How QSRs Can Streamline Employee Management for Improved Omnichannel Service

QSRs are built on speedy service, and to live up to their name, optimized operations are pivotal to ensure customers are accommodated at every step. To meet this need, QSRs must prepare for all types of orders, ranging from the traditional point of sale to the drive-thru, apps and in-store kiosks. Implementing an omnichannel strategy through automated processes allows QSRs to guarantee that all customers are served efficiently.

Whether customers order food in-person or online, QSR employees are the backbone of ensuring customers get what they want, whenever they want, in a timely manner. This means that as omnichannel dining continues to evolve, so must employee management. QSRs must optimize employee management and streamline tasks to improve the customer experience, no matter their journey.

Track in-store and mobile ordering effectively

Over the past few years, the pandemic shifted the way many customers choose to dine at QSRs. Shifts in consumer behavior exacerbated the need for the industry to quickly adapt to online processes. With 71% of consumers using a mobile app to purchase food from a restaurant in 2022, it’s evident that omnichannel service still continues to grow.

While mobile ordering increases in popularity, so does the return to dining inside: 77% of adults felt comfortable dining inside restaurants in 2022. QSRs must ensure that all orders, no matter where or how they are placed, are being taken care of quickly and accurately. Eighty-six percent of customers listed order accuracy as the top priority. With this in mind, QSRs must learn how to track and manage all orders effectively, ranging from in-store and mobile to delivery or curbside pickup.

To efficiently manage all orders, QSRs must optimize employee management through unified communication channels and task management processes. Doing so allows managers to ensure that there is dedicated staff to serve drive-thru, in-store and mobile customers. This way, employees can guarantee that no orders are missed and that all are fulfilled correctly and quickly.

Manage day-to-day objectives efficiently

Optimizing employee management provides more structure and accountability to staff – factors that are especially important with the rise of omnichannel customers. This leads to increased productivity and improved store operations, as each employee can see when they’re assigned a task and understand all the specific details involved, from receiving the order and sending it to the kitchen to running the order to the correct customer.

Efficient task management processes also ensure that the in-store dining experience is just as satisfactory as the mobile one. This makes it easy for employees to take care of tasks outside of ordering in a timely and sufficient manner, whether that be cleaning designated areas such as the kitchen and the bathrooms or restocking utensils, lids and straws.

With unified communications, QSRs make it easy for managers and staff to not only handle daily assignments, but get them done swiftly and accurately. When the smaller, day-to-day tasks are being taken care of efficiently, employees have more time and energy to help improve guest services. 

Give staff the resources needed to help all customers

Employees play the primary role in creating a valuable experience for customers. To build an exceptional customer experience, it’s essential for employees to be well-informed. Employee education not only serves as an easy way for QSRs to ensure that store operations are streamlined, but it also makes it easy for employees to readily help diners and efficiently take care of tasks.

With unified communication channels and an online source with all needed information, employees can quickly search for answers and solve problems from a mobile device. For example, employees can easily ask managers questions and access information about menu changes, promotions, product recalls or updated health and safety protocols.

By streamlining management processes, QSRs can also guarantee that employees are adequately trained, as the onboarding process is already established and helpful resources are readily available and easy to access. This sets new employees up for success and guarantees that they are ready and able to assist omnichannel shoppers.

Start with equipped employees and happy customers

To turn customers into repeat guests, QSRs must make improving the omnichannel experience a top priority throughout the year. Not only does streamlining employee management make prioritizing omnichannel service easier and lead to happier customers, but it also reduces employees stress and makes them more prepared to handle any type of order, from drive-thru to mobile and curbside pickup.