In a world of shakes and burger buns,
Where ketchup flows and mustard runs,
There it is, so crip and so bright,
Origin’s Drive-thru, what an amazing sight.
Digital or static it stands tall and proud,
Announcing specials to the hungry crowd.
With a crystal-clear speaker and OCB screen,
It’s where famished patrons pull up to convene.
Quick Service Restaurants (QSRs) are fast-paced environments that rely on signage to draw the attention of customers whose attention spans can be fleeting at times. Signage can be used for a variety of purposes, 1- reinforce a brand, 2- guide traffic, 3- identify your business outside, 4- display your offerings, etc. It is important to note that in all these scenarios, you can influence your customers and steer their journey and purchasing decisions. Today, we’ll look at several signage touchpoints where QSRs can drive real impact.
[Read more…]While “menu boards” are quite often associated with restaurants, there are several other industries that use signage to list their offerings. For example, automotive shops showing their services, banks with a list of account options, or admission fees at the movie theater. So whether it is one of these environments or you’re running a quick-service restaurant (QSR) or fast-casual chain, your menu board is the silent sales person you may never have realized you had. Through drive-thrus, digital displays and traditional menu boards, you can significantly increase revenue, improve order accuracy, and enhance customer experiences by deploying effective strategies. Let’s dig in!
[Read more…]When businesses think of digital signage, dynamic playback using eye-catching transitions with animation and video comes to mind. Behind that content and “under the hood” is a content management system (CMS) that controls the playback. Debate still exists over whether cloud-based systems are the way to go. That said, we are here to explain why operating your digital signage in the cloud isn’t only a good thing, it’s the only logical choice. Why? Let us explain.
[Read more…]In its most traditional sense, a drive-thru needs three components, 1- a sign, 2- a way in which to communicate and 3- vehicle detection so you know someone is waiting to place an order. While these alone are far better than nothing, there are new and innovative ways to cater to the emerging clientele desperate for a convenient, time saving, accurate order-taking process at the drive-thru.
[Read more…]Nowadays, convenience is king and there are few innovations in the restaurant industry have proven as consistently valuable as the drive-thru. For quick service restaurants (QSRs), drive-thrus not only offer convenience for customers but it is an added revenue stream that concurrently increases overall business efficiency. If your restaurant has the space, checks the zoning “boxes” and has town approvals to make a drive-thru happen, it is the best investment you can make.
[Read more…]Many of today’s drive-thrus are no longer just a backlit menu board with a speaker enclosure. As generations age up the expectation for technology to impact their experience has supplanted many of the “old school” ways of doing things – and rightfully so! From operational efficiency to real-time marketing, the shift to digital brings a bevy of benefits that help QSRs stay competitive in a fast-moving industry.
[Read more…]Earlier this year I was at a seminar where one of the speakers (whose name escapes me) outlined various steps on how you can determine who your best clients are. Although I had more than one take-away from his presentation there was one that stood out. Often time’s businesses think that their best clients are the ones that generate the greatest amount of revenue for the company. In some cases this is true. However what this speaker stressed is that beyond the revenue, beyond the costs of goods sold (COGS), and beyond the profitability, you must consider your (valuable) time.
You know that thing called the Internet? Well, it isn’t a fad and it’s not going away. In fact, some studies have shown that 27% of the world’s consumers do their shopping online with that number creeping to 55% during the holiday season. It increases even more when you consider those who do competitive “browsing” online only to make a more traditional face-to-face or telephone transaction.
So why do I bring this up? How does this relate to menu boards, drive-thrus and digital signage? Quite simply it’s because people are using this avenue to learn, research and buy these types of products just as they would an airplane ticket, a pair of shoes, or a knife set. Yet, when you compare one menu board company to another, to another, to another, you begin to see that there is not a lot of differentiation between them. They have similar products at similar price points.
Restaurant owners seem to have an increased interest in adding drive-thru menu boards to their locations. This should come as no surprise considering that those with drive-thrus see 60-70% of their total revenue pass through the lane. Because of this fact, people become easily enamored with the idea of what a drive-thru could do for their business. It isn’t until they pause to gather some information that most begin to realize that there is a lot more to consider than the sign itself. In the past we have highlighted what a fully-functional drive-thru looks like which provided folks with a checklist of what is involved but does little to help them determine if A- it would be a good investment and B- what the entire scope of the project would look like as it pertains to their restaurant. We’ll take a stab at that here.
