The Challenge

The pandemic has made the drive-thru lane a safer and more convenient alternative to indoor dining. According to the NPD Group, drive thru visits increased by almost 30% in April, May, and June. As a result of heightened demand, customers began to face longer than usual wait times. A study conducted by SeeLevel revealed that speed of service slowed by almost 30 seconds at ten QSR chains this year. Furthermore, complex menu boards are increasing wait times and adding fuel to the fire of order inaccuracy.

The Solution

Some QSRs have leveraged dynamic menu boards and other technologies to improve speed of service and personalize the guest experience. SeeLevel puts innovative menu boards at $28,000 in cost savings per location and $56.3 million per 2,000 locations. Among the QSR’s implementing this technology, McDonald’s is one that stands out among the competition.

The fast food behemoth has introduced a dynamic menu board that takes into account everything from weather, past orders, current time, to local events. A limited selection on this menu sped up McDonald’s drive thru by a whopping 30 seconds, and strategic promotion of easy-to-make items improved overall speed of service. The dynamic menu board also leverages automated upselling, which increases check growth for McDonald’s franchisees.

Features

Depending on the system, there are a variety of features that dynamic menu board technology offers to support your operations. Let’s go through them so you can imagine what it can do for your business.

License plate reading technology and computer vision allow your team to recognize repeat customers so you can personalize the service you offer guests. You can use preferences and patterns from past orders to make upselling suggestions and increase check size. It’s even possible to display past orders on the screen to accelerate transactions and make re-orders easy. Your drive thru will increase frequency through integration with rewards programs that encourage customers to spend more. Getting connected with real-time alerts will allow you to respond to long lines in real time through suggestions such as time of day, queue length, weather, and trending items.

Presto

Presto offers all of the above technologies. We know in this unpredictable environment, it’s important that you find ways to improve operations and enhance the guest experience. Dynamic menu boards and Presto’s other QSR technologies will give you the opportunity to increase speed of service and offer more personalization to your customers. This will help your business succeed not only right now, but long after the pandemic.