Driving Sales Through Drive-Thru Service Takes Detailed Planning

Groundbreaking Drive-Thru Concepts and Trends for QSRs

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To successfully boost drive-thru sales through restaurant remodels, foodservice retailers should focus on step-by-step planning and close collaboration, according to HFA Architects and Engineers' Steven Baker.

In "Reinventing QSRs — One Square Foot at a Time," an advisory piece for decision-makers in the fast-casual and quick-serve space, the architect and co-leader of HFA's quick-service restaurant (QSR) team notes that chains across the country continue to reconfigure buildings and sites for faster and easier pickup of online orders. However, this comes with significant challenges.

"Adapting QSRs can be a big undertaking," Baker wrote. "In our experience, these projects run most efficiently when all parties collaborate and communicate from the outset and when key questions are asked and addressed in the right order."

Up to 75 percent of QSR sales occur at drive-thru, a trend partly fueled by the rapid growth of online ordering apps from brands like McDonald's, Starbucks, Chick-fil-A and others. At the same time, fast-casual brands like Panera Bread, Chipotle Mexican Grill and Sweetgreen are honing their approaches to drive-thru and pickup spaces. Some are experimenting with speech-recognition software to take drive-thru orders.DRIVETHRUCITY

To capitalize on demand, restaurant operators need to rethink how their sites and stores function.

"For existing locations, the biggest trend is toward demolishing part or all of the dining room," Baker wrote. "This frees up the square footage needed to increase back-of-house/kitchen capacity and/or support more drive-thru service."

Some QSR brands are exploring prototype locations that eliminate dining areas entirely, such as Wawa Inc.'s drive-thru-only store in Morrisville, Pa. Additionally, HFA's QSR group has consulted with several restaurant clients on higher-capacity equipment that enables them to meet growing demand without requiring additional square footage.

Digital kiosks are also on the rise, as they allow more customers to use their phones to place orders and provide table numbers directly from the dining room, with no counter ordering needed.

HFA's role in restaurant remodels includes inquiring into technical factors and constraints, such as whether the client's proposed changes would require additional plumbing, electrical or grease-interceptor capacity. The company's engineers also communicate with municipal officials and inspectors throughout the permitting process. Municipal parking ratios tend to be an important variable.

"When restaurants ramp up drive-thru capacity, they need to avoid demising too many parking spaces, which could violate those municipally established parking minimums," Baker said. "Our QSR team has years of experience in helping restaurants' legal and real estate experts sort through such questions."

It is also important to understand how protective lease clauses of fellow shopping center tenants may limit remodel options. A company that seeks to remove all windows and convert a location to drive-thru-only could need to get specific approvals from the landlord and/or co-tenants.DRIVETHRUCITY

These potential obstacles related to utilities, parking ratios, lease restrictions and more should be addressed early, prior to the release of renderings and detailed plans for municipal review.

"At HFA, we're excited to be a part of the QSR world's successful adaptation," Baker concluded. "We also see broad potential to apply lessons from these projects to our grocery, retail and c-store clients as they pursue their own creative strategies in the face of rapid change."


What’s Propelling Restaurant Drive-Thru Innovations?

The first-ever restaurant drive-thru concept was launched way back in 1947. Red’s Giant Hamburg drive-thru allowed customers to drive up to a window to place orders and receive their food. Since then drive-thrus have consistently delivered a significant chunk of the revenue in the QSR (Quick Service Restaurant) category.

COVID-19 has accelerated the need for restaurants to have a comprehensive drive-thru strategy in place and focus on drive-thru innovation This was primarily driven by:

Heightened anxiety about health and safety
Need for greater convenience and flexibility to order food
By the end of 2021, every major restaurant brand reported significant drive-through sales growth and drive-thru accounted for 52% of the customer traffic share for QSRs DRIVETHRUCITY

“Among the options for restaurant ordering, the most popular—the preference of more than a third of respondents (37%)—was the drive-thru.”

This trend is not just restricted to QSRs. Even full-service chains, cafes, and pizzerias that have traditionally invested in dine-in spaces are expanding drive-thru options for customers. Recently, Applebees revealed that they are planning to aggressively roll out drive-thrus to strengthen off-premise service capability.

The drive-thru has now become the new battleground for restaurants eager to attract customers, delight them with fast service and conveniently packed food, and get them to keep coming back for more.

In short, delivering an amazing customer experience at the drive-thru is the catalyst for investments in new drive-thru concepts and designs.

