Nobody could have turned over a card pre-2020 and realized the drive-thru would soon become the separator between brands that held the wire during COVID-19, and those who suddenly had lines jamming traffic patterns.
But what was clear at that chaotic juncture was the paradigm shifted. Restaurants welcomed floods of guests, new, lapsed, and loyal alike, into lanes that were, understandably, not always equipped to serve this refocused demand.
It triggered operational responses from multiple lanes to voice-order taking technology to less-visible, yet-no-less vital realities, such as kitchen flow reconfigurations and labor adjustments. The wide point didn’t take a fortune teller to assess: extra volume created higher stakes, or, at the least, a need to satisfy added capacity at the order point—a quick-service challenge as old as the category is.
Amid this torrent also arrived the acceleration of something already stirring. For decades, the drive-thru was a handshake with consumers for their time and wallets. The marketing banner of “food as fuel,” so to speak. Quality and accuracy were elements of the experience, but the bar was “speed” and “affordability.”
Ever since COVID hit, we’ve begun to see this sentiment tilt in our annual QSR© Drive-Thru Report, conducted with partner Intouch Insight. Mystery shoppers pulling into lines at drive-thrus across America have discovered a changed dynamic that mirrors some of the retail disruption consumers witnessed in other parts of their purchasing lives.
Thibault Roux, the chief digital officer at Burger King North America, says the brand’s focus at the drive-thru has become “overall guest satisfaction.” So what is that to today’s quick-service customer?
It’s a combination of speed, accuracy, freshness of food, and service, Roux says. However, based on research and guest feedback, Burger King increased attention on one tick in particular—customer service and hospitality.
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“We see that when friendliness is at the forefront, guests have a better overall experience and are wailing to wait longer or forgive small mistakes,” he says.
Consumers have become accustomed to the digital and immediate journey. You buy a pair of sneakers on Amazon and within the time it takes you to close the window have a confirmation email and, soon after, sight lines to when it’s shipped and how long it will take to arrive. All without speaking to anybody.
That transactional face of the drive-thru has become table stakes. Guests don’t expect to shout into scratchy speaker boxes or pull up to assets that look like they need to be sprayed with disinfectant. They’re also mostly used to ordering and then waiting, pulling out a mobile device, and taking a break. What occurs along those checkpoints in the process, though, is where the drive-thru has evolved the quickest.
Vans Nelson, senior vice president, operations innovation at Inspire Brands, the parent company of Buffalo Wild Wings, Arby’s, Dunkin’, Sonic Drive-In, Jimmy John’s, and Baskin-Robbins, calls the invent of digital menu boards a “transformational change in drive-thru technology.” The ability to display live updates and transparency explain why accuracy has climbed from a technical standpoint.
In this year’s Report, order accuracy overall hiked to 89 percent, a 3 percent rise from 2023 as operators continue to understand perception can’t always be clocked by a drive-thru timer. More vivid and in support of Roux’s point: order accuracy was 18 percent higher when there was friendly service compared to not friendly service.
Is that latter result a tangible point or one that gets into psychological depths? The chance is a friendly restaurant employee is going to be better at their job than one in an outward bad mood. Chick-fil-A CEO Andrew Cathy, talking of the broader principle, once referred to this as “cared-for people care for people.” Simply, if you’re delivering friendly service, chances are you’re doing it better than the alternative.
But getting back to the Amazon-effect of retail, this hospitality differentiator might have been glossed over a bit during the worst of the pandemic. After all, people were coached to avoid each other. Yet it’s now become the divide.
When Burger King introduced “You Rule” in October 2022, it sought to bring the campaign to life, in-store and at the drive-thru, by having employees tell guests, “they rule,” Roux says. It started offering them “crowns” to positively impact the guest experience. Additionally, Burger King implemented “Gold Standard Service” training on core items like the Whopper and fries to ensure food was accurate, hot, and fresh. The brand has also begun testing capabilities within the BK App and at the drive-thru to create a more seamless experience without sacrificing friendliness, Roux says.
