As fast food chains are looking to upgrade their customer experience, no one is leading the way in terms of incorporating artificial intelligence in fast food industry like McDonald’s. Since Steve Easterbrook took over as the CEO in March 2015, the globally-recognized fast food giant has placed a greater emphasis on leveraging responsive technology to help customers customize their orders. Serving nearly 1% of the global population, McDonald’s 38,000 stores are positioning themselves to generate more revenue while meeting the ordering preferences of their 68 million daily customers. As part of a $6 billion technology overhaul announced in 2018, McDonald’s plans to revolutionize how their products are positioned to ensure that customers are giving product recommendations and can even customize their orders based on the time of day.
When customizable menus that changed depending on the weather and traffic patterns were rolled out to select restaurants in 2016, McDonald’s saw an immediate spike in sales. For example, on hot days, cold dessert items were recommended on dynamic boards, and during high traffic times, customers were shown premium drink menus. Over the past five years, the focus for McDonald’s executives has been to offer highly targeted product recommendations and to make ordering as seamless as possible for their customers. Now, McDonald’s can be ordered online via delivery services such as UberEats, and customers can order through a mobile app as well as even reserve parking spots for food pickups.
With the recent March 2019 purchase of Dynamic Yield, a Chicago-based firm specializing in personalization and decision logic technology, McDonald’s is poised to generate even more market share and capture higher revenues. They plan to roll out more food item recommendation features, a wider implementation of self-ordering kiosks, and a host of new delivery options making getting their food even