QSR Magazine: The Digital Dine-Out Renaissance

From the customer’s perspective, drive thrus haven’t changed much since the 1950s when they first started showing up across the country. According to a recent QSR Magazine article, the limited-service industry is taking advantage of new digital tools to completely rethink how customers receive their food in a convenient and quick way.

Traditionally, drive thrus are not known for their quality service, leading many restaurants to choose not to build them at all. The common issues for customers include having to decide what to eat instantly once getting to the menuboard, waiting in a long line of cars, and yelling your order out of the window, leading to many order inconsistencies.

Instead of making customers wait in line, Starbird Chicken is having customers order on their phones, drive and park at the location, and have an employee bring the food out to their customer’s vehicle.

“The main thing the drive thru today allows the consumer to do is not get out of their car to get their food, which is great,” says Aaron Noveshen, cofounder and CEO of the brand, as well as CEO of the San Francisco–based chef consultancy The Culinary Edge. “We basically looked at all the pain points of the drive thru and said, ‘How might we be able to fix them?’”

Many restaurants are experimenting with mobile ordering, especially with the take-out process, due to current consumer behavior. eMarketer estimates that adults will spend an average of three hours per day on their phones in 2016, which has operators prioritizing this type of communication and technology in terms of ordering and pickup.

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