Peter Hong, global director of operations, engineering, and innovation at KFC, agrees accuracy is “absolutely critical” in this drive-thru climate.
The guest now expects to receive what they ordered exactly how they ordered it. “Incorrect or missing items are inconvenient to some, but unacceptable to many,” he says.
This, too, rolls back through the annals of drive-thru lore. Somebody drives up, puts their hand in the bag, and realizes the fries are missing. If they want to remedy the issue, Hong explains, they’d need to park, exit, and go inside—an action they were trying to avoid in the first place.
“The team member assisting them would then need to step away from their current task to remake the order or get the missing item to the guest,” Hong says.
Put plainly, it’s about as unacceptable, in diners’ eyes, as it gets these days. Accuracy is one of those drive-thru metrics that has multiple tentacles, even though the end result is cut-and-dry.
In QSR’s Drive-Thru Report, order accuracy was 8 percent higher when the customer was asked to confirm their order on the order confirmation board. It was 15 percent better when the interaction via speaker was “clear and understandable” and 7 percent higher when the diner did not have to repeat their order. Lastly, accuracy came in 12 percent above the field when the volume of the speaker was loud enough to hear the employee.
Accuracy has only gained relevance in a value-focused marketplace that thins the margin for error, Nelson says. It “remains the most impactful KPI in measuring success in our drive-thrus,” he says.
“Speed of service is also essential, with consumers valuing quick turnaround times to minimize wait,” Nelson adds. “Effective wayfinding also ensures smooth navigation through the drive-thru lanes, optimizing the overall guest experience. Guests are seeking a distinct, personalized drive-thru experience.”
Blake Devillier, president of Carl’s Jr. USA echoed Nelson’s thought. “Historically, speed was the primary driver of drive-thru success,” he says. “However, the evolving restaurant landscape demands a more holistic approach. Today, guests seek a seamless experience encompassing speed, accuracy, quality, and exceptional service. In essence, while speed remains crucial, it’s merely one component of a successful drive-thru strategy.”
Elaborating on speed, Hong adds people are a bit more flexible, especially when they know the food is made fresh to order. But everything has its ceiling. And speed is an equation that pays itself off for restaurants as more transactions equal more revenue.
Taco Bell took the QSR© Drive-Thru Report crown as the fastest drive-thru in the industry for the fourth consecutive year.
Examining broader trends, it begins to crystalize how “speed” itself isn’t losing traction necessarily. It’s the building blocks within that are rising and falling.
Wait time in 2024 was 3 seconds slower than 2023. Service time—how long it takes to get the food to a customer after their order is taken—was 17 seconds faster, year-over-year. Total time was 14 seconds faster.
Total time was 13 seconds better when the volume of the speaker was loud enough to hear the employee. Total time was 27 seconds ahead when the customer didn’t need to repeat their order and 28 seconds faster when the interaction via speaker was “clear and understandable.”
Bringing the point full circle—total time was 28 seconds faster when there was friendly service.
So there are a few things to unpack. Past QSR©Drive-Thru Reports have shown a distinct cliff in speed acceptance among consumers at the “wait time” and “service time” split of drive-thru experience. Essentially, how long somebody is willing to wait to have their order taken versus how long they’re content sitting until they get the bag. Chick-fil-A has rewritten the parameters of this topic in recent years with its in-line order-takers and system of delivering hospitality at multiple points through the experience.
Like usual, Chick-fil-A was the “slowest” brand in this year’s Report across multiple measures. For “average wait time,” it was roughly 55 seconds behind the next in Raising Cane’s (a first-timer in the Report). On “service time” it came in last as well (see charts below), and for total time Chick-fil-A customers waited 479.42 seconds on average. McDonald’s was ninth out of 10 at 375.67 seconds.
