Going contactless at quick-service restaurants (QSRs) in the past decade typically referred to adopting mobile payment options. While COVID-19 has increased demand for delivery and pick-up, restaurants were already looking to optimize the order-to-fulfillment process. Now, the crisis has forced restaurants to expand their view of “contactless” and how it relates to every aspect of the customer experience.

The three stages of the order-fulfillment process – ordering, food prep and food pick-up or delivery – are already undergoing change and will need to adapt to meet customer expectations for food quality and safety in the new normal of social distancing, waves of viral outbreaks and intermittent dining-room closures. The Wall Street Journal reported that McDonald’s, the world’s largest fast-food chain by sales, announced a 59-page dine-in reopening guide for U.S. franchisees that includes commitments to clean bathrooms every half hour and digital kiosks after each order, and enforce social distancing.

The National Restaurant Association estimates that three percent of all restaurants in the United States, which includes QSRs, have closed due to COVID-19 and more than 10 percent could close in the coming weeks and months. The association also estimates the restaurant industry lost $25 billion in sales for the first 22 days of March.

In a March Rakuten consumer survey, some 80 percent of respondents said they’ve avoided restaurants since the pandemic began and 66 percent said if a restaurant would proactively communicate the health and safety precautions they’re taking it would increase the likelihood of them ordering from that restaurant. To that end, conveying how a restaurant is implementing contactless solutions would also go a long way.

Ordering food

Mobile ordering is projected to drive more than 10 percent of sales for the sector in 2020, and this trend will persist as more consumers view mobile as a safer and more efficient way to order. Here are three considerations for how the ordering process is being disrupted:

1. Touchpoints will be reimagined

QSRs had already implemented kiosks that added another level of personalization to the customer experience and helped capture valuable data to optimize in-store traffic. However, kiosks have been rolled out as hands-on customer experiences, with customers tapping on screens to select menu options and place their orders. These experiences may need to be re-imagined, leveraging voice and gesture controls, to regain customer use.

2. Digital menu boards will drive consumer contactless adoption

As drive-thru becomes even more critical to QSRs’ business, digital menu boards must provide better brand experiences and more relevant and meaningful information to customers. This is especially key if food supply chain problems continue, and real-time menu item availability and personalization is relied upon to boost sales and loyalty. Publicis Sapient’s Premise accelerator easily integrates with upstream systems for personalization, customer order history and loyalty, and in-restaurant systems such as point-of-sale, providing the foundation for seamless customer interactions.

3. Will COVID-19 bring new life to QR Codes at QSRs?

In a world where the consumer psyche wants to avoid touching surfaces, QR codes present an interesting solution for QSRs. QR codes didn’t gain traction in some parts of the world as their value wasn’t clear. However, we’re seeing a re-emergence of QR codes as a touchless alternative at KFC restaurants in China, for instance, and other restaurants that recognize this more sanitary option that’s likely cheaper than printing menus. QR codes can easily turn mobile phones into mobile menu boards and can integrate with ordering systems, eliminating the need for order or wait staff with relatively little effort.

Crews and preparing food

Many restaurants are grappling with workforce challenges as workers have health and safety concerns and operators have to optimize costs and service. But the demand for crews to be able to respond quickly to various fulfillment requests ranging from pick-up to delivery is more important than ever.

Crews will need new tools and notifications to let them know if an order is being prepared for curbside pick-up or delivery. Third-party delivery services like Uber Eats often pick-up multiple orders at a time, making packaging prep time paramount depending on how the food will reach customers and how long the journey will take from the restaurant kitchen to dining table.

Robotics could also be a game-changer for crews and customers alike. Robots could increase productivity and reduce costs, but so far robotics haven’t been deemed as essential to businesses because they haven’t recognized their value. COVID-19 has been a wake-up call for how necessary this technology may become.

“As we think about contactless from order to delivery, we have to think creatively about how to drive contactless into back of the house functions, said Kalliecharan. “Can we use robots to reduce touch points in order prep or packing? We’ve started seeing robots in grocery aisles – could QSR kitchens also be fertile ground?“

Getting the food

Brands like Instacart show how to get the pick-up or delivery experience right, where micro moments in the process are optimized to remove contact and friction. For pick-up, customers opt-in to allow the company to geo-locate phones so that a store knows when a customer will arrive and when to have their groceries ready to load into the car.

However, at QSRs, people won’t be able stand by counters waiting to pick-up food as social-distancing guidelines become more common. Staggering pick up times is going to be essential in reducing contact. Digital solutions need to have the intelligence to predict pick-up time based on kitchen congestion.

“How many of us have gone to do pick-up and you have to get on your phone, and you have to call the restaurant and tell them that you’re there and the food isn’t ready?” said Kalliecharan. “This sort of guesstimating on what time to arrive and food not being ready isn’t an option for brands in the post-COVID-19 world, not when there are better alternatives.”

In a re-imagined and optimized pickup process, customers know when to arrive, are informed when their order is ready, can notify that they are on their way, have arrived or have geo-fencing technology detect their arrival – all without contact.

For delivery, restaurant mobile apps can send customers alerts letting them know when their food is in transit and the expected delivery, along with offering contactless delivery so that delivery staff don’t wait at front doors for a customer to receive the food.

Consumers are going to demand more transparency into the health of QSR crews and will want reassurance that food has been prepared to the highest sanitation standards and hasn’t been tampered with. In China we’re seeing QSRs taking daily temperatures of delivery staff to reduce virus transmission. As this crisis prolongs do alternate delivery methods such as smart lockers and robots present more options that are sterile?

“This crisis has put a spotlight on QSR vulnerabilities – specifically on the speed at which solutions can be deployed,” said Kalliecharan. “The nature of this crisis with its ongoing waves and the emergence of increased focus and productivity at HQ is going to afford QSRs some relief to focus on improving their engineering agility, and it’s important to remember that some of the biggest innovations came in times of crisis .”

Building resilience

Even though social distancing restrictions are easing in some locales, QSR brands will need to build resilience by having an agile response to future outbreaks. In this quest to build resilience we’re already seeing brands deploy additional revenue streams that cater to contactless:

• Instant markets: With Panera Bread’s bakery sales down in stores, the brand was quickly able to pivot to an online grocery model to sell their bakery products and make what was a secondary revenue source pre-pandemic their primary revenue.
• Meal kits and catering: Restaurants also need to consider how to cater to larger trends beyond QSRs, like catering and meal kits, in this new normal and how to adapt those for a contactless context. How would family meals for four or more people, for example, affect workflows as food safety becomes more top-of-mind with consumers? In addition, with many people cooking at home, QSRs have an opportunity to sell their menu items in the form of meal kits to diversify their revenue. This also let customers prepare the food fresh at home and cuts down on the number of crew having contact with the food.

Looking ahead

QSRs have little to lose in elevating their health and safety standards and going contactless.

Taco Bell has publicly announced that it is going to be the “winner” in this category. Seventy-six percent of consumers interviewed said, “a restaurant’s cleanliness and food safety will matter more to me after COVID-19,” according to Datassential, a food and beverage industry analytics company.

“We have to prepare for disruptions that are going to happen in multiple ways,” said Kalliecharan. “We have to do some lightweight solutions for now, but then we have to plan for more robust features in order management and back of house systems. We need to be able to turn these on or off, depending on environmental factors, and flexibility in order entry and fulfillment is going to be key in this new normal.”

As more QSRs begin to address these considerations, they’ll discover that making their business increasingly contactless, mobile and flexible gives them the opportunity to engage directly with their customers. This will also enable QSRs to deliver the highest standard of service even if they can’t be physically close to their customers.