Serving Up Success: What’s Next for Quick-Service Restaurants

In this article we discuss:

• Engaged Employees, Happy Customers
• Have It Your Way: Customer Experience Reigns
• Making AI and ML Work
• The Price Must Be Right
• A Stabilized Supply Chain
• The Right Technology Makes All the Difference
• Investing for the Future

While quick-service restaurants (QSRs) are primarily known for their speed of service, the moving parts that make it possible to deliver delicious food quickly are anything but simple.

This sector of the hospitality industry is at a crossroads, seeking to keep up with the constantly changing demands of the consumer while embracing all the newest tech innovations. They’ve weathered more than their fair share of storms the last few years, and through it all showed resilience and adaptability.

So what’s next for this dynamic industry as it seeks to serve customers while preparing for a sustainable future? Let’s take a look into what’s trending in the quick-service restaurant industry and the role that cloud-based enterprise software can play in supporting long-term success.

Engaged Employees, Happy Customers

With so many options available to consumers, the line of differentiation is growing increasingly thin between the restaurant that a hungry customer chooses and one they walk right past. Besides personalization and a reimagined customer experience (more on that later), the quality and training of frontline employees could make or break that choice.

A welcoming atmosphere and a cohesive team of friendly, well-trained employees is an atmosphere that customers want to return to over and over again. And since the restaurant industry’s turnover rate is notoriously high, the quality of service and employee longevity are lines that often rise in parallel.

So when a restaurant invests in training and development, it can make all the difference. To help make this possible, quick service restaurants should invest in cloud-based enterprise platforms with robust training modules (especially with mobile capabilities) to make sure their employees can stay up to date on training and development, even when on the go.

Along with training, getting feedback from employees is essential, such as Workday customer Australian burger chain Betty’s Burgers. In the video below, Betty’s shares how Workday Peakon Employee Voice helps it maintain a healthy culture and make improvements based on employee feedback.

Have It Your Way: Customer Experience Reigns

It’s fair to assume that if time travel were a thing (does anyone have a spare flux capacitor?) hungry diners of a few decades ago would be shocked by all the options at their smartphone-empowered fingertips (after they ask what a smartphone is). From mobile ordering and contactless payment to robot-made lattes and burgers, we’ve come a long way in the last few decades (remember being asked “smoking or non?”). 

And the vast array of delivery services available have transformed what it means to order a quick meal. In the U.S. alone last year, 21 million people downloaded the DoorDash app, and revenue for delivery services is expected to rise by nearly 13% each year and hit $1.65 trillion by 2027.

To bring back the thin line of differentiation, personalization, and the quality of technology used by quick-service restaurants is another factor in customer loyalty. A well-designed, functional mobile app and an AI-driven personalized approach isn’t a nice-to-have anymore, it’s an expectation.

So, after meeting those requirements first, QSRs that exceed diner expectations will rise to the top. And it’s a virtuous cycle, since the data they’ll collect about consumer preferences can feed (pun intended) their recommendations moving forward.

One order of customer satisfaction, coming right up, with a side of increased loyalty.

Making AI and Machine Learning Work

Speaking of AI (and who isn’t these days), the QSR industry is optimistic about using the power of AI and machine learning (ML) to solve their toughest challenges, particularly to level the playing field so smaller, independent restaurants can find ways to compete with their larger counterparts.

At a high level, AI can help them engage with frontline workers, build efficiency, reduce costs, and improve customer experience (as mentioned earlier). To get more granular, frontline worker scheduling, predictive analytics for inventory management, and chatbots for customer service exemplify several practical applications of this game-changing technology.

On the workforce scheduling front, when restaurants use AI to power flexible scheduling, it makes a huge difference for the frontline worker. When restaurants can optimize schedules to meet their demand forecasts and make it possible for workers to set a schedule that matches their availability and preferences with the ability to easily pick up and swap shifts, they could be more likely to stay, which benefits everyone from employee to customer. As AI and ML become more and more accessible, look for a surge in adoption that could transform the QSR landscape.

The Price Must Be Right

With inflation and other economic factors creating more pressure on consumer finances, snacking may take priority over full meals, and QSRs should find ways to adapt. Affordability and convenience should be a key focus for the industry, with an eye toward value without compromising quality.

Cost-conscious consumers may respond well to more creative menu development, strategic pricing, and loyalty programs as they navigate rising costs, creating more opportunities for QSRs to engage. Flexibility and adaptability are key, and if QSRs respond well, they have a strategic opportunity to position themselves as the new go-to for satisfying yet affordable dining.

A Stabilized Supply Chain

Among many disruptive trends, one thing has improved recently—the supply chain. The stabilization of the supply chain means that food costs are more consistent, empowering QSRs to strategize and forecast more accurately.

This is key to maintaining the delicate balance between quality and affordability, which leads to higher levels of customer satisfaction and loyalty. And it makes optimizing operations and sustainable sourcing more attainable, helping to meet the rising demand for sustainable and eco-friendly practices.

The Right Technology Makes All the Difference

With so many competing demands on the business, QSRs are focused on finding the right cloud-based enterprise software that delivers maximum ROI and consolidates disparate systems into a single source of truth. One example is Shake Shack’s implementation of Workday, including Workday Adaptive Planning. When Shake Shack went public in 2015, its rapid growth brought challenges for its lean financial organization, including the compliance requirements created by going public.

Brian Seely, senior director of Enterprise Systems and Solutions, said “Before Workday, accounting had to print and physically sign every journal entry that they entered into the system. Now that process is automated, which reduces processing time.”

Workday helped the accounting team cut its close time in half and reduced both budget prep and internal audit time significantly. As Seely shared, “Workday Adaptive Planning has brought extraordinary value to our business by giving us the power of information to help make better decisions.”

Investing for the Future

As QSRs stand at the crossroads of this new era, they face a litany of choices. If they choose to invest in employee growth, consumer experience, frontline worker engagement, wise use of AI, and the right cloud-based technology, the door to sustained success will swing open, and they can confidently head into the future equipped with all they need to thrive.

Join us in-person or digitally at Workday Rising, September 16-19, 2024. Connect with industry peers and thought leaders, and learn how we’re taking work forever forward with a single, unified platform. Register Now.