QSR October 2022

DRIVE - THRU REPORT

pickups. It uses a more streamlined menu and offers “On-the Go Ordering” as well, which enables guests to place orders through the Dunkin’ mobile app 24 hours in advance. Simi lar to what you might see with order pickup at Target these days, a guest notifies a store before they come. For Dunkin’, a familiar aim in this year’s study has also climbed its priority chart. “We are aiming to provide a more personalized and modern experience across all locations, and to accomplish this we are prioritizing order accuracy,” Sinha says. “The implementation of digital order conf ir mation has proven to be a sound solution as it has allowed our stores to not only increase the accuracy, but also main tain speed.”

As you can see in the data from Intouch Insight on page 52, the run of order confirmation boards has fully kicked in. The Drive-Thru Report consumer section echoes that from the guest level. Order accuracy proved especially vital to Gen X in the survey, with 71 percent getting “angry” when their order was inaccurate. Seventy-three percent said order conf irmation screens were “somewhat” or “most impor tant” to their drive-thru visit. A menuboard placed ahead of the ordering speaker ( so there was time to review prior to order ) was also high at 78 percent. Both are up from 74 and 60 percent, respectively, in 2020. What this indicates is twofold—standards have hiked at the drive-thru due to usage; and secondly, as these systems spread and consumers use them regularly, they place them higher in their demand set. Broadly, it speaks to what’s taken shape industrywide— the drive-thru is better equipped to serve customers than pre-virus, and guests realize that. “Order confirmation boards alone aren’t enough,” Liv ers says. “OCBs account for a 2 percent increase in order accuracy, but when paired with a verbal conf irmation by the employee that the OCB is correct, the study shows an increase of 7.5 percent in order accuracy.” According to the survey, drive-thru visits post-pandemic (67 percent ) are rated better among consumers than during the peak of the pandemic (61 percent ). Over the last couple of years, Sinha says, Dunkin’ has noticed guests are favor ing personalized, modern, faster experiences—“that trend isn’t going away,” he says. And he reiterated the point about order accuracy. “Although speed continues to be an impor

DUNKIN’S EFFORTS TO CONNECT TECH WITH THE DRIVE-THRU EXPERIENCE ARE PAYING OFF.

DUNKIN’ (2)

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OCTOBER 2022 | QSR | www.qsrmagazine.com