Fast food chain McDonald’s is placing increasing emphasis on technology to improve customer service and arrest a slump in its UK performance.
New tills, wireless ordering devices, cashless payments, loyalty cards and elearning are all on the menu to bring customers back to the fold.
‘IT is driving the business now more than ever,’ said Steve Tiley, head of information systems. ‘All these new initiatives involve using technology to resolve business issues and offer better service to our customers.’
As well as new Panasonic touchscreen tills, the burger giant is expanding its use of Symbol handheld wireless devices in restaurants and altering their use at its drive-through sites.
‘Staff use the handheld devices for drive-through transactions in good weather, taking orders before a vehicle arrives at the window,’ said Tiley.
‘But staff can’t use them in bad weather and this gives the kitchen less time to prepare the food, particularly as it is now cooked to order.’
The devices will be incorporated into speaker systems that allow customers to place their order before reaching the window.
‘Technology has moved on and we can now include displays that transmit wirelessly and confirm the order line by line to customers,’ said Tiley. ‘We are testing it at 12 stores this year with full rollout next year.’
Customers can currently use cash and credit cards at selected stores on standalone systems, but their isolated nature makes them prone to fraud and mistakes.
McDonald’s will start testing cashless payment systems integrated with the till system to boost security at 20 outlets later this year. Using Verifone hardware and NCR back-end services, the system will allow McDonald’s to process credit and debit card sales more efficiently and introduce other cashless schemes.
‘Next year, we will look at introducing gift and loyalty cards, which are already being tested in the US,’ said Tiley. ‘It also opens up new opportunities such as paying for goods with smartcards such as Oyster cards.’
Other projects include the replacement of its back-office systems with IBM and extending WiFi access from 500 restaurants to the whole estate.
Datamonitor analyst Martin Atherton says McDonald’s investment in new technology is likely to put the fast food giant ahead of its rivals.
‘Initiatives such as electronic loyalty cards are relatively new to the restaurant industry,’ he said. ‘But they are easy to integrate into card payment systems such as chip-and-PIN.’
He says the biggest challenge the company faces is ensuring that the technology is consistent across all its company-owned and franchised stores.
‘This could involve dictating a set of standards to franchised stores or organising the introduction of new technology for them,’ he said. ‘But it is important to have consistency at the front end to ensure connectivity to the back end.’
McDonald’s...in 30 seconds
z Despite strong global performances, McDonald’s has witnessed falling sales across the UK and has closed 25 of its 1,250 outlets to improve profits.
z After much investment in internal IT systems, including outsourcing IT support services and replacing laptops and mobile phones, the focus has changed to improving customer service.
z McDonald’s is replacing all its 15-year-old tills with Panasonic touchscreen units based on Torex Retail software, that transmit orders to NEC screens in the kitchen. It has implemented the registers in 270 outlets this year and is planning to complete 375 installations by the end of the year.
z McDonald’s uses handheld wireless devices at 500 drive-through outlets, but is planning to use them in its restaurants. It had intended to equip staff with the queue-busting devices by the end of 2003, but now plans to roll them out next year.
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