News Briefs

Intouch Insight, a provider of customer experience management solutions in North America, has released the second edition of its Emerging Experience study today in partnership with QSR Magazine. The report, Next-Gen Restaurant Experiences: The Rise of Innovative Locations, is focused on how technology is impacting the customer experience for multi-location QSR brands.

"We have been closely monitoring the latest trends in the technology and new prototypes launched by Quick Service Restaurants since the pandemic," says Laura Livers, Chief Revenue Officer at Intouch Insight. "This year, through our Emerging Experiences study, we wanted to dig deeper into the current performance of these prototypes and technology as compared to traditional experiences."

Driving Speed Improvements

The rapidly evolving quick service sector has seen many brands invest heavily in technology-enabled prototypes to enhance both in-person and digital experiences. This year's study highlights innovative brands that have incorporated features like mobile kiosks, improved drive-thru, AI-powered technology, innovative kitchens, and more to elevate the customer experience.
 

Taco Bell, Checkers & Rallys, bartaco Share the Stories Behind Their Award-Winning Technology Transformations

The results show that innovation experience overall scores outperformed legacy experiences in 7 out of 10 brands’. Some of the key findings of the study include:

• 3 out of 4 Innovation Experiences received higher overall satisfaction scores compared to their legacy counterparts.
• Technology innovations drove speed improvements for digital orders placed for pickup.
• 3 out of 4 innovation experiences' overall order accuracy scores outperformed the legacy experiences. 

“The data suggests that customers have a preference for innovative experiences,” says Livers. “As growth in these digital channels continues to surge, creating consistency across the varied customer engagement points will be critical for success. The brands who measure, learn, and pivot quickly, will be the brands who ultimately come out on top.”

Download the full study here: https://hubs.ly/Q02tjNSr0

PopID and Steak n Shake announced today that all Steak n Shake locations in the United States now accept PopID Check In (to review favorite orders and loyalty points) and PopPay for checkout. With more than 300 locations, Steak n Shake is the first national restaurant brand in the United States to adopt biometric check-in and checkout nationwide. PopID’s biometric check-in feature makes kiosk ordering faster, easier, and more personalized.

The implementation of PopID in every Steak n Shake location was accomplished rapidly and at low cost through a partnership between PopID and ACRELEC, a leading supplier of kiosk-ordering hardware and drive-through products. Cameras were shipped to every restaurant for attachment to the existing ACRELEC kiosks. “As explained in our recent publication, ACRELEC believes that our integrated biometric solution provides various benefits to restaurant operators related to throughput, ticket size, and loyalty engagement,” says Bruno Lo-Re, President of ACRELEC America.

“We are thrilled about our partnership with PopID and to be on the edge of biometric technology for the benefit of our customers. Our guests now have the option to use biometrics for a faster and more seamless experience,” says Sardar Biglari, Chairman of Biglari Holdings, the parent company of Steak n Shake.

Now that biometrics are enabled for all ordering and payment inside Steak n Shake restaurants, PopID and Steak n Shake will begin implementing biometric check-in and checkout at the restaurant’s drive-through units. “Similar to the kiosks, biometric check in can increase loyalty participation and revenue at the drive thru while also reducing payment processing costs,” says John Miller, CEO of PopID and Chairman of Cali Group. “Additionally, biometric payment at the order confirmation screen enables staff members to work on tasks other than taking payments by card and phone at the order pick-up window.”

Domino's Pizza Inc. introduces its new and improved loyalty program. 

Domino's Rewards offers loyalty members even more opportunities to earn and redeem points across its corporate and franchise store locations. Domino's enhanced rewards program allows customers to:

• Earn points for less
  • Loyalty members will now earn 10 points on every order of $5 or more
• Redeem points for even more menu items – and earn free Domino's after just two orders
  • Members can redeem a variety of points for more menu items:
    • 20 points: A free dipping cup, a 16-piece order of Parmesan Bread Bites or a 20 oz. drink
    • 40 points: An order of Bread Twists or Stuffed Cheesy Bread
    • 60 points: A medium, two-topping pizza; pasta; Oven-Baked Sandwich; or a 3-piece order of Chocolate Lava Crunch Cakes
• Earn more rewards
  • Loyalty perks are now even better, as members will have exclusive access to member-only deals, special discounts and opportunities to earn bonus points!