By now, understanding why is a recurring theme rooted in context. Chick-fil-A had 3.44 cars in line when mystery shoppers pulled up. Raising Cane’s followed at 2.44, McDonald’s at 1.48, and Wendy’s at 1.01. No other brand was above .72. A sign of Chick-fil-A’s undeniable busy restaurants—the brand’s standalone drive-thrus pushed average-unit volumes in excess of $9.3 million in 2023. Nearly 1,000 of the 2,049 stores counted were at that number or above. One reported $19.094 million, which is nearly $7 million more than the average take of a Cheesecake Factory.
If you factor the total time with cars in line (basically how fast each vehicle was being moved), Chick-fil-A reported a time of 139.4 seconds. That was about 12 seconds faster than the next competitor, Raising Cane’s, and 512 seconds better the last-place finisher. Basically, it flips the speed conversation.
The larger theme, however, returns to the separating elements. Across the Report, overall satisfaction was 94 percent—4 percent higher than 2023. Friendly service increased by 6 percent over 2023, to a score of 79 percent.
And here was the headliner: overall satisfaction was 78 percent higher when there was friendly service compared to not-friendly service. One more—overall satisfaction was 17 percent better when the order was accurate.
Chick-fil-A was 7 percentage points alone in first place for guests who deemed the service “friendly” at 95 percent (Raising Cane’s was next at 88 percent). It scored a 99 percent in “overall satisfaction” as well.
Resurfacing Roux’s conversation of how you chase this KPI of happy guests, the data reveals where the threads flow. Friendly employees and accurate fulfillment equal speed, both in the literal and perceptive sense. The pillars of the drive-thru move faster when the technology, operations, and labor connect. So perhaps the true aftermath of the COVID drive-thru rush isn’t merely elevated usage; it’s the death of speed for the sake of speed as restaurants knew it.
Speed has evolved toward a KPI that’s end aim is guest satisfaction rather than guest acceptance.
“At Carl’s Jr., we are planning to use a data-driven process to establish our ideal speed of service,” Devillier said. “By meticulously analyzing factors such as menu composition, restaurant layout, and customer ordering behavior, we aim to create a seamless experience for our guests. If we can find the right balance of quality, accuracy, hospitality and speed, we can improve both the team member and the guest experience.”
Matt Abercrombie, senior director, service and hospitality at Chick-fil-A, Inc., says as the industry continues to morph, guest needs remain steady. “We know that our customers want a quick and convenient experience with freshly prepared food,” he says. “They want their orders to be correct. And they want to be served by friendly team members. Our drive-thru innovation is centered around ensuring we can continue to consistently deliver that experience as more customers come to dine with us.”
Chick-fil-A, rightfully at times, can be labeled a throwback brand in the sense it makes statements like the one above. It doesn’t overcomplicate what matters. But how it gets there, especially at the drive-thru, isn’t old-school.
The brand has been rolling “Mobile Thru” designated pickup lanes through the system as it looks to give customers options in experience. More are planned for 2024 and “even more” for the following calendar, Abercrombie says. “We are also continuing to work on our inclement weather solutions for our team members in the drive-thru, as well as technologies that help us evaluate how our drive-thru operations are performing in real time so we can ensure we’re delivering an efficient, friendly experience,” he adds.
In July 2023, Chick-fil-A released a rendering of an elevated drive-thru with four lanes and space for “two to three times” more cars than a traditional setup. Of anything the brand has done emerging from COVID, whether it’s outdoor elements or makeshift lanes or tech, this illustrated arguably the most striking vision of Chick-fil-A’s drive-thru potential. The Jodeco Road location, owned and operated by Brett Lewis, who relocated to his hometown to open the concept, debuted late August in Stockbridge, Georgia. Guests can order with an employee in the traditional lanes or use one of two dedicated Mobile Thru options with orders placed via the Chick-fil-A App.
Created with on-the-go guests in mind, Chick-fil-A said the elevated kitchen design doubles the restaurant’s capacity and expedites service. A sophisticated conveyor belt system transports meals from the kitchen to ground-level employees.
