News

Study finds QSRs struggling to serve growing order-for-pickup audience

November 5, 2019

As much as the restaurant world debates home delivery, it remains a fact that order-ahead, pickup-in-store sales are racing forward and now, a recently completed industry study by mobile commerce platform, Rakuten Ready, shows many brands are struggling to keep up.

The study of 25 U.S. QSR, retail and grocery brands, unleashed secret shoppers on the some 750 order-for-pickup trips to get a snapshot of the state of this channel of business's overall customer experience and wait times. The results made it clear that the industry overall is struggling to keep up, showing what Rakuten Ready said in a news release are "deep gaps in customer experience across categories for both in-store and curbside pickup." Primary problems identified includes orders not being ready, no dedicated pickup areas or exclusive pickup line.

"Just offering 'order for pickup' or 'delivery' is not as simple as adding a feature on your website or app and marketing the service," Rakuten Ready co-founder and CEO Jaron Waldman, said in the release. "It is critical that brands fully understand customer expectations so they can focus on improving the end-to-end experience — particularly that dreaded last mile, which can make or break the whole experience with your brand."

Trips for the study occurred between July and August this year, with secret shoppers asked to describe their experiences including convenience of parking spots, dedicated pickup areas, readiness of the order and staff aptitude for handling orders.

The study found that some of the prominent chains that lean more toward fast casual dining, including Chipotle, Panera, and Starbucks, recorded the fastest in-store pickup times. However, Chick-fil-A also came out well from the strictly quick-service category. 

Based on study order data, customers who waited less than 2 minutes were four times more likely to return regularly, with a select few brands fulfilling this need or exceeding it. Among those, Chipotle reigned supreme with more than 88% of orders ready in under 2 minutes. Other brands that fulfilled this standard were also fast casuals, including Panera and Starbucks. 

Curbside pickup, like that available in most strictly quick-service concepts, was nowhere near as successful in meeting that benchmark, with most concepts clocking in with waits slightly over 5 minutes. However, Chick-fil-A's average wait times for curbside were far better than others in this area of the study, the company said. 

Keys to success for in-store pickup include dedicated pickup areas, exclusive mobile order pickup lines and separate prep lines for mobile orders. 

This sector of business is important, according to those behind the study, because of pickup's growing popularity, which is taking place, in part, because home delivery has had so many customer experience glitches, according to Rakuten Ready. This is allowing mobile order ahead for pickup to take hold with 30% of restaurant users and 24% of retail users say they have used order-for-pickup because it is actually faster than delivery.

"Brands must now rethink business and operational models to not only keep up with evolving customer demands but also grow new markets," Digital analyst and customer experience expert, Brian Solis said, in the release. "Those that do win. Those that don't will lose."