"We are thrilled to give the brand's loyal customers additional ways to earn free Domino's items more often," said Mark Messing, Domino's vice president of digital experience and loyalty. "At a time when most brands are scaling back their loyalty programs and making it more difficult to earn and redeem points, Domino's is doing the opposite. We want to make it easier to reward our customers and give them more options so they can get rewarded faster."

Marketing a LTO 

From now until Oct. 22, 2023, rewards members can take advantage of a limited time offer to redeem 20 points for a free order of Domino's new Pepperoni Stuffed Cheesy Bread, which is normally a 40-point redemption, in celebration of the product's recent launch. 

Subway completed its previously announced sale to affiliates of Roark.

The acquisition comes on the heels of Subway's three exceptional years of sales growth and positive global net restaurant growth for the first time since 2016. The brand has continued to innovate in 2024, with the introduction of Subway Sidekicks, a hot new menu category, and a fresh lineup of signature wraps, served on a new lavash-style flatbread.

"The entire Subway system is excited that our sale to Roark is complete," said John Chidsey, CEO of Subway. "As we look to our future, our growth journey is far from over. With a continued strategic focus on delivering better food and a better guest experience, our next chapter will be the most exciting yet."

Staying the Course

Looking ahead, the company will continue its work to Build a Better Subway for its franchisees, employees and guests with a focus on ongoing culinary and digital innovation, modernization of restaurants, and strategic international expansion. There are no anticipated changes to the company's leadership team, strategic focus or operating plans.

As one of the world's largest quick service restaurant brands, Subway serves freshly made-to-order sandwiches, wraps, salads and bowls to millions of guests, across more than 100 countries and territories in nearly 37,000 restaurants every day. Subway restaurants are owned and operated by Subway franchisees—a network that includes thousands of dedicated entrepreneurs and small business owners—who are committed to delivering the best guest experience possible in their local communities.

Toast, the all-in-one technology platform built for restaurants, today announced details for its Digital Storefront and Marketing Suites. Toast’s Digital Storefront Suite offers robust website and online ordering capabilities. Toast’s Marketing Suite marries marketing tools with automation technology. Together, the suites create a seamless digital hospitality experience for restaurants, integrate across the Toast platform, and allow restaurants to gather guest data from online and point-of-sale (POS) transactions. This data powers automated, targeted campaigns and custom-tailored guest experiences, fostering an engaging online environment that attracts guests and encourages return restaurant visits and repeat orders.

“Through innovations including our Toast Go^® 2 handheld devices and Toast Mobile Order & Pay^®, Toast technology has streamlined and transformed the on-site guest experience for restaurants of all sizes and types,” said Steve Fredette, President and Co-Founder of Toast. “Our Digital Storefront and Marketing Suites extend that enhanced guest experience online using tools like Toast’s new AI-powered writing assistant, search engine-optimized websites and online menus, promotional offers, loyalty programs, and automated marketing campaigns that work together to draw guests in and keep them coming back.”

Marketing automations in Toast’s Marketing Suite help save time and remove guesswork

Whether increasing online orders or driving in-store visits, Toast’s Marketing Suite can help restaurant owners and operators reach their goals. In fact, Toast restaurants that used gift cards, loyalty, and email marketing offered as part of the Marketing Suite saw 63 percent more sales than Toast restaurants that did not use any of those features¹. A collection of powerful marketing automations and enhancements are designed to make it easier for restaurant owners and operators to generate marketing campaigns targeted to the guests they want to reach when it matters most. Key suite enhancements include the ability to:

• Leverage Artificial Intelligence (AI) to create engaging email marketing campaigns aligned with a restaurant’s brand and marketing goals. According to a recent Toast survey, 72 percent of guests surveyed were interested in hearing from their favorite restaurants via email. Guests also identified promotions and loyalty programs as some of the top content that they want to see². Toast customers can provide simple inputs like campaign goals and desired tone, and the AI-powered writing assistant will generate suggested layout and text for promotional emails. Users can regenerate results as often as they like, review and make edits, and easily send them to their desired audience.
• Create one-click, automated marketing campaigns powered by guest data. From thanking repeat guests to welcoming new ones, restaurants can easily turn on data-driven campaigns that run in the background — so they can save time and focus on running their business.
• Use a powerful recommendation engine that serves timely insights to operators, such as reminders about upcoming holidays and suggestions to use pre-designed campaigns to save time. The Marketing Suite provides real-time performance metrics so owners and operators can track sales driven by each campaign.
• Create targeted promotional offers tailored to users’ business needs, like promoting seasonal specials or discounting excess inventory. Owners and operators can seamlessly promote these offers on their Toast Digital Storefront channels and through email marketing campaigns to their guests. Coming soon, users can also create and promote upsell deals directly through their Toast Guest-Facing Display.