Abercrombie says Chick-fil-A will learn from the high-volume asset to understand go-forward possibilities. “As we look toward the future, the needs of our customers remain a top priority, all while considering new ways to increase efficiency and make the drive-thru experience more seamless and enjoyable,” he says. “However, as we evolve as a brand, our future drive-thru concepts will continue to showcase team member touchpoints and moments of personal interaction with guests to ensure the hospitality we are known for is not lost.”
The experience of speed
Taco Bell on the last day of July announced it planned to expand automated voice ordering at the drive-thru to “hundreds” of restaurants by year’s end. To that point, the technology was live in more than 100 U.S. units across 13 states.
Taco Bell tasked the tech with improving back-of-house operations for employees and improving the ordering experience. The chain said it saw an ease in job load for workers and better order accuracy, which resulted in a more consistent drive-thru execution and lower wait times.
Jason Kidd, global chief operating officer of the chain, says the overarching goal was to provide ease to team member experience “with a distinctive Taco Bell twist.”
“To achieve this,” he says, “we continuously listen to franchise partners and team members, spending time in restaurants and gathering feedback, to leverage their expertise and stay ahead of industry needs and expectations.”
“By leveraging feedback, data, and insights, we enhance consumer relationships with intuitive, user-friendly technology that minimizes the learning curve,” he adds of AI specifically. “The expansion of Voice AI is part of our sustained effort to integrate AI into our operations, aiming to create a best-in-class experience that drives operational excellence.”
An initiative that emerged from these overall efforts at the nation’s fastest drive-thru chain was a Touch Kitchen Display System that allows employees to prioritize orders based on size and complexity, build access cards, ands share orders with other workers. As a result, orders are delivered more efficiency and accurately, Kidd says.
A few innovations in recent years include: mobile order-ahead options, which made pickup more convenient for guests and couriers; streamlined drive-thru digital menu boards; new features within the Touch KDS to intelligently synchronize orders with driver and customer pickup times; and back-of-house changes like Poseidon (order management and reporting), and AI-driven inventory management. Both give employees the breadth to focus on the customer satisfaction metrics mentioned throughout the Report, Kidd says.
Taco Bell has the ambition to become a 100 percent digital-first brand, with an integrated ecosystem where tech enhances all aspects of operations. This, of course, includes the drive-thru.
It’s not surprising to see AI and other tech flood Taco Bell’s world. The speed strength of the brand speaks to understanding its base and what they expect of Taco Bell. In 2023, the chain launched the latest iteration of its Go Mobile design, which compacts square footage and features more digital touchpoints than any location. “This new concept addresses the industry-wide issue of drive-thru bottlenecks by including double drive-thru lanes, eliminating the indoor dining area, and adding dedicated parking for mobile and delivery orders, along with an outdoor pickup window and grab-and-go shelves,” Kidd says.
But just like Chick-fil-A’s decision to build a restaurant that can house some 75 cars at once, every decision is a brand-by-brand dive into what matters to its core and where it wants to go.
Naturally, there’s ample chatter through quick service surrounding AI drive-thru voice ordering. McDonald’s made the call earlier in the year to move away from its ongoing test, although it could resurface in time. Restaurants are still very much figuring out the process and if it fits their needs. It’s more complex than the baseline benefits tout—100 percent upsell from a machine versus a human, no breaks in the loop detector, and the ability to reallocate labor to a generally easier job, such as handing food to a guest and delivering friendly customer service.
QSR© Drive-Thru Report partner Intouch Insight surveyed nearly 1,500 consumers in March to take the pulse of it.
When asked how consumers felt about AI-enabled voice to automate drive-thru order taking, 45 percent reported “not liking the idea of it,” compared to 47 percent last year. However, when examining the data from demographic angles, 33 percent of respondents aged 18–44 reported “not liking the idea of it,” compared to 54 percent of those aged 45 and above.
It uncovered a clear split between generations in terms of acceptance and preference for AI technology.
