There is a reason why so many QSR customers prefer to order food in their cars and not leave their vehicles to eat, and that reason is that they are in a hurry. But just the same, they are not willing to sacrifice getting exactly the food they want for the sake of speed. Technology is the driving force behind making everything in our world faster and easier. Unfortunately, with features updating so quickly and people’s available time seemingly at zero, it makes it difficult to keep up. Combine that with less conventional items like digital menu boards and direct access communications. Therefore, one of your top priorities as a QSR manager is to ensure the best possible communication between your clients and your staff.
It will not be easy to establish good communications between the customer in their car and the person taking the order in their kitchen. She knows the stresses her staff go through in the kitchen, and she can imagine her customer’s world, with a car full of hungry and noisy kids and a million other things to tend to as she tries to figure out what everyone wants, and then Transmit the results to your order taker. That’s why an electronic communication system with echo cancellation and noise cancellation is a must, as is full duplex, so that both ends can talk and listen at the same time – this is not a place to skimp! No shortcut menu board is complete without your communication system. Make sure you and your customer can be easily heard. Remember that the typical QSR earns more than two-thirds of its revenue in the ever-critical access lane.
Accuracy may be even more important than speed, according to most of the leading market research studies recently conducted in this field. In fact, it is a common customer perception that part of the cause of their waiting in line is the belief, whether correct or not, that their hamburger or burrito is being freshly prepared from scratch for them. The inference here is that if a customer is going to have to wait, most of the possible waiting period should occur after their order is placed, not before.
And of course, nothing takes away the pain of waiting as much as entertaining entertainment, which is easy to provide if you’re using direct-access digital menu boards. With a modern system, it’s easy to reserve some of the board space for cartoons, local sports, or anything else to occupy your hungry customers for just a few minutes, until the whole gang gets involved.