Toast Digital Storefront Suite enables customers to elevate their online presence with new Toast Websites

Part of Toast’s Digital Storefront Suite, Toast’s website builder joins a lineup of powerful digital ordering tools designed to help a restaurant stand out online. A restaurant’s website is one of the top three ways that consumers discover a restaurant, according to responses from restaurant guests to a recent Toast survey³. Toast Websites empowers owners and operators to build and customize a professional website effortlessly, and make updates in seconds. With drag-and-drop functionality and Toast products embedded on-site, restaurants can enhance their online presence and drive traffic via SEO. Key Digital Storefront features include:

• Search Engine Optimization for digital view-only menus, online ordering, and websites, designed to make it easy for restaurants — and the best menu items — to get discovered faster.
• Automatic POS integration that enables seamless updates to digital and online ordering menus when menu item availability or descriptions are updated on the POS. Real-time menu updates enable consistency between online and in-person dining experiences and enhance SEO.
• Customization allows any restaurant to take its in-person dining experience to the web with a customizable online presence with fonts, colors, and imagery.
• Templates and drag-and-drop tools to simplify creating and updating a website. The website is buildable in minutes and allows for easy creation and updates without the need for technical expertise.
• Integrated and embedded Toast products including Online Ordering, Toast Tables, Loyalty, and more in websites built with Toast Websites. Custom branding helps deliver a seamless guest experience whether dining in or ordering takeout.

“It would take many steps to create, change, and update my website and online ordering. With Toast, it’s easy to set it and forget it — I make an update in one place and see changes across my whole tech stack,” said John Mason IV, Owner of IV Hospitality which operates FRESKO Greek Kitchen, a two-location quick-service restaurant group in North Carolina.

The Digital Storefront and Marketing Suites also include additional features including customizable online ordering with advanced data collection and capabilities that can help boost sales, customizable promotional offers to incentivize guests, and new loyalty accrual and redemption capabilities, as well as gift cards.

Customer testimonials are self-reported and are not a guarantee that any other customer will see similar results. Toast does not warrant the accuracy or completeness of any information contained in customer testimonials. Individual results will vary.

This information is intended for informational purposes only and is not a binding commitment. The development, release and timing of any products, features or functionality remain at the sole discretion of Toast, and are subject to change.

¹ Based on Toast internal data from 7/1/23 to 12/31/23 comparing Gross Merchandise Value for roughly 18,000 restaurants on the Toast platform using Toast’s 2023 offerings for gift cards, loyalty, and email marketing, with roughly 13, 000 restaurants on the Toast platform that did not use any of those features. Confounding factors such as restaurant size or location number not accounted for. Individual results will vary.
² To help better understand the restaurant industry, Toast conducted a blind survey of 1,571 restaurant guests aged 18+ in the US who dined at a restaurant, ordered delivery or ordered takeout at least once in the prior 3 month period. The survey was in field from February 14, 2024 - February 21, 2024. Respondents were not made aware that Toast was fielding the study. Third party vendor executing the survey granted incentives to restaurant respondents for participation. Using a standard margin of error calculation, at a confidence interval of 95%, the margin of error on average is +/- 2%. Respondents were asked “Take a moment to think about your favorite restaurant. How interested are you, if at all, in hearing from your favorite restaurant via the following channels?"” 22% of respondents selected email and “very interested” and 50% selected email and “somewhat interested.”
³ To help better understand the restaurant industry, Toast conducted a blind survey of 1,571 restaurant guests aged 18+ in the US who dined at a restaurant, ordered delivery or ordered takeout at least once in the prior 3 month period. The survey was in field from February 14, 2024 - February 21, 2024. Respondents were not made aware that Toast was fielding the study. Third party vendor executing the survey granted incentives to restaurant respondents for participation. Using a standard margin of error calculation, at a confidence interval of 95%, the margin of error on average is +/- 2%. Respondents who indicated that they had ordered from a new restaurant during the prior 6 month period were asked “How did you find out about this restaurant? Please rank up to 5 of the options below in order where 1 = the first place you saw the restaurant, 2 = the second place you saw the restaurant, etc.”