At many quick-service restaurants, drive-thru orders and pickups now outperform dining rooms. At Jack in the Box, more than 70 percent of sales are made from the front seat of cars, and in August the company announced a US$30 million-plus program to remodel and enhance existing drive-thrus where wait times lagged by even a minute. It's no coincidence that the fastest-growing restaurant chain in the United States, Raising Cane's, also has the fastest drive-thru times.
To keep pace with consumers’ shifting dining behaviors, a bevy of operators are launching projects to rethink the traditional drive-thru. Some chains, like Dunkin’ Donuts and Starbucks, are building new restaurants without dining rooms at all. In Ontario, Canada, Raising Cane's has constructed dual drivethru lanes that can hold 30 to 40 cars. Earlier this year, Friendly's completed a program to retrofit seven established restaurants, each at a budget of US$150,000 to US$300,000, with a new drive-thru service—which now accounts for 22 to 24 percent of each site's total intake.
Designing the physical drive-thru space can be a complex interplay of maximizing efficiency and traffic flow while creating cohesive branding and a comfortable, seamless customer experience—even for those deciding to park and dine inside. Yet the modernizing trend goes beyond reworking the physical space. Tech is playing a critical role in next-generation drive-thru projects. Mobile apps and other technologies will drastically change the drive-thru experience in the near future, according to QSR's Drive-Thru Performance Study. The Habit Burger Grill, for example, implemented hand-held devices that allow staff members to stand ahead of the drive-thru order board and place orders even faster.
“We think the drive-thru can be taken to a new level,” Nigel Travis, CEO of Dunkin’ Donuts parent Dunkin’ Brands, told investors in January. At a Dunkin’ Donuts restaurant that opened in June, loyalty-member customers who order via the Dunkin’ app can bypass the drive-thru order kiosk and go directly to the pickup queue.
Timing Is Everything
Last year, Chipotle announced plans to improve its pickup experience via a digital ordering service that informs customers when their food will be ready at a Chipotle drive-thru. Five locations across the U.S. have now adopted the drive-thru lanes, with more expected. “We wanted to make it simpler, faster and more seamless for our customers to order Chipotle,” says Nicole West, vice president, digital strategy and product, Chipotle, Newport Beach, California, USA.
First at the trial restaurant in Ohio, and then at three subsequent locations, the project team has continued to iterate the service. For instance, it tested the impact of different kinds of signs. Initially, they tested a static sign about the pickup service. When customer feedback was mixed, they swapped in a dynamic, digital sign that told customers where to get their pickup orders and when they would be ready. “We're iterating how we communicate with the customer through these test-and-learn pieces,” Ms. West says.
The pilot projects are yielding deeper insights than just signage, however. Chipotle also learned that customers order at different times physically than they do digitally. In-store orders are more common at lunch and dinner, while digital orders happen late at night and on weekends. So its restaurants must staff accordingly.
Likewise, Taco Bell has benefited from testing its new drive-thru tech with a pilot initiative. The company first noticed on social media its customers talking about the trend of asking Lyft drivers to make pit stops at Taco Bell drive-thrus. Spotting an opportunity, the organization partnered with Lyft on a pilot project in 2017. For a few weekends, Lyft riders with a geo-targeted location in Southern California saw a “Taco Mode” option on their Lyft app—just like selecting a sedan or SUV option. When the riders selected Taco Mode, their Lyft driver stopped at Taco Bell en route to their final destination.
During the eight-month planning phase, in addition to holding weekly stakeholder calls, Taco Bell and Lyft team members traveled to each other's headquarters, becoming familiar with one another's cultures. “That provided clarity on expectations on both ends and helped us work toward a collective goal,” says Matt Prince, senior manager of brand experience at Taco Bell.
Although it involved just one location, Taco Bell's pilot project garnered a tremendous amount of online attention. Some Lyft drivers not participating in the pilot publicly complained that they didn't want the smell of food in their cars. They had heard a public message but not an internal one: The service was completely optional for drivers. As Taco Bell and Lyft look to expand the service, it was a lesson worth learning. “It proved you can test one thing in one restaurant, but it has larger implications,” Mr. Prince says.
Driving in Alignment
The push to create a tech-savvy drive-thru experience at Chipotle has been guided by the company's growing emphasis on strategic alignment, according to Craig Davis, director of program management, Chipotle, Denver, Colorado, USA.
With the arrival of new CEO Brian Niccol in the second quarter of 2018, the fast-casual chain has increasingly focused on developing project management practices along with executive oversight, Mr. Davis says. At weekly meetings, the executive team reviews the business cases of proposed projects. Based on three main criteria—how the project will impact customers, how it will impact operations and how it will financially impact the business—the leadership team decides whether to green-light the project at each stage gate.
“Project management practices, coupled with a high degree of visibility from our leadership team, allow us to make sure we're working on the right projects,” Mr. Davis says.
The pickup window project has been an early trial for affirming the value of straining traditional project management practices through a wellmanaged stage-gate process, Mr. Davis says. “The principles of traditional project management are table stakes; coupled with a well-run stage-gate process and active engagement of the leadership team, it brings nimbleness and the correct focus to ensure we are delivering on efforts that really move the needle,” he says. And that's of great value to the business. At Chipotle, digital orders accounted for 8.8 percent of total sales in early 2018—up 40 percent from a year earlier.—Novid Parsi
—Craig Davis, Chipotle, Denver, Colorado, USA