QSR October 2022

DRIVE - THRU

they engage with. If they want assistance—to ask for more sauce, for instance—they can hit a call button. Patrons com municate with employees by voice or video. But, as is far more often the case, they simply roll through the restaurant without speaking to or seeing anybody. When the bag is in the car, the customer’s name is on it, along with the order, to provide double confirmation. “It’s one of those experiences you go through and the first words that roll out of your mouth is, ‘this is really cool, and very easy,’” Engler says. On the backend, Grams adds, the learnings and adap tion in the kitchen involve the same technology extrapolated upstairs. The production capacity of Defy is triple what a stan dard Taco Bell would be. The unit has a quarterback role where an employee navigates and updates communication systems to help staff work through the processes. “It really allows teammembers to focus on the quality of the food, accuracy of the order, and delivering it,” Grams says. “The

tubes do the hard work of actually getting it to the customer.” The unicorn nature of the design allowed Taco Bell to cre ate a unique employee experience as well. And amid labor challenges, the store defied standards there, too, Grams says. “When I showed up at the store, they had over 60 teammem bers hired,” he says. “Smiles, people were excited. They’re in a one-of-a-kind experience and they’re the first. It was a really good balance of culture, technology, and the Taco Bell way coming together.” Despite what some project on social media, Defy does not, in fact, offer any labor savings, Engler adds. There are four production lines versus the two Taco Bell typically boasts. “It’s giant sized in all aspects,” he says, “including the amount of our crew members it needs to run.” “It’s actually leveraged for higher sales and the AUV is higher,” Grams says. “I think that’s the growing trend—tech nology is the enabler, not necessarily there to replace [people].” In a similar vein to the consumer response, Engler says, Defy

provided a powerful jolt from a consumer awareness standpoint. Across Border Foods’ f leet, year to-date, the company’s speed of service is 3 minutes and 20 sec onds. “So we’re already fast,” Engler says. “And you couple that with the amount of remodeling we’re doing and rebuilds and then Defy, from an overall brand per spective, it raised the business and the whole market because of that total experience.”

■ TACO BELL’S LIFT SYSTEM TOOK INTO ACCOUNT EVEN THE SMALLEST OF DETAILS, LIKE CAR HEIGHT AND WEATHER.

TACO BELL (4 )

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OCTOBER 2022 | QSR | www.qsrmagazine.com