Sponsored by Intouch Insight
When Wingstop opened their cash-less, seat-less location in Dallas, TX in 2022, they called it the “restaurant of the future". And they could be right.
Since then, Taco Bell opened a 4-lane drive-thru restaurant in Minnesota to provide faster service to consumers in their cars. Panera Bread opened café-style locations in New York to cater to their on-the-go customers with dedicated shelves for rapid pickup. And just a couple of months ago Del Taco opened their Fresh Flex location in New Mexico with a drive-thru lane, walk-up window, and pickup lockers.
Capturing customers on the go is big business. But as customer interactions become shorter, making a lasting impression becomes harder.
Staying connected to consumers
Takeout is a major channel for today’s restaurants with reports that 60% of American consumers now order takeout or delivery at least once a week. To better understand the current consumer experience, Intouch Insight’s 2023 Annual Emerging Experiences report examined digital orders for in-person pickup. And the results showed that only 59% of shoppers were fully satisfied with their experience.
When it comes to customer experience, consistency is key. Establishing a pickup process, making it easy for customers to follow, and ensuring all locations adhere to your standards will always deliver the best experiences.
However, in a survey of over 2000 consumers, twice as many respondents said they prefer to interact with an employee when picking up their order than those who do not. Additionally, the 2023 Annual Emerging Experiences report found that overall satisfaction was 15% higher when staff interactions were required as part of the pickup experience.
These interpersonal interactions not only help guide customers through the pickup process, but they help establish a personal connection with guests.
Making data driven decisions
With the rising popularity of to-go orders, Intouch Insight wanted to better understand how each touchpoint in a takeout experience impacted consumer satisfaction. To do so, 800 mystery shops were conducted across 10 brands such as Chipotle, Shake Shack, and Panda Express to assess key components of the ordering and pickup process. Orders were placed using the brand’s app or website to then be picked up at the respective location.
The results showed that the effort brands have put into their digital ordering experience has paid off. At the ordering stage, consumers' needs are simple. They want to be able to find the desired items, add them to their cart, and make any necessary modifications. And most brands scored well across these areas.
However, when it came to shoppers picking up orders in person, brand performance began to vary significantly.
When shoppers arrive to pick up their orders, they need to know where to go. But 6 of the 10 brands Intouch Insight visited were missing clear signage indicating where to pick up orders 50% of the time or more! Even aspects such as whether there was a designated pickup area varied across most brands’ locations. As a result, it’s impossible for customers to confidently know where they can collect the order they placed.
Arming your team with the right tools
With so many consumers placing orders for pickup, brands need to measure and improve this channel like any other. Whether your locations are purpose-built for the pickup experience or not, ensuring you deliver an exceptional experience to each customer is paramount to driving repeat business and building brand ambassadors.
Mystery shopping programs, like those used in the 2023 Annual Emerging Experiences report, provide unprecedented visibility for multi-location businesses. Mystery shopping reveals unique insights because the data is collected from a consumer perspective while objectively measuring the adherence to brand standards. Plus mystery shoppers can assess your locations compared to those of your competitors.
But these insights are only as useful as the action they drive. Pairing mystery shopping data with industry-leading checklist and inspection software makes operational updates a breeze. This type of software connects teams across every location through checklists armed with the most up-to-date operating procedures. They collect ongoing operational data while empowering managers to monitor the execution of recurring tasks and seamlessly address any issues that arise all within a single platform.
For more insights from the 2023 Emerging Experiences report, click here to download it for free. Or email [email protected] to learn more about how Intouch Insight’s solutions can help you exceed your customers' expectations.
