{"id":2150,"date":"2020-12-23T00:28:53","date_gmt":"2020-12-23T00:28:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thepongroup.com\/delphi\/?p=2150"},"modified":"2020-12-23T00:28:53","modified_gmt":"2020-12-23T00:28:53","slug":"new-technology-at-the-drive-thru","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thepongroup.com\/delphi\/new-technology-at-the-drive-thru\/","title":{"rendered":"NEW TECHNOLOGY AT THE DRIVE-THRU"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>How many of us have bought what we thought was the\u00a0<strong>latest<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0<strong>greatest<\/strong>\u00a0electronic device only to find out that 30 days later another more advanced copy was being sold? Frustrating, isn\u2019t it? Yet, when we think about it that next generation device will have\u00a0<strong>upgrades<\/strong>\u00a0or\u00a0<strong>new<\/strong>\u00a0features you might never even use. Maybe the newest feature is cool to have but at the end of the day you just want to text, get email, access the internet and make calls. How many iPhone users actually use\u00a0<strong>Siri?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>When technology meets the restaurant business we find this to be a problem that takes on\u00a0<strong>exponential<\/strong>\u00a0proportions. Operators of successful restaurants are\u00a0<strong>very<\/strong>\u00a0cautious of tinkering with what is working. Yes, it\u00a0<strong>might<\/strong>\u00a0be nice to have that extra report or a \u201ccloud\u201d based whatever, but how does it make the operator\u00a0<strong>more money<\/strong>\u00a0and how difficult will it be to integrate into an already massively complex operation? These are the\u00a0<strong>real questions<\/strong>\u00a0that trip-up many new technology products as they meet the real world of the restaurant owner.<\/p>\n<p>QSR\u2019s are especially interesting when it comes to technology because the drive-thru produces some very\u00a0<strong>measurable<\/strong>\u00a0data that can be\u00a0<strong>manipulated<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0<strong>acted<\/strong>\u00a0<strong>upon<\/strong>\u00a0to produce improvements at that part of the restaurant. Yet, operators are\u00a0<strong>reluctant<\/strong>\u00a0to make those changes because an\u00a0<strong>ROI<\/strong>\u00a0might not be proven or the overall cost is just too high or integrating something new at the drive-thru interrupts an already fairly efficient part of the business.<\/p>\n<p>However, if you run a QSR you probably are a franchisee of a\u00a0<strong>major<\/strong>\u00a0brand and the franchisor is and should be consistently looking at ways to make your business\u00a0<strong>better.<\/strong>\u00a0If they aren\u2019t you should be upset! Sometimes those changes require the franchisor and the franchisee to think about how these new things are going to affect the\u00a0<strong>whole<\/strong>\u00a0store. Digital menu boards are a great example of this. How tempting is it for the franchisor to ditch printed materials for thousands of locations and all the pain that goes with that and put up a digital menu board? However, with that change comes some other considerations like how the\u00a0<strong>content<\/strong>\u00a0of that digital board will be managed and how it is controlled to\u00a0<strong>maintain brand consistency<\/strong>. Additionally, there is a risk that if a digital menu board goes down due to power failure or device failure is the front of the house or the drive-thru out of commission? Then there\u2019s the cost! Can the savings from not printing and distributing menu slats and plastic pictures of food offset the cost of the digital menu board? The mind of the franchisee\u00a0<em>spins<\/em> with these kinds of questions and at the very moment he gets some time to focus on it, the phone rings and his shift leader just quit.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0<strong>cost pressures\u00a0<\/strong>on the restaurant business\u00a0<em>never<\/em>\u00a0seem to stop coming. More questions about\u00a0<em>healthcare costs<\/em>\u00a0for employees or the specter of another\u00a0<em>minimum wage increase<\/em>\u00a0or a regulation about throwing food in the trash! It seems government is trying to make life hard for a business that might look easy from the outside but isn\u2019t once you own one. Technology innovation in the restaurant space needs to show the operator how it can\u00a0<strong>make his\/her life easier<\/strong>\u00a0or\u00a0<strong>make them more money<\/strong>. It really is that simple. So many technology advances have failed because they tried to do too much. Yet others failed because they just didn\u2019t do enough.