How Restaurants Can Optimize Curbside & Drive-Thru

As restaurants face the realities of doing business during the COVID-19 pandemic, they’re increasingly leaning in to off-prem, including drive-thru, curbside and to-go operations. With dining rooms closed (or closing again), drive-thrus have dominated off-prem, according to Service Management Group’s (SMG) June study of 8,500 consumers. More than 75% of consumers surveyed have used a drive-thru in recent weeks, and more than half of respondents have used carryout [55%] and curbside pick-up [51%]. Delivery continues to grow, however, the majority of consumers prefer to pick up off-premise orders, whether it’s due to health and safety or financial concerns, according to SMG’s third annual study. This is not only good news for QSRs that were built with drive-thrus, but also for sit-down restaurants and fast casual formats that have added curbside and in some cases added pop-up drive-thrus in recent months. Meeting Consumer Demand With concerns about health and safety front and center, consumer demand for contactless transactions has surged during the pandemic. This digital transformation of the customer journey will not be temporary; it marks a new normal in consumer behavior in a post COVID-19 marketplace, according to FIS Research. Focus on Convenience Starbucks is among the brands that is leading the charge on “convenience-led formats” and is rolling out curbside pickup, drive-thru, mobile order-only pickup and combinations thereof that align with customers’ preferences for contactless off-premise orders. “As we navigate through the COVID-19 crisis, we are accelerating our store transformation plans to address the realities of the current situation, while still providing a safe, familiar and convenient experience for our customers,” said CEO Kevin Johnson in a recent earnings call with analysts. Counting on Curbside Einstein Bros. Bagels is also preparing for the future of off-premises. “We know people are becoming less interested in sitting down inside a restaurant, and we’re seeing Einstein Bros. Bagels locations with drive-thrus doing well,” says Alex Sterling, Director of Marketing Communications. “Our goal is to figure out how we make all of our locations act like drive-thrus.” The brand has made additional steps in this direction, adding new features to its mobile app including order ahead followed by curbside pickup, he explains. “As COVID-19 continued, we realized we needed to add a curbside offer to provide an additional level of safety,” Sterling explains. “…It was important to our customers, who didn’t want to leave the safety of their car in order to enjoy a fresh-baked breakfast or lunch.” Brands such as Chicken Salad Chick, Famous Dave's, Bolay and Beef ‘O’Brady’s have added pop-up drive-thrus with a tent, cones, signage and social marketing. Chicken Salad Chick continues to open new locations and drive-thrus are in 36% of its 170 locations, plus select franchises created makeshift drive-thru on location, and some have created virtual pop-up locations, or Quick Chick Delivery points. "Restaurants continue to remain flexible and innovate the pop-up drive-thrus where needed, along with Quick Chick deliveries," says Natalia Rodrigues, spokesperson for the brand. Using social media, a franchise promotes they’re taking orders and will be dropping them off in a predesignated location from the Chicken Salad Chick pop-up tent. Customers order and prepay. Delivering Speed Predictive arrival technology, which has become a standard offering for many large grocery retailers’ digital order pickup, is gaining momentum in restaurants as it helps brands deliver orders to customers quickly upon their arrival. City Barbeque has partnered with Radius Networks, a location-based technology company, to launch an improved curbside pickup experience, FlyBuy Pickup. FlyBuy is integrated with City Barbecue’s digital ordering platform. All curbside and delivery orders are automatically ingested into the system and alerts are provided to staff. The technology enables City Barbeque’s 48 locations to have complete visibility into the customer’s journey to the restaurant, maximizing food freshness and decreasing wait time. FlyBuy sends the restaurant an accurate ETA and alerts the restaurant when the customer or driver is within a certain radius of the restaurant, upon entrance to the property, and when they have arrived in a parking spot in a virtual pickup zone. This helps the restaurant fire the order at the correct time and have it ready for customer pickup when the customer arrives. Within days curbside sales increased from 14% to 35% of sales. “…FlyBuy Pickup has helped us operate efficiently while stores begin to reopen, and enables us to replicate the five-star experience that customers receive when they are dining in the restaurant, with fresh food and prompt service,” says Judy Kadylak, CMO from City Barbeque.

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