There are many exciting and beneficial aspects of utilizing vibrant outdoor digital menu boards in a Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) drive-thru lane.
Menu boards are sleek, eye-catching, and persuasive by themselves, but what technologies can be used to make the menu boards even smarter and ultimately increase food and beverage sales? A QSR’s menu board is one of the most important marketing and communication tools the store has in its arsenal, so why not maximize the utility of the digital menus and make them extremely intelligent? As technology continues to advance at fast rates, there are a few new ways to make digital menu boards extra “smart!”
3 Smart Digital Tools
Beacons
Beacons are a technology that can significantly benefit outdoor digital menu boards. Beacons can be placed near the menu board and immediately alert the store when a loyalty member or returning customer is in the drive-thru. Beacons allow the menu board to recognize that the customer is in the vicinity via their cellphone. Levi’s Stadium in San Francisco already has the technology that allows fans to order food from their seats, “Smartphone-enabled fans can connect to a system of wireless beacons from any seat in the stadium and order food for delivery.” Can you imagine the level of customization on a pre-sell or main menu board? It is limitless! The menu board can instantaneously bring up a recent order history or list of the customer’s favorite sandwiches to assist in faster ordering. This will be a fantastic way to get the busy customer on their way quickly and efficiently. Kevin Hunter, in his article ‘Predictions for Mobile Proximity and Beacons in 2016,’ feels that beacons are going to be a big hit this year, “Mobile proximity will move out of innovation budgets to become the fastest growing piece of mobile ad spending in 2016. The hype phase about beacons and proximity technology is over, and we now have real best practice guiding brands and retailers to engage shoppers at appropriate times and places. Now that marketers have a better understanding of the technology and what is required of them to make it all work, we will see the end of the toe-dip era and more brands jumping into the pool.”
Mobile Apps
Sitting in traffic after work and wanting to grab a quick bite? Why not order from a mobile app while your car is idle and then drive right to the restaurant and pick it up. Wait times are almost entirely erased. 
You know what you want and you do not want to sit (after already sitting in traffic) and search the menu for the meal of your choice. You just want to get home. Simply pull out your phone, order, drive up, review your order for accuracy on the digital menu board, pay, and grab your food. It’s quick and easy! Imagine ordering a pizza or sandwich and being able to quickly click your favorite toppings. Who wants to stand and look at options and try to decide, while other people are in line behind you and growing impatient? Tom Dolan, in his article ‘Overcoming the Drive-Thru Mentality,’ explains that we are all impatient, but the drive-thru is still faster than going inside of the restaurant, “Fast food is supposed to be well, fast. We’ve come to expect it. So when it’s not moving fast, we tend to get irritated. Even when it’s moving at the regular speed, if the line is long, we get the same reaction. But really, even with the delays, it’s still pretty fast. Especially in contrast with going in and sitting down.”
Facial Recognition
The use of small cameras integrated into the outdoor digital menu board for facial recognition software further makes the system smarter. QSRs are able to gather vital demographic information about their customers, such as gender, age and ethnicity. Apple recently acquired a company called Emotient, which “analyzes facial expressions to gauge people's emotions. There are three key performance indicators that Emotient assesses: attention, engagement, and sentiment… image recognition and facial detection are emerging technologies that many tech giants are investing heavily in, particularly those companies that help users store, manage, and search personal photo libraries.” Apple’s camera technology could be installed at drive-thru’s all over the country and recognize a person’s face and then, after quickly searching a library of stored customers, display relevant content on the menu board based on their demographic. Now, that’s customer service at its finest.
These are just some of the new technological tools that are being utilized at QSR drive-thru’s across the country. More and more QSRs are expected to adopt these and other tools this year. Because the drive-thru is the most popular place to order food in a hurry, you can be sure that restaurants will continue to push the envelope and find the next best thing to make the overall customer experience the best that it can be. A happy customer is usually a returning customer. With so many options, any edge is a positive push for increase sales and larger orders.
For more information:
- 5 TIPS FOR DEPLOYING OUTDOOR DIGITAL MENU BOARDS
- DETERMINING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF OUTDOOR DIGITAL MENU BOARDS
- 4 SIMPLE BENEFITS OF OUTDOOR DIGITAL MENU BOARDS