Like any innovation, acceptance to “try” and desire to “use” veer by age brackets. AI remains a relative unknown when it comes to true preference since people are, more often than not, answering questions on the theory instead of the experience. Taco Bell is taking a bet on its in-house platform and ability to serve a consumer group that’s used to the company innovating on the front-lines. And akin to when credit cards arrived all those years ago, or mobile ordering, etc., acceptance will start to reflect reality—does the tech do what it promises? That explains the relatively immaterial year-over-year change (45 versus 47 percent). We’re still a ways away from the day when enough restaurants deploy AI voice ordering at the drive-thru to understand if guests want it.
Case in motion: only 19 percent of those surveyed said they’d experienced AI-enabled voice technology to automate drive-thru order taking. But 61 percent of those who did said they enjoyed the experience.
Intouch Insight asked that same question regarding the use of AI-enabled video tech to identify repeat customers and enhance experience. There, 42 percent of respondents said they “do not like the idea of it,” down just 2 percentage points from a year ago. Thirty-two percent of people aged 18–44 polled “not liking the idea of it,” compared to 49 percent aged 45 and above. Again, the data was mindful of changing demographics.
Nelson sees AI, automation, and tech coming together to provide employees with the tools necessary to achieve better guest experience. That’s a present point.
Inspire is working on geofencing across brands to better satisfy digital guest behavior. It allows the restaurant to serve loyalty and app members as soon as they enter the drive-thru. Order-ahead and third-party drivers can also deliver orders directly to customers near, but not in the drive-thru lane, at select Dunkin’ locations.
“In locations where we have tested these technologies, we saw an increase in the speed of service, accuracy, and guest satisfaction,” Nelson says. “Our team members are also responding positively, as this frees up their time to be redeployed toward other roles with higher guest touchpoints and can support continuous flow.”
Nelson says AI, in Inspire’s view, is something other than a “single moonshot idea that will solve all inefficiencies.” The company believes it’s a tool that can work alongside employees and existing technologies to drive efficiencies through more enhancements the consumers doesn’t necessarily see—like sticky printers, optimized kitchen display units, and POS systems. They’re all AI-driven inventions capable of supporting drive-thru improvements.
“We are using AI vision systems to decrease wait times, enhance accuracy, support team members with inventory management, and engage with drive-thru guests during order taking to provide personalized suggestions to our guests,” he said.
Listening in, and the innovation cycle
Inspire is unique given its approach covers solutions extensible across six brands. Nelson says as a shared service supporting multiple concepts, his team must develop a unified approach to site planning in the drive-thru, standardizing car stacks, wayfinding, and cockpit design. “We collaborate with everyone from the construction, real estate, and restaurant team members to identify and capture opportunities across each touchpoint.”
Each of Inspire’s chains has off-premises capabilities, and almost all of them have a drive-thru. So the cross-brand collaboration spreads learnings. That shared knowledge also creates a richer data set, Nelson says, which powers Inspire to use guest feedback to zero in on what’s most important. “We can then take that consumer feedback and use AI to combine it with the restaurant’s historical sales and forecast demand. This data then gives our restaurant managers a better understanding of how we can enhance our interactions with guests and where technology can be deployed to provide restaurants with the data they need to best serve our guests,” he says.
KFC’s Hong says the brand, internally, has gone straight to the source to understand and address drive-thru opportunities. It launched a guest and employee listening program called “KFC Listens.”
“When our team members share where there are opportunities for efficiency related to our drive thru, we listen,” he says. “And there’s a good chance that if a team member in one restaurant spots an opportunity, dozens more have, too. When we make adjustments or implement new processes to address these friction points for team members, it makes their jobs and lives easier and often improves the guest experience as well.”
Externally, the brand uses KFC Listens to collect feedback and see how it might adjust. It can pinpoint specific issues, such as one store serving cold fries in drive-thru orders during the post-lunch rush. That feedback is available to GMs to provide in-shift feedback. KFC can also aggregate performance trends on a larger scale—”a capability that will enable us to ground our global operations strategy in feedback directly from our guests,” Hong says.
