The last year and a half has been a series of growing pains for the restaurant industry, with plenty of lessons to go around. For example, the pivot to off-premises sales, and then back to dining in. There has also been the enhanced attention to safety and sanitation practices, as well as the ongoing labor crisis that makes it hard to create an exemplary customer-service experience—the list goes on.
But there’s also good news for quick-service brands. For one, revenue across the industry has generally been high. Secondly, a slew of new technologies are being adopted that help solve some of the biggest ongoing pain points operators deal with on a daily basis. These solutions take aim at meeting the customer where they are and creating a great dining experience, whether one is choosing to order online, at the drive thru, or in person.
“Modern customer expectations have evolved,” says Rob Cervetto, experience design manager at Coates Group. “So much has changed, from the way we interact with brands online and offline, to the way we shop, and even the way we eat. Customers now expect experiences that are seamlessly personalized, and brands must evolve the way they drive engagement and connect to their customers through these future experiences.”
Here’s a look at some places where Cervetto believes brands can help create a better customer experience and begin creating the restaurant of the future.
Dining In
One of the keys to the dining-in experience in the quick-service space has been figuring out how to personalize the process with digital technologies. For example, self-service kiosks play a crucial role in an experience that feels relevant to customers.
Red Rooster, one of Australia’s largest quick-service brands, recently implemented Coates Groups’ K2 self-order kiosks as part of the brand’s “Store of the Future” program. In a pilot program at eight of the brand’s units, Red Rooster saw as high as 35 percent of in-store sales shifting to kiosks within weeks of launching. Cervetto and his team believe this is because the contactless nature of ordering through a kiosk feels safer to customers, in addition to the operational ease and ability to scroll through an interactive menu where it’s simple to customize orders and add on items.
Red Rooster reports that their investment into options to customize orders and upsell to other items on the kiosks are made with the intention of increasing average check size when compared to in-store, over-the-counter sales. The brand believes a higher check size will signal that the kiosks are a success and worth rolling out at each store, and early signs point toward that being a real possibility.
Drive Thru
The surge of traffic at the drive-thru window during the pandemic has only proven the channel’s durability. Cervetto breaks down the digital innovations happening in the drive thru into three buckets: convenience, personalization, and safety. To him, convenience means finding ways to implement digital tools that increase speed, accuracy, and guest comfort levels. For example, digital menuboards that have accurate pricing and available items, or two-way confirmation boards that show a guest their order as it’s being updated in real time.
Personalization is another area boosted by digital menuboards. Brands can leverage the technology to help learn a customer’s ordering habits and personalize the ordering experience.
Finally, safety is driven by contactless payment solutions which can be implemented alongside these other technologies to help make the drive-thru faster and more convenient than ever before.
“Brands must look at the drive-thru channel as more than just a traditional ‘order at a speaker’ experience,” Cervetto says. “Shifts in customer expectations have accelerated a trend that was already in place of investment in technology, operations, and resourcing with the aim of improving the speed and convenience of on and off-premises dining—expediting digital transformations inside and outside of restaurants.”
Other Off-Premises Channels
The drive thru now has competition in the off-premises space, with the rise in things like online ordering, curbside pickup, and third-party delivery. Cervetto recommends that brands meet the demand for these modes of doing business by finding ways to leverage underutilized areas and turning them into a gateway for customers—for example, using parking lots as a place customers wait while their order is being prepared.
Other solutions like QR codes, or identification technologies such as geo-fencing, or Bluetooth, figure to be key components of an exemplary guest experience into the future, Cervetto says. And while much of this might sound daunting to the average quick-service operator, there’s more good news—companies like Coates Group are here to walk brands through implementing these solutions, from the ideation stage to completion, and beyond. What’s important, Cervetto says, is getting started now to ensure a brand doesn’t fall further behind the competition.
“We have a strong focus on helping our clients meet today’s changing demands while remaining focused on what’s next to always keep our clients ahead,” Cervetto says. “Coates Group aims to help brands navigate the changing landscape while meeting and exceeding customers’ evolving demands. Knowing the right technology to unlock comes down to having a deep understanding of a brand’s strategy and the behavior of its customers. Through our industry-leading digital hardware and software solutions which together create personalized, dynamic and targeted customer experiences, we’ve helped our clients develop deeper and more impactful connections with their customers.”
For more information on building your restaurant of the future, visit the Coates Group website.
