Making fast food faster
Despite offering competitive wages and, in some cases, benefits, many fast food chains are having trouble attracting and keeping employees, a situation that most sources indicate will only worsen in the coming years as the labor force shrinks. The labor shortage and the industry-wide price cutting that is slicing already thin profit margins are forcing many fast food chains to use the employees they do have more efficiently while keeping service speedy and costs down.
One restaurant chain, Atlanta-based Arby's, Inc., and some of its franchisees around the country are testing a customer order entry system called the Touch 2000 that lets fast food patrons enter their own orders using touch-sensitive computer screens.
Lori Ellis, vice president of financial support and technology, Arby's Inc. says that the system has performed well in test markets, winning consumer acceptance and increasing store productivity. "We felt this type of system was something that was really necessary to address the labor shortage and the tighter margins," she says.
(The system is being tested at an Arby's in Minneapolis. One QMRR editorial staffer, an inveterate fast food consumer, was sent to investigate. "It's fun, easy to get the hang of, and the lines do seem to move quickly," he says.)
Instead of seeing a line of several cash registers as they enter the restaurant, customers now see a colorful row of glowing VDTs waiting at the counter to "take" their order. Patrons who are unwilling or unable to use the system can give their orders verbally to the cashier.
After touching the entry screen, customers see a main menu of food categories (sandwiches, salads, drinks, desserts). They then touch the box to "open" that section and make their choice from the items, which are displayed with their price. A running tab of the customer's order is kept on the screen.
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For cashiers, the system requires about a half-day of training, Ellis says. "The biggest issue with employees is to get them responsive to customers. They're supposed to greet the customers and make sure the customer has started ordering and then go run the food. The personal contact with the customer is very important. If it's not there, the customer feels neglected and you're going to lose them. "
With the Touch 2000, each cashier is responsible for filling two orders instead of one. By shifting the order-placing duties to the customer, the system frees the cashier to fill the order while the customer makes his or her final food selections.
"When you're doing your own ordering and someone is running the food, it seems like it's all going much faster. In reality, one cashier is filling two orders, so for Arby's we're getting two people through in about the same amount of time. It may be a little longer than if you were one on one, but if the customers think it's faster and we're getting more people through, it makes the lines shorter and it really does improve service," Ellis says.
The system was developed by Management Information Support, Inc. (MIS), a Denver-based firm affiliated with an Arby's franchisee, the Bailey Co. Ray Mueller, president of MIS says that several years ago the Bailey Co. wanted to replace its aging point of sale system and after reviewing the proposals of various manufacturers, it was unable to find one that addressed the issues of speed of service and accuracy.
"We thought long and hard and came up with the idea that we could use a concept similar to the automated teller machine, which gives quick personalized service. Although not done by a human directly, the transactions are fast and very accurate. So we built on that idea to create our own customer order entry system," Mueller says.
Several studies
Arby's, its franchisees and MIS have conducted several research studies to monitor customer acceptance and opinions of the system. The studies are typically done in-store. Customers are asked to rate the system on its ease of use, give theirperceptions of service time and indicate if the presence of the Touch 2000 would influence their decision to visit that restaurant again.
Early studies were performed by Atlanta- based Marketing Spectrum, Inc., which helped Arby's focus the research on the right areas, Mueller says. "After the first study, Marketing Spectrum told Arby's that perhaps the survey wasn't asking the right questions. Arby's was focusing on speed of service and they suggested that customer perception and acceptance were the most important things."
Acceptance high
Research has shown that customer acceptance of the system is high. A majority (between 70-80%) of the customers surveyed said they preferred using the machine to having a cashier take their order. Customers also perceive service to be faster with the system. The number of customers who refuse to use the system hovers around 3 to 4 percent.
In creating the system's software MIS used input from fast food customers to learn what issues were important in the quick dining experience. Not surprisingly, one of the biggest concerns was time spent waiting in line, Mueller says.
"If there is a long line, or if the line isn't moving, that is a big negative for customers. They said, 'Even if it's taking a little longer, if I feel like I'm making progress and somebody is doing something to take care of my order, then it's not as bad.' We really focused in on that in developing the system by overlapping the ordering process and the filling process. We also add more (ordering) lines so that each line is shorter and more orders can be put in concurrently, because typically the kitchen can outpace what the front counter can take in.