Framework is vital to understanding drive-thru innovation. At its core, the drive-thru is a human, uncomplicated transaction. Guests want food without getting out of the car; they want it to be hot; what they ordered; and for employees to deliver hospitality at the handoff. So any technology, Hong says, can’t be viewed as simply attacking friction.
When assessing options, he adds, KFC looks for three signs of success: One, improved team member experience; two, improved guest experience; and three, the ability to drive profitable growth for franchisees. “That’s why I’m excited about the recent launch of our Voice AI ordering trial in Australia,” he said, “which is being embraced by team members and guests alike. We’ve seen the technology ease the task load for team members to focus on their task at hand and provide a consistent, friendly experience while improving accuracy.”
“AI is a quickly evolving space so we’re continuously assessing where to implement this technology to improve the experience for both our guests and team members,” Hong adds. “When considering Voice AI order taking, I’m most excited about the powerful combination of the innovation and efficiency AI brings and the uniquely human connection our wonderful team members provide to guests.”
KFC, opening stores at a clip of a new unit every 3.5 hours, has no shortage of builds. There are single lanes, dual, double single lanes, drive-thru-only stores, two and three windows (one pay, two pickups), and conveyor systems, to name a few. “I would describe the drive-thru of the future as a faster, more connected, more personalized experience—leveraging technology while maintaining that human connection,” Hong says.
Inspire has drive-thru-only and digital-forward formats, most notably in urban areas and college campuses. They’re often equipped with dual lanes and mobile pickup options. In high-traffic locations with a high propensity for drive-thrus, Inspire innovated construction around small lot sizes, co-location opportunities, and its Universal Modular Design. There’s a Dunkin’ that’s less than 1,000 square feet capable of supporting multiple lanes—one for people who order in advance on the app and a traditional lane. They can be outfitted with a walk-up window, too.
Burger King is in the process of quickly building and updating “Sizzle” stores. Introduced last year, the model includes the option for double lanes and a canopy. Additionally, Burger King, like others, is testing Voice AI, Roux says, which will integrate with the brand’s broader ecosystem, including loyalty and contactless payments. It’s also piloting separate lanes for on-site ordering and pre-ordering via the BK App or online.
“There is still a lot to learn when it comes to AI and the potential to leverage it in our drive-thrus and other high impact areas of the guest and team member experience,” Roux says.
“We know that things are always changing and evolving when it comes to the guest experience, including the drive-thru, so our focus is investing in the things we know aren’t likely to change—consumers wanting friendly, fast service, accurate orders, and fresh, hot and delicious food,” he continues. “As we look to the future, we will continue to test and implement how we leverage technology to ensure we’re achieving those things in a way that meets our guests where they are.”
Adds Nelson of the so-called drive-thru of tomorrow: “The drive-thru of the future aligns with our three goals: guest satisfaction, team member satisfaction, and restaurant profitability. Guests have a smooth, personalized experience enhanced by digital components and executed efficiently by our team members. Our kitchens are supported by smart, technology-enabled decision-making and require fewer manual tasks, allowing our team members to interact meaningfully with guests. Investing in our team members and delivering an exceptional guest experience is at the heart of our business.”
The 2023 QSR® magazine Drive-Thru Study Methodology:
Shoppers were instructed to visit the restaurant’s drive-thru to place a live order and take note of several key aspects such as: speed of service, order accuracy, customer service, taste, etc. There were 10 brands shopped, with 165 shops per brand (with the exception of Arby’s, which had 166 shops). Shops took place in June and July and were geographically spread across the U.S. Shops were also spread across four dayparts: breakfast, lunch, afternoon, and dinner. Below is a breakdown of shops completed per daypart:
Breakfast (5–10:29 a.m.): 7 percent (122)
Lunch (10:30 a.m.–1:30 p.m.): 39 percent (652)
Afternoon (1:31 p.m.–4 p.m.): 12 percent (195)
Dinner (4:01 p.m.–7 p.m.): 41 percent (682)
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