How can you improve?
Over the weekend, I couldn’t help but notice how fast-food restaurants were PACKED right across the street from casual dining restaurants who were dead. Was fast food better tasting? NO. But why was I in line over the weekend multiple times and not at a better-tasting place? I was looking for a fast and easy way to feed the family after being out and about. Many full-service restaurants and retailers don’t offer this ‘low friction / high impulse’ experience I was looking for this weekend. But could your business capture this previously disregarded demographic? Yes, here’s how.
Turning four existing parking spots into pickup spots with clear signs posted will allow you to reduce the wait time overall vs. customers waiting in the pickup window line during peak times. People will begin to see it’s easier to order and hang out in a spot than sit in a ‘long line’ with their foot on the brake. Update your employee script to let pickup orders know where to go, and update your online portal to say similar.
Next, develop a list of items that you can fast track and prepare in under 5min. NOW you can capture people who want to support you, but the friction has prohibited them thus far. Adding a transitional drive-thru might not be on your mind, but mom and pop restaurants who were able to add drive thru’s are reporting 25% of sales are already flowing through their new drive-thru’s, and existing drive-thru’s report increased sales during current times.
Get some or all of your brick and mortar store online. Brick and mortar stores that just opened up their online stores in the last four months are reporting up to 20-30% of their business is now online. Setup the messaging tool in your POS, like Toast or Shopify, and communicate that orders are ready for pickup. Just be careful how you set up your text messaging updates because some POS systems will text if any part of the order is ready vs. the entire order being available for pickup.
Lastly, as soon as menus are updated, update the website and other places as consumers make buying decisions daily based on what you have listed.