QSR October 2022

DRIVE - THRU REPORT

the fact it addresses three critical elements of the quick-service experience: accuracy, convenience, and speed (as the survey data ref lects ). In the past year, Wendy’s took a four-pronged approach to elevating these bars. It expanded convenience ordering options, including through the Wendy’s app, kiosks, and pickup spots and grab-and-go shelves. “These options allow customers to interact with us using the platform of their choice,” he says. Alongside, Wendy’s opened dining rooms for guests who prefer it, and continues to encourage customers to “go digital” by using mobile carryout via Wendy’s app. Consumers order ahead and schedule a pickup time. When they arrive, they park in dedicated mobile pickup spots, come inside, grab their order, and leave without getting in the drive-thru line. Lastly, Wendy’s is testing new processes at the drive-thru itself, like separate windows and pickup points for delivery driv ers. The latter shifted some of Wendy’s largest orders out of the pickup window lane. But this is where the puck has been sent forward for restau rants. “Omnichannel” was a term on the minds of every operator when COVID hit. Once drive-thru capacity stuffed, restaurants rushed to open channels of trade to meet guests where they were.

The idea today that a restaurant has a mobile app or offers website ordering is far from a differentiator. If guests can’t access the brand through the means they want, they head elsewhere. You could even argue the experience must mirror ecommerce habits in general. Friction in the ordering process has become the throughput divider of a changing generation. How does this affect drive-thru? As we’ll explore, it’s a puz zle of integration and connectivity. Frequency is here to stay, and so are the newfound ways restaurant customers want to order. COVID essentially put a drive-thru screen in the hands of nearly every consumer in America. It’s a reality that both raises the stakes and opens the potential. Wendy’s, for one, is exploring what it says is an industry f irst, where customers can use voice AI tech to place orders with Coca-Cola Freestyle machines via speech. Their choice is then dispensed in the dining room while crewmembers focus on preparing the rest of their order. The brand also rolled the availability of hand-held point of-sale devices systemwide. Like Chick-f il-A and In-N-Out, employees have the ability to roam the drive-thru lane and take orders directly at customers’ cars during peak periods. In the back of the house, at many locations, Wendy’s

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