 percent claim they are satisfied with the speed of drive-thru service. Forty-two percent of respondents are not willing to spend more than five minutes in the drive-thru, and 30 percent will not spend more than 10 minutes.
While none of the chains surveyed placed speed as a priority over accuracy when asked directly, all the chains said they had implemented speed-improvement strategies as opposed to 88 percent implementing accuracy strategies.