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Articles
A New Focus for 2006?
December 15, 2006
Originally published in the QSR Side Order Newsletter
Over the past few months, I've had a number of conversations when speaking at conferences with franchisees and operators over drive-thru times. Many are focused on total time and challenge me regarding suggestive selling slowing times down, as well as my notion that improving at-the-window time during peak hours can boost sales.
Dave Schuh, COO of Taco John's calculated that by improving at-the-window time 10 seconds during the peak hour of the day, it allows 10 more cars through and can raise their sales nearly 4% - in just 1 hour per day!
In most cases, during peak times, the bottleneck is the pickup window. Improve that time and more cars can pass through. Heck, Pal's Sudden Service has an 18 second average at-the-window time. By cleverly designing their buildings, they can stack 10-12 cars between the order point and pickup so the customer waits 3 minutes but moves every 18 seconds so it flies by. Take condiment orders at the speaker, repeat the order and total to the customer, make it right, repeat it as it's handed out and pretty soon the customer is trained to not look in the bag (and slow times) and off they go - seconds faster than before.
The noted bottleneck also leads me to my second point. During peak hours, most operators tell me not to suggestive sell as it slows the line down. This is the time to make or lose the most money! As I have observed and done informal research (i.e. my own experiences 3-5 times per week at various chains), I find that I place my order and then don't even move - I wait for the line in front of me. No more time would be added to the total experience if they made 1 simple suggestion during my order.
Idly I sit in my car, ample time for the restaurant to suggestive sell, yet the money stays in my wallet. Why should I buy when the cashier doesn't try? It's not his or her fault - just doing what they are told (and then they are sent home early because sales are too slow and labor needs to be cut).
Need a new focus in 2006? Ensure your systems focus on speed and accuracy to lower at-the-window times. Next, stand outside and watch cars place orders and see the opportunities missed to sell to the customer. Finally, do something about it and make a big (financial) difference in your operations next year.