Rarely are the first ideas the brightest. Thomas Edison, for one, claimed to have found 10,000 ways not to make a lightbulb before ultimately producing a bulb viable for use.
Getting a product right, after all, takes extensive testing and revising.
That’s a lesson of which restaurants serving up mobile order-ahead are well aware. In the May Mobile Order-Ahead TrackerTM, PYMNTS charts the latest efforts of restaurants that are going back to the drawing board to refine their mobile apps, redraw their back-office processes, improve their payment acceptance and otherwise make improvements to please mobile customers and speed order fulfillment.
Around the Mobile Order-Ahead World
McDonald’s is one big name taking a hard look at its mobile offering. CEO Steve Easterbrook recently noted that the burger giant’s app adoption rates are low, and said that the fast food chain will focus on improving user experience, increasing the technology’s reliability and better training employees before making major attempts to market the service.
McDonald’s isn’t the only player in the burger space shaking up its processes. After trialing a cash-free location, which led to customer confusion, Shake Shack is officially abandoning that effort and reintroducing cashiers to those venues. However, its dream of pushing digital ordering isn’t dead – the company plans to add four or five venues with kiosks by the end of Q2 2018.
Meanwhile, mobile loyalty and online ordering app provider Paytronix is betting on the growing desire of QSRs to improve their mobile offerings on the fly. The company recently announced new features that support direct integration of online ordering platforms into clients’ mobile apps, as well as an easy-to-update user interface.
Read the rest of the latest headlines in the Tracker’s News and Trends section.
How Chipotle Tackles Mobile Ordering Demand
When Chipotle Mexican Grill debuted its mobile ordering service in 2008, customers had to wait 45 minutes before they could pick up their burrito. Now that time is down to about 12 minutes.
In this month’s feature story, PYMNTS caught up with Curt Garner, Chipotle’s chief digital and information officer. Garner discussed how the QSR chain continues to redesign its back-office order fulfillment, employ digital supports and rethink app features in order to get burritos to customers quickly and reliably. That includes everything from second make lines, tech to speed ingredients selection and careful pickup time controls. After all, tasty food is only part of the battle in making a QSR compelling to diners.
“An excellent customer experience means delicious food that is made on time and accurately,” Garner said.
To get the full scoop, download the Tracker and check out the feature story.
About the Tracker
The Mobile Order-Ahead Tracker™ serves as a monthly framework for the space, providing coverage of the most recent news and trends, along with a provider directory highlighting the key players contributing across the segments that comprise the mobile order-ahead ecosystem.
We’re always on the lookout for opportunities to partner with innovators and disruptors.
Learn More