"While the customer is entering their order, the cashier can start filling it and that overlap in time helps increase speed of service. You can actually take longer to order in a customer order entry environment but because the cashier is doing something at the same time, you can have an overall faster experience. And since you're in control of the ordering process, the orders tend to be more accurate, so we have fewer voids and over-rings," Mueller says.
As changes were made to the system, time studies were performed to determine which screen layouts were the easiest for people as first-time users and also as repeat users.
Regional differences
The ongoing research in the various test markets has uncovered some regional differences in customer preferences. The system can be modified to fit these preferences, Mueller says. "On a chain by chain basis, we've found that some customers interacted differently with the menu, and it didn't occur to us that that might be the case. We thought a sandwich, fry and a drink was a sandwich, fry and a drink, but it doesn't really work that way. So the research helped us to fine tune things."
For example, in some of the restaurants the system first displays a screen of combination-type specials before entering into the main series of menus, to give people who want a combo meal a chance to order quickly and exit the system.
Arby's Inc.'s Lori Ellis says that the average check size has increased in the stores that are using the system, due in part to the system's suggested sell feature. (Suggested selling, in which the cashier asks, for example, "Would you care for any dessert with that?", is a way for the chains to increase profits by capitalizing on impulse purchases of dessert items, etc.) Despite their training, cashiers can overlook the suggested sell, so having the computer do the asking ensures that the question is posed to every customer, Ellis says. "No matter how much you tell your sales people to suggested sell, it just doesn't happen. But this system does it for each customer. Our check average has increased and we feel it's because of that feature."
Smart restaurants
Testing a system like the Touch 2000 is just one step Arby's is taking towards the goal of having "smart" restaurants, Ellis says. "We've always believed that we would at some point have PCs in all of our restaurants. Once you have a PC in the restaurant you really open up a whole new world. You can automate your cooking, your energy systems, you can tie in the credit cards, use scanning devices. With a flexible system you really open up a 'smart' restaurant possibility."
Ray Mueller: "I think automation is going to be a trend because of the (economic and labor shortage) pressures. The cost of running the business is so high, but if you raise your prices too much, people would rather go to a sit-down type of restaurant. So you have to be fast and efficient and reasonably priced."
In addition to using cashiers more efficiently, the system can make the job of the store managers easier by taking over a good share of the nightly paperwork and number crunching, which may assist in reducing manager burnout. "We've been taking it into the stores where they've never touched a computer before and the managers have picked it up. It's a great control system because it's tied to a PC in the back office that runs all the end of the day and end of the month reports, so the manager is no longer cranking out inventory reports and labor scheduling by hand. It can provide data by cashier, looking at how many times they voided an order, etc., all the things that cause cash to walk out the door," Mueller says.
For Arby's, an additional use for a Touch 2000-type system may include simplifying drive-thru ordering, Ellis says. "There is no good solution to the drive-thru. You can never hear them, they can't hear you. You can get the wrong order. Using a system like the (Touch 2000) could be a real benefit. The screen has an electronic journal on it so you can see what you've ordered and know that it's being taken care of right. It could eliminate a lot of the mistakes that can occur."
Wide variety of demographics
The research has also helped M.I.S. demonstrate to other potential buyers of the system that customers with a wide variety of demographics will accept Touch 2000. "Because of the information from the research, we're having better success in showing our customers that this is a viable alternative for them to conventional verbal ordering," Mueller says.
Despite consumer acceptance of the system, Mueller says that prospective buyers still seem to have psychological barriers to a computerized system, even though the nation has become more and more comfortable with using computers.
"We've shown conclusively that (fast food patrons) will accept the system, but it is still somewhat of a problem for the owners and operators of the fast food restaurants to really latch on to this. Typically it's an industry that isn't very automated to begin with and as a result, getting them to take a couple of big steps like this at once is difficult.
"But two presidents of some fairly good sized chains have said to me that within five to ten years every fast food establishment will have a system like this in order to remain competitive. I don't see how they can respond to the continued increase in the cost of labor, the high cost of turnover, labor shortages, and the competitive marketplace. They have to find ways to become more competitive. Touch 2000 or a system like it isn't going to do it by itself. It will have to be a combination of technologies and other methods."