<\/p>\n<p>The POS companies are struggling with the same issue. Seasoned franchisees know they don\u2019t need an expensive database to manage their business. Yet when POS systems started integrating with accounting software and labor management systems and payroll and inventory they got\u00a0<strong>much<\/strong>\u00a0more interesting. Now, those systems really were\u00a0<strong>adding value<\/strong>\u00a0by saving the operator time and helping them make more money. Even the seasoned operator acknowledged this. As franchisees acquired more stores and became multi-unit operators, the need for this kind of data management became much more\u00a0<em>critical<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>So where will the next innovation come from and what problem will it address? Delphi Display Systems has an interesting proposition for franchisees. Looking at the drive-thru as a whole unit of business, the customer-facing equipment package is a disparate conglomeration of boxes and speakers and lights and sensors and yes, even mirrors. Most of the equipment is made by different suppliers who may or may not know anything about the drive-thru business and\u00a0<strong>most<\/strong>\u00a0if not\u00a0<strong>all\u00a0<\/strong>of the equipment was made to stand alone. Delphi takes a different view of this issue. We\u2019ve committed to providing the QSR drive-thru operator with the\u00a0<strong>key<\/strong>\u00a0pieces of equipment needed to run an efficient drive-thru all in one neat package. This single-supplier approach gives the franchisee an integrated, upgradable approach to drive-thru equipment with one place to go for it. The technology part is interesting in that it ties data capture into one database providing the operator with an actionable dashboard of the key metrics affecting this business. Like the POS companies that added functions which in turn added value, Delphi has done the same kind of thing at the drive-thru. Now, a customer can build their drive-thru with a Delphi digital menu board, a Delphi speaker post with a Delphi speaker and the customer talks to a team member listening with Delphi headsets and the order is confirmed on a Delphi order confirmation display. Cars are timed by a Delphi timer and those reports are integrated into the dashboard. The software that ties all this together is a\u00a0<strong>cloud-based<\/strong>\u00a0system that can be accessed remotely 24\/7.<\/p>\n<p>Looking at the\u00a0<strong>entire<\/strong>\u00a0drive-thru business as a package of integrated equipment is a new idea in the QSR space and perhaps one that franchisees will find has a\u00a0<strong>great<\/strong>\u00a0deal of value. The technology that now allows companies like Delphi to offer this is becoming\u00a0<strong>much<\/strong>\u00a0less expensive making the installation costs of this hi-tech equipment not\u00a0<strong>nearly<\/strong>\u00a0as daunting as it was even 5 years ago. Combine that with having\u00a0<strong>one<\/strong>\u00a0source to go to when equipment needs servicing or upgrading, Delphi is hopeful franchisees will soon see that\u00a0<strong>all<\/strong>\u00a0drive thru\u2019s can be made\u00a0<strong>better<\/strong>\u00a0with packaged technology provided from one source.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How many of us have bought what we thought was the\u00a0latest\u00a0and\u00a0greatest\u00a0electronic device only to find out that 30 days later another more advanced copy was being sold? Frustrating, isn\u2019t it? Yet, when we think about it that next generation device will have\u00a0upgrades\u00a0or\u00a0new\u00a0features you might never even use. Maybe the newest feature is cool to have but at the end of the day you just want to text, get email, access the internet and make calls. How many iPhone users actually [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thepongroup.com\/delphi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2150"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thepongroup.com\/delphi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thepongroup.com\/delphi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thepongroup.com\/delphi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thepongroup.com\/delphi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2150"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/thepongroup.com\/delphi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2151,"href":"http:\/\/thepongroup.com\/delphi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2150\/revisions\/2151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thepongroup.com\/delphi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thepongroup.com\/delphi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thepongroup.com\/delphi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}