Exit41 Improves Fast Food Drive Thru Experience Using Call Center Technology

By Patrick Barnard

TMCnet Associate Editor

 

You may have the seen the video recently posted on YouTube poking fun at the new technologies fast food restaurants are now deploying to simplify drive-thru order taking. As hilarious as the video is, these technologies really do work and are now being deployed by the leading fast food restaurants at select locations throughout the US. Furthermore, they are reportedly resulting in a higher level of customer satisfaction, which in turn drives increased revenue for restaurant owners and franchisees.

One of the newest trends in the Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) industry is call center-based order taking. This is where, when you come through the drive-thru, you place your order at the “menu board” - but instead of someone inside the restaurant taking your order, you are actually talking to someone in a call center that is miles - perhaps even thousands of miles - away. After the call center agent takes your order, he or she beams the information over a WAN, VPN or the Internet directly to the kitchen staff in the restaurant, who then prepare and package your order.

At first this might seem like a silly idea: How could someone in a call center be any better at taking food orders than someone working inside the restaurant? But if you talk to the restaurant owners who have so far been bold enough to deploy such systems, they will likely tell you that call center agents generally do a better job taking orders compared to on-site employees because they can focus on just that: taking orders. By the same token, freeing up the restaurant staff from having to take orders allows them to focus on what they do best: preparing and packaging meals, cleaning the restaurant and handling the transactions. In fact, these new systems deliver efficiencies which are proven to result in happier customers and, subsequently, increased business.

One of the leading companies supplying these systems to the QSR industry is Andover, Mass.-based Exit41 Inc. – “the next generation restaurant ordering solutions company.” During a recent interview with TMCnet, CEO Joe Gagnon explained that the company’s system can nearly double the number of drive-thru orders a restaurant can complete each hour - while at the same time improving the accuracy of order-taking “to 90 to 98 percent.” He said for most restaurants, Exit41’s system can deliver ROI “in less than one year.” The system is already being used by the major fast food chains – including McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Burger King and Panda Express – and is so far deployed in more than 40 locations across the US.

“What this system delivers is an improved customer experience,” Gagnon said. “Typically, a drive thru with a single menu board and pick up window can handle about 60 to 70 cars per hour - and wait times can be long. But with our system, which uses up to three ordering lanes, a restaurant can handle up to 120 cars per hour - and deliver food orders with much greater accuracy.”

In addition, the system greatly improves order tracking. A digital camera mounted on the menu board takes a photograph of the driver and the car, so that when that car pulls around to the pick up window, the employee at the window can match the person’s order with the photograph on his monitor. This greatly reduces the possibility of the guy in front of you driving off with your order … while you’re picking up his. In fact, Exit41 has dubbed this part of its system the “Picture Perfect” solution – to signify the system’s accuracy in matching the order to the customer. Similarly, its proprietary technology, which just recently won patent approval, is known as its “Order Perfect” solution.

One of the main advantages of the system is that it enables restaurants to set up multiple queuing lanes and menu boards to help speed up order processing. Generally, a restaurant will set up two or three “order taking” lanes, as opposed to one, each equipped with a separate menu board. This enables two or three cars to order food simultaneously. From there, the cars merge into one lane and enter another queue where they pay at one window, and then pick up food from the next window. Gagnon said this part of the line tends to move much faster with the system in place, as customers are merely paying for their food and then picking up ready-to-go orders at the next window. He said most restaurants deploying three menu boards are seeing virtually no wait times to pay for food and pick it up after customers have placed their orders. In most instances, orders are placed, paid for, and picked up in under two minutes.

This is a trend that stands to transform to QSR industry - which currently gets about 65 percent of its revenues from drive-thru business. Fast food restaurants have always strived to deliver food as quickly and accurately as possible. It is an industry where seconds count - and the more seconds spent on an order could mean a loss of repeat business. In fact, many chains “compete” on the basis of how fast they deliver food to their drive thru customers. Anything that speeds the process up while maintaining order accuracy is golden to the industry - and that is exactly what Exit41’s system accomplishes.

Interestingly, the system works with a variety of technologies and network architectures. Gagnon said Order Perfect can “easily be integrated with a restaurant’s existing technology environment,” meaning that it doesn’t require a huge capital outlay for new hardware. With this system, the customer’s voice (i.e. the food order) is transmitted to the call center via VoIP, which obviously is the most economical way to transmit the voice data to the order center. In fact, VoIP is critical to keep the cost of operating the system down (bear in mind that the call center could potentially be on another continent). Special loop sensors tell call center agents when a car has pulled up to the menu board – and when it has pulled away.

In terms of the types of call centers that are used, Gagnon said there are basically three models: 1) The store or franchise owner owns and operates the call center themselves, 2) the owner co-operates the call center with other store or franchise owners, or 3) the store or franchise owner contracts out a call center (i.e. third party) to handle call ordering. In the first two models, it is up the restaurant owner or franchisee whether they want to staff their call center with, say, only English speaking, or perhaps bilingual agents – or whether the call center is located in Texas or India. “They are in control over the location of their centers and what agents they use,” he said, adding that in this sense, the restaurant owner is the one who is ultimately in control of the quality of the order taking. This lets the owners tailor call center staff to meet the needs of a specific region (for example, some of the fast food restaurants in Southern California are using a mix of English and Spanish speaking agents). In the model where the call center serves multiple restaurants, each agent can take orders from multiple menu boards at multiple locations. The system lets each agent see on their screen the location where the next customer is placing his or her order (i.e. which store, town, state, etc.) This and other information are delivered to agents via the system’s “Manager Console,” which also allows for precise management of order agents working in the call center (or “order center”) from inside the restaurant. This interface shows the status of all agents, indicating who is currently active, on break, or idle, and lets restaurant managers and owners manage agents just as if they were in the store. It also provides critical communication in the event that, for example, the restaurant runs out of a particular item - or suddenly starts offering a new item.

