Taco Bell was one of the first national quick-service chains to offer mobile ordering and skip-the-line pickup. And though mobile ordering only accounts for about 1 percent of sales, he said, “You’d think it would be 20 percent the way people talk about it.” 

Now Taco Bell is looking to technology to drive labor efficiencies.

The chain is testing new methods for “on demand” staffing using software that will allow employees to choose to be on call to pick up hours beyond their set schedule on short notice. 

Currently in test in two restaurants, it’s modeled after Uber, which uses independent contractors that can choose to be available for work when they want to be. 

Taco Bell’s system taps existing workers and controls for issues like overtime. But it allows employees the flexibility to pick up a few hours of work on a day when they weren’t previously scheduled, for example, and helps managers keep restaurants fully staffed, he said.

“It’s the way employees want to work today,” Niccol said.

“We’ve been on a mission to create flexibility within our system,” he said.

Once known for its stand-alone drive-thru units, Taco Bell now has a number of different restaurant models for franchise operators to choose, from all-carry-out walk-up locations to showy Cantina restaurants with open kitchens and alcohol on the menu. 

“We’re getting into trade areas you might not have thought of,” he said.

Taco Bell recently opened a Cantina location in Berkeley, Calif., for example, a town known for its particularly strong aversion to fast-food chain restaurants.

The town’s response to the Taco Bell unit there so far has been “unbelievably positive,” said Niccol, and has focused on how the brand has “taken a step forward.”

Niccol said he was impressed by how often in social media it was noted that the Naked Chicken Chalupa is made with chicken raised without antibiotics. Taco Bell has also reduced sodium levels, eliminated artificial ingredients and got rid of extra-large soda cup sizes.

While Taco Bell will never be defined as a health-food brand, he said, these cues are important to today’s consumers, while still leaving room for the brand’s style of cult-inspiring playfulness on the menu.

“What the customer wants to know is that you care as a company about the integrity of the food,” he said.

Forget the Millennials. They’re buying mini vans now. 

Taco Bell is going after Gen Z, with its Etsy-buying, Snapchat-filter-using, Instagraming ways, he said.

Gen X was defined by the movie, “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” and Millennials were defined by “The Breakfast Club.” 

Gen Z, on the other hand, isn’t defined by a movie at all but by the many creative outlets they use to build community with social media. “They believe they’re the ones making the movie now,” he said.

Taco Bell swims in those waters, creating Snapchat filters that turn people’s heads into tacos and making sure each restaurant is designed with Instagram-worthy visuals. 

As a brand, Taco Bell strives to think like a 25 year old, said Niccol.

“When you’re 16, you want to be 25, and when you’re 45 or 50, you want to be 25,” he said. “We really market to that mindset.”

The chain, for example, has a floor at company headquarters dedicated to a team of 20-something-year-old social media specialists who have been given permission to interact directly with fans, a move that terrifies the legal department, he noted. 

“You can’t let your legal department dictate how to react to 22-year olds,” he said.

But he admitted: “Social media scares me. I do wake up every morning hoping that nothing stupid happened.”