QSR October 2022

DRIVE - THRU REPORT

ees take a friendly approach with customers, but the whole experience is accelerated,” Livers adds. “The average total time with friendly service is almost three and a half min utes faster than with unfriendly service.” These efforts are rooted in hospitality for Chick-f il-A, but they’re also a reaction to what quick-serves throughout the sector addressed in 2021: overf lowing capacity. Turn ing site pads into transaction centers ( think curbside spots ) has been one counter. So have been the lanes themselves. It was a common sight to see makeshift multiple-row setups in 2020. Opera tors headed to home improvement stores and grabbed a few cones and got to work. The lasting view, though, is going to take an integrated approach as much as one that simply allows more cars to f low in. Chick-fil-A in June announced it was testing an “express drive-thru lane” in about 60 locations, with further roll out likely. Jonathan Lassiter, a senior integration leader on Chick-fil-A’s service and hospitality team, called it “a game changer for our busy customers and our team members.” Logistically, it’s a partially or fully dedicated lane (depend ing on the site ) that enables customers to order ahead and bypass the other line and go right to pickup. Users choose a location on Chick-fil-A’s app, select “Drive-Thru Express,” and place an order. When they arrive, signage points to the express alley, where they use the app to scan a QR code in the dedicated lane before pulling around to receive their order from a Chick-f il-A employee. In tests, the company said the express lane decreased wait times “significantly.” And “most guests” were choosing to use it again on their visit.

In the QSR ® Drive-Thru Report survey, about a third (38 percent ) of consumers found mobile ordering for drive thru very appealing. Like Wendy’s, Abercrombie says Chick-fil-A’s busy drive thrus didn’t vanish when dine-in mandates did. There have been plenty of stories of the brand’s lines causing traff ic jams and prompting meetings. In Pennsylvania’s Newtown Township, for instance, the board of supervisors approved a settlement that granted the construction of a 400-square-foot addition to a Chick-fil-A kitchen and a right turn lane along the main road to address “significant stacking issues.” It also green-lighted a bypass lane to allow customers who received their orders to drive past the pickup window and exit the lot. Solutions like the numbers on windows and Chick-f il A’s broader express lane rollout are operator-inspired to these exact kinds of challenges, Abercrombie says. “And then what ends up happening is the support center, which is what we call our corporate office, we get wind of it, and then have the opportunity to reach out, engage with an operator, and then help bring connections to the technol ogy and other assets that might be helpful to make it work even better,” he says. Chick-fil-A has also invested in canopies to shield workers from the elements as well as granular details like employee apparel, from cooling options seen in athletics to coats designed for winter. There’s little to zero evidence Chick-fil A’s drive-thru business will taper off in the coming months, no matter how the climate resets in the wake of COVID. It’s a point defined throughout the QSR ® Drive-Thru Report— customers came to the drive-thru for safety during the

Overall, how would you rate the service you received on this visit? CUSTOMER SERV I CE

FRIENDLY

NEUTRAL

NOT FRIENDLY

PERCENT

PERCENT

PERCENT

88.00 % 82.80 % 76.40 % 72.40 % 72.80 % 71.40 % 70.00 % 70.00 % 60.60 % 57.60 %

36.50 % 30.90 % 24.70 % 24.10 % 23.90 % 23.80 % 21.90 % 21.30 % 13.80 % 10.30 %

8.50 % 6.00 % 5.90 % 5.90 % 5.20 % 4.80 % 3.40 % 2.90 % 2.20 % 1.70 %

Chick-fil-A

Wendy’s

McDonald’s

Carl’s Jr

McDonald’s

KFC

Hardee’s

Arby’s

Wendy’s

Arby’s

Dunkin’

Dunkin’

Taco Bell

KFC

Taco Bell

Burger King

Burger King

Burger King

Dunkin’

Taco Bell

Carl’s Jr.

KFC

Hardee’s

Arby’s

McDonald’s

Carl’s Jr.

Hardee’s

Wendy’s

Chick-fil-A

Chick-fil-A

ICON IMAGE: ADOBE STOCK / VVUSHAKOVV

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OCTOBER 2022 | QSR | www.qsrmagazine.com