From employee shortages to a drastic consumer trend switch, last year introduced a lot of changes to the QSR and restaurant industries. These changes have promoted tech companies to create new products that help QSR’s adapt. Let’s take a look at some new QSR tech making its way to a city near you.
Improved Drive-Thrus
Drive-thru popularity boomed with the rise of the pandemic, giving customers reduced interaction when placing an order for food. One change we see with drive-thrus is the addition of another lane. This increases how many customers one store can service on a given day, allowing for shorter lines during peak hours. Another change is upgrading digital menu boards to look more modern. This can drive customers to make a more profitable purchasing decision when choosing their meal. One final change to drive-thrus is upgrading PIN pads and POS’s to accept touchless payment options like Apple and Google Pay. If your company isn’t accepting these payment methods, you’re literally throwing away money!
This article from CNBC talks explains how some major QSR players implemented these changes
Increased Mobile Orders
Apps like GrubHub, DoorDash, and Postmates crushed it during the pandemic, and mobile orders are higher than they’ve ever been. This has caused a lot of franchise owners and employees to think about upgrading IT infrastructure to support these new changes.
Experts say that mobile ordering is here to stay, so QSRs committed to keeping up with consumer buying trends need to make these upgrades in infrastructure sooner than later. We’ve seen companies like Panera and pizza chains create a native delivery system. While this may be an expensive cost upfront, it eliminates the middle-man of delivery apps, and allows your company to control the delivery experience. Who wants an Uber Eats driver picking pepperonis off of their pizza anyway?
Self Order and Hardwareless Kiosks
In 2020 self kiosks were popular additions to many QSRs. Customers liked this as they could order more conveniently and have less contact with employees. One potential change in 2021 would be instituting mobile “hardware-less” kiosks. It could be argued that self-order kiosks offer less exposure than ordering from an employee, but the customer still has to touch the kiosk to order their meal, posing a potential health risk. That’s exactly why some companies are choosing to use hardwareless kiosks instead.
We love talking QSR tech, trends, and how to bring these innovations to reality. Let’s connect!
CUSITech provides a single point of contact to manage the planning, surveying, installation, and implementation of these projects with our nationwide skilled W2 technicians, so you can hit go-live dates on time and on budget. Give us a visit today: https://cusitech.com/services/qsr/
