Mobile Ordering, Third-Party Delivery Integration Top Wendy’s To-Do List
Wendy’s will complete integrating delivery into its mobile app and will offer mobile ordering at all North American stores by the end of the year.
Wendy’s launched an exclusive delivery partnership with DoorDash late in 2017. In an earnings call with analysts, Todd Penegor, President and CEO, admits that “awareness is quite low,” however, “we're very happy with DoorDash: they've continued to build out their delivery footprint for us, and we got over 80% of our restaurants now serviced by DoorDash.”
Behind the scenes, Wendy’s is working to fully integrate delivery orders into its POS “to make sure that we drive order accuracy,” Penegor explains. ”We drive a better experience for the drivers, a better experience for our employees and ultimately get the food to the customer faster and more accurate.”
Currently delivery times are around 30 minutes, “and as we get things integrated into our POS, we'll be able to shorten that ordering time, create more accuracy and ultimately get the food to the customer even faster,” said Penegor.
At the same time, the QSR is ramping up marketing efforts. “We have a robust playbook of promotions slated for the remainder of 2019 to build our digital awareness and ultimately drive accelerated same-restaurant sales,” Penegor added.
Speed of Service
Wendy’s is looking to improve its speed of service, and made “a nice improvement” during Q2, said CFO Gunther Plosch during an earnings calls with analysts. He declined to cite specifics.
One area earmarked for continued improvement is credit card processing times. “...We were a little bit slower than a lot of the industry on credit card processing, and we made some software changes during the second quarter; we're actually seeing some improvement on credit card processing,” said Plosch. “We know we still have more opportunity to be even faster on our processing.”
Looking to the future, Penegor sees a “big opportunity in the digital age” to unlock the drive-thru to help with mobile ordering. He pointed to McDonald’s use of interactive menu boards as one option, and added there are “couple of things we are studying currently.”
For now, Wendy's will remained focused on driving improvements across the enterprise. “...We will stay laser-focused on investing in the quality of our food, providing great value, delivering exceptional service, and elevating our restaurants. We will accomplish this through our focus on enhancing the customer experience through our digital platforms and driving operational excellence to ensure customers have a great experience at all of our restaurants,” said Penegor.