Article

8 ways to cut drive-thru times

The following eight expert tips for cutting drive -thru times should get your pick-up lanes moving along faster than ever.

September 6, 2016 by S.A. Whitehead — Food Editor, Net World Media Group

It’s hard to over-estimate how significantly a restaurant’s drive-thru wait times affect sales, but every 7 seconds a chain shaves off drive-thru wait time equals about a 1 percent increase in sales, according to a recently published study by researchers at the Kellogg School of Management, Columbia Graduate School of Business and Harvard Business School. It found that chains can improve their absolute and relative market shares significantly with "relatively modest reductions in wait time."

Earlier this year, the Chick-fil-A chain did its own study of the subject and also found that millennials, in particular, would rather do just about anything than wait in a drive-thru line. In fact, those results were instrumental in prompting the chain’s executives to develop its recently released mobile app after their research indicated that 82 percent of millennial parents said they would do almost anything to avoid long lines at fast food restaurants when they are with their children. The study results even showed that half of those polled said they'd just skip eating if they had to wait in line.

It remains to be seen how effective that chain’s new expanded ordering app is affecting its drive-thru wait times, but when we spoke to industry experts all agreed that technology — in everything from mobile order and pay apps to improved digital signage — is probably going to be the salvation of this longtime drive-thru chain conundrum. 

Llike almost any business challenge, there is no single solution to reducing drive-thru times; it takes both an informed and multi-pronged approach to deal with effectively. Below are eight tips to reduce wait times, according to three industry experts: Lyle Bunnon, Digital media industry consultant;  s.

1.    Seriously consider updating your drive-thru signage to the latest digital offerings:
Digital media industry consultant, Lyle Bunn, said the signage being produced today is a significant leap forward from that of even the recent past,and often less costly. He said the products on the market now can be had for as low as $6,000 for enclosure, flat panel, media player and software and these new systems are far more adept at addressing the previous need for sunlight-readable displays, vandal resistance and longer operating life. 

2.    Adopt some form of mobile order processing if you want to stay relevant:
All three of the experts we consulted named this one element as one of the biggest game-changers for drive-thru chains. 
 
"If mobile order processing and payments can be adopted, it will also significantly help reduce the wait times in the drive-thru lanes, from the time spent deciding which items to order, to processing payment," said Easi-Serv Products Marketing Coordinator Brain Hanson. "Customers will be able to pop by, pick up their order and head out without much delay. The key will be the promotion and adoption of this technology (to) … automate the drive-thru lane process."

3.    Cut vital minutes in manual re-entry time with a combined POS-TOOS system:
Tthe lack of integration between restaurant aggregators and POS systems is slowing down the order process since, in most cases, all the online customer requests must be manually re-entered into the restaurant’s point-of-sale system, according to Seth Menacker of TallGrass PR in New York City. To eliminate that bottleneck, he advises drive-thru chains to invest in a system that combines their POS with a third-party online ordering system.

"Chowly’s solution for TOOS does not require any additional hardware or staff to manage. It’s a simple plug-in installed on the POS system that allows TOOS orders to flow directly into the kitchen’s normal prep cue," he said.

4.    Consider day-parting your digital menu boards in the drive-thru:
Bunn said digital menu boards offer this kind of flexibility that not only allows for simpler drive-thru menu presentation but better up-selling capabilities.

5.    Incorporate an order confirmation display to reduce mistakes and promote additional purchases:

"Use visual order confirmation display to assure the customer of order accuracy and set the pace of the interaction experience," said Bunn. 

6.    Consider incorporation of customer detection capabilities, in conjunction with analytics to maximize suggestive selling:
Bunn said using software that allows customer detection through license plates, key fob transponders and mobile phone proximity methods, can — when combined with analytics — greatly enhance an operators ability to "know" customers beyond individual transactions in order to make LTO or new menu item suggestions, as well as establish that all-important customer relationship. 

7.    Consider a separate drive-thru line and kiosk for mobile order pick-up.
Hanson said customers who’ve installed such systems can now deliver orders automatically to customers from the kitchen at a pass-thru kiosk.

"This has allowed our customers to double their drive-thru volume and — if the capacity is available in their kitchen — they can also deliver food to customers twice as fast," he said.

8.    Consider dispatching order-takers into drive-thru lines at peak times of day:.  
“Employees … walk out to the drive-thru lane and, using a tablet integrated with their in-house POS system, (they) take customer orders to expedite order preparation and delivery," said Hanson.

About S.A. Whitehead

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Pizza Marketplace and QSRweb editor Shelly Whitehead is a former newspaper and TV reporter with an affinity for telling stories about the people and innovative thinking behind great brands.