Another key component in the system is the “Smart Agent Desktop,” which instantly shows the store’s full menu (plus special items) to each agent. Gagnon explained that this interface not only reminds agents of what to say (i.e. how to greet customers), it also enables them to offer promotional items and cross-sell additional items (such as dessert). The end result is an improved customer experience, faster transactions, more accurate orders and increased check size.

Yet another useful feature is the system’s “Analytics Engine,” which lets store owners manage and evaluate order-taking resources through metrics such as time per order. This allows store owners to plan how many employees and agents are needed during peak and off-peak times. Meanwhile, the system’s “Queue Manager” is used to process incoming orders and makes sure they are routed to the proper agents (for example, Spanish speaking agents)

Gagnon said the system also enables Web–based and phone-based ordering via its “Multipoint Order Module.” Although neither feature is available just yet, this will enable more order points and increase customer ordering options, thus resulting in greater convenience and, subsequently, higher customer satisfaction and increased sales.

In terms of other “point of sale” features, Exit41’s system uses special directional microphones in the menu board which are said to cancel external noise (and thus only pick up the driver’s voice) as well as special omni-directional speakers for better sound quality. Gagnon said using quality audio components at the point of sale is essential, because if sound quality degrades, agents and customers can have a difficult time understanding each other. He added that there is a QoS component too, to help ensure signal quality, and this in turn helps the system deliver crystal clear sound quality to both customers and agents. In the event that the system develops a problem (usually due to problems with available broadband speeds), Gagnon said there is a failover which enables the restaurant to instantly switch to its “in house” order taking system.

When asked whether the customer sometimes becomes confused because the person delivering their food at the pick up window is not the same person who took their order, Gagnon said as long as the system is working properly “they’ll never be able to tell.” He added, however, that there are sometimes challenges: For example, when a restaurant in the Washington DC area recently started using the system, an agent became somewhat flustered when a customer pulled up to the menu board and asked “what can I get for five dollars?” This is where the system’s Manager Console plays a key role – it enabled the agent to talk directly with the restaurant manager in order to properly answer the customer’s question.

“When you’re talking about dealing with the general public, there’s always going to be that one circumstance which no one has ever encountered before,” Gagnon said. “Restaurant owners … and the agents … have to be prepared for that.” But as he explained, the longer the system is in place, the more adept agents become in handling unique situations. The hard part, Gagnon said, is the fact that “there really is no way to do a beta – there is no trial for this system – once it is live, it’s live.” He said Exit41 has to rely on its client’s experiences in order to perfect the system. “We have to learn by doing … not by thinking,” he said.

Gagnon acknowledged that probably the next big thing coming to the QSR industry is IVR-based order taking, however, he pointed out that today’s IVR technology still needs a lot more perfecting before it can be successfully deployed in the fast food business. For now, he said, call center-based order taking is best way to boost efficiency and accuracy. When asked if he envisions touch screen ordering at menu boards in the future, he said, “no, I doubt that will ever happen – maybe inside the restaurant – but outside, at the point of sale, you really need human interaction – you need that interface with people.”

With regard to the regulatory challenges of installing extra ordering lanes and menu boards at restaurant locations which have small parking lots, Gagnon said so far there have been very few problems stemming from local or state zoning regulations. Generally, he said most municipal zoning boards view this as a facility upgrade that actually improves the flow of traffic through the site - therefore most zoning boards approve of the idea. He said in cases where a restaurant fronts a busy road or highway, it is actually preferred to have multiple order lanes because it prevents traffic from potentially backing out onto the street, which can be dangerous.

Exit41 announced earlier this month that it has been granted a US patent (US 7,110,964 B2) related to its Order Perfect solution.

“The award of this patent not only validates Exit41’s innovative solution and its ability to drive profitability for restaurants, but it also signifies the high growth potential of this emerging space,” said Bob Greene, managing partner, Contour Venture Partners and Exit41 board member, in a press release.

256 Operating Associates, a Wendy’s franchisee in Nashua, N.H., is the first franchisee within Wendy’s to implement the Order Perfect solution. Kevin R. Fritton, executive vice president of 256 Operating Associates, said the solution “has given us a clear competitive advantage.”

“Our customers consistently compliment us for our improved accuracy, courteous service, and speed,” Fritton said in the release. “From day one, we’ve seen incremental profits streaming into the restaurant. The return is there everyday in our sales.”

“Customer loyalty for QSRs is notoriously low, and gaining and sustaining a competitive advantage is a challenge,” Gagnon said in the press release. “With Order Perfect, it’s a win-win situation. Customers get what they came for – quick, accurate delivery of their food, while restaurants get maximum benefit from current customers and attract new ones, ultimately driving greater profitability.”

Exit41 is reportedly pursuing an additional patent for its Picture Perfect technology that captures an image of the customer and associates the image with the order.

For more information, visit www.exit41.com.

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Patrick Barnard is Associate Editor for TMCnet and a columnist covering the telecom industry. To see more of his articles, please visit Patrick Barnard’s columnist page.