Restaurant brands are now investing in a suite of technology solutions and drive-thru concepts that delivers an amazing customer experience across the customer engagement lifecycle for the drive-thru channel.DRIVETHRUCITY

Drive-Thru Technology and Solutions

Speed of Service

Upgraded online and mobile ordering

AI-driven digital menu and order confirmation boards

Bluetooth sensors and mobile apps for personalized drive-thru experience

Diverse mobile and online payment options

Dynamic menu and menu rationalization based on complexity and inventory

Kitchen automation



Employee Interaction

Gamification to improve employee engagement

Video management systems to access customer interaction videos for training

POS with forced prompts or modifiers to upsell related items or premium toppings

Automated check-in alerts for employees to serve customers with pre-orders


Order Accuracy

Computervision to track order assembly and packaging

Advanced speakers and microphones with noise suppression technology

Secure identity validation at drive-thru pickup window


1. Expanded Drive-Thru Lanes
Expanded drive-thru lanes
In June 2022, Taco Bell launched the Taco Bell Defy which boasts of four drive-thru lanes, food delivery lifts that eliminate direct contact between customers and employees, and interactive audio-video technology for customer service. Separate drive-thru lanes for app pre-orders, drive-in customers, and third-party delivery agents allow Taco Bell to maximize the speed of service and minimize wait times.DRIVETHRUCITY
Brands like Panera, McDonald’s, Burger King, and KFC are rolling out updated restaurant designs with increased drive-thru capacity and smaller dine-in areas.

Adding additional lanes is not the only option to increase drive-thru throughput. Tim Hortons has launched tandem drive-thrus that come with two sets of digital menu boards and intercom in a single lane designed to take orders from two cars at a time.

Adding additional drive-thru lanes can be challenging as restaurants have to proactively address points of customer friction, manage traffic volumes, and enable seamless integration with POS systems.

Here is an extract from an article that summarizes the real-world challenges that Schlotzsky’s experienced when they piloted a double-drive-thru, with one drive-thru on each side of the restaurant.DRIVETHRUCITY

“When you have two menu boards where you’re taking orders at the same time, we really had to figure out how that flows through into our kitchen. And when two menu boards are taking orders at the same time, we had to equip our drive-thru make station with a headset so that they could listen to both the first drive-thru lane and the second drive-thru lane, and start the production of those products before the guests finished ordering.”

“In the early days of launching this double drive-thru, Schlotzsky’s employees had to train customers that were going to the pickup lane because the service counter is now on the passenger side, which is not what customers are used to. The store needed to go back and modify signage and striping on the asphalt to make directional flow clear to customers and improve traffic confusion.”

2. Intelligent Outdoor Digital Menu Boards (ODMBs)
Intelligent Outdoor Digital Menu Boards (ODMBs)
Outdoor digital menu boards play a critical role in helping drive-thru customers make an informed choice of what to order and speed up the drive-thru experience. The latest generation of digital menu boards are connected to the cloud and have the ability to dynamically change the menu and pricing based on diverse input from other restaurant applications.

Some of the recent innovations in personalizing the drive-thru experience includeDRIVETHRUCITY

Digital menu boards linked to mobile apps that rely on the phone’s location data to trigger menu board personalization when the customer drives up to the restaurant location.
Speciality Bluetooth devices integrated with the drive-thru speaker post to trigger menu board personalization, enable the customer to redeem reward points, and make payments using their mobile phone.
Machine learning-driven menu boards not only suggest a personalized menu based on the purchase history, external factors (such as the weather), or daypart, but also optimize the menu to eliminate order processing complexity.
McDonald’s implemented Dynamic Yield’s personalization platform to offer a dynamic menu at their drive-thrus. In the US, McDonald’s is able to show menu items based on factors such as time of day, real-time restaurant traffic information, and popularity to help provide an enhanced customer experience.

Restaurant Brands International, the parent company of QSR brands such as Burger King, Tim Hortons, and Popeyes had already started rolling out personalized ODMBs in 2021 across thousands of locations.

3. Gamification for Drive-Thru Employees
Gamification for Drive-Thru Employees
Serving customers at the drive-thru can get monotonous for employees. Critical performance metrics such as average speed of service and order value are reviewed periodically by the manager or supervisor and employees get to hear about it only when they fall short of the productivity benchmarks or for training purposes. Gamification of drive-thru tasks addresses this problem and significantly improves employee participation and engagement.

Here are some of the ways gamification can improve employee engagement and productivity:

Drive-thru leader boards can show where employees stand compared to their colleagues and introduce a positive competitive spirit at work.
Restaurant chains can conduct friendly contests between locations with bragging rights and offer rewards as an upside for top-performing locations.
As critical metrics are now transparent and available for all employees in real-time, employees readily take ownership of performance improvement plans.
I3 International’s drive-thru leaderboards offer real-time performance snapshots of drive-thru employees giving employees and restaurant managers a live drive-thru customer service performance update.DRIVETHRUCITY

4. Computer Vision and Video Analytics at the Drive-Thru
Computer Vision and Video Analytics at the Drive-Thru
Video feeds from the cameras in the drive-thru area can be analyzed by computer vision algorithms in real-time to improve sales, improve order accuracy, reduce chargeback claims, flag food safety issues, and track line dropouts before purchase.

Computer vision can read license plates of cars and even identify the age profile of the occupants inside the car. This data is useful to recognize repeat customers and show a personalized menu or offer exclusive perks as the customer pulls into the drive-thru digital menu post.
I3 Internation’s video analytics platform can recognize repeat customers by reading the number plates of cars at the drive-thru. Once a repeat customer is identified, the platform will automatically display relevant information to the employees at the drive-thru to recommend favorite products and offer a personalized guest experience.DRIVETHRUCITY

Video cameras can identify repeat customers at the drive-thru by reading the registration plates

Ensuring order accuracy has a direct impact on sales performance and customer loyalty. Computer vision and AI applications connected to cameras in the kitchen can pinpoint mismatches in order assembly before the items are delivered to the customer.
In addition to identifying customers, computer vision can track drive-thru line dropout data. This information when mapped to dayparts, locations, weather, and day of the week can uncover valuable insights for QSRs. These insights can help restaurants optimize menu complexity and staffing, or even re-design the drive-thru lanes.DRIVETHRUCITY

Presto Vision’s software allows restaurants to improve drive-thru sales and delight customers.

A Deloitte study has found that customers are willing to pay a premium if they can see evidence of cleanliness and safe food handling practices. Computer vision and AI applications can spot instances when prescribed food preparation and handling processes are not followed so restaurants can train their employees better and ensure complete safety compliance.DRIVETHRUCITY

5. AI-Based Voice Assistance
AI-Based Voice Assistance
Voice is a critical component of the drive-thru customer experience, and hence more QSRs are investing in installing advanced two-way audio communication systems at the drive-thrus that are designed to

Reduce outbound (kitchen noise) and inbound noise (traffic or engine sounds), to improve order accuracy and eliminate delays due to miscommunication or poorly understood order details.
Use automated audio alerts for employees to manage customers at the drive-thru, curbside pickup slots, or 3rd-party delivery pickups.
With AI-enabled voice technology, voice can now go beyond just improving communication. It can potentially reduce the need for employees to handle all the drive-thru transactions. This is especially useful in a tough labor market where staffing and retention are significant challenges confronting QSRs.

Here are the various ways AI-enabled voice automation is being used by QSRs and fast-casual restaurants.DRIVETHRUCITY

Chipotle had already rolled-out Amazon Alexa reordering skill way back in 2019 for Chipotle customers who are already a part of the loyalty program. They later expanded AI-based voice ordering for phone orders as well. With the recent roll-out of dedicated drive-thru pick-up windows (aka Chipotlanes), Chipotle customers who order ahead using voice or app can drive up to the pickup window and drive out in under 12 seconds.
In 2019, McDonald’s acquired Apprente, an AI-based technology that can engage in conversations with humans to improve drive-thru order accuracy. McDonald’s piloted the technology in 2021 at 24 drive-thrus in the Chicago area and reported about an 80% success rate. The technology is being further tested and upgraded with the help of IBM before a system-wide roll-out.
Wendy’s is leveraging Google Cloud to roll out a combination of AI-enabled voice technology along with computer vision that’s designed to take orders at the drive-thrus and send the transcribed order details directly to the kitchen and POS.
Presto claims to offer AI-enabled conversational technology that can only take drive-thru orders but also upsell, recommend items with shorter preparation time, and recommend items based on past orders. The Presto voice solution has diverse applications that go beyond drive-thru. These include inventory management, phone orders, tableside ordering, and staff training.DRIVETHRUCITY

Groundwork Needed for Drive-Thru Innovation
There are some critical issues in the QSR industry that can potentially derail new drive-thru initiatives. Interface recommends restaurant brands to carefully consider some of these challenges proactively before expanding drive-thru operations.

1. Network Capacity
Designing the physical space and logistics of managing the traffic often takes center stage in drive-thru design while the network side of the solution may take a backseat. Network design and capacity to support mobile POS transactions, sophisticated IP cameras with edge computing capabilities, intelligent ODMBs, order confirmation systems, and perimeter security sensors (such as alarm systems) play a critical role in the successful implementation of cutting-edge drive-thru concepts.

2. Network Security
Personalized drive-thru experiences are enabled only when customers share personal data and convenience is possible only when diverse payment options are supported. As a result, drive-thru concepts have opened up a world of network security vulnerabilities that need to be addressed upfront.

3. Accidents and Claims
Even successful drive-thru concepts have a problem – too many drive-thru customers and spill-over vehicle queues that potentially disrupt neighboring businesses or cause ‘drive-thru rage’. Collisions, liability claims, and employee injury (especially when walking up to cars in the drive-thru lane as done by some QSRs like Chick-fil-A) are potential issues to watch for.

4. Backend Bottlenecks
Considering the success of a drive-thru implementation is contingent on the speed of service and order accuracy, getting the kitchen operations right is an absolute necessity. Integrated kitchen display systems that are connected to the POS and inventory management system can help QSRs handle the increased order volume reliably.DRIVETHRUCITY

5. Operational Complexity
According to the Franchising Economic Outlook report, the US will have about 192,000 franchise QSR establishments by the end of 2022. While the franchising model offers a proven brand and template for growth, key network and security infrastructure are managed by the franchise owners. This creates operational complexity as standards of implementation and solutions may vary across the chain which imposes barriers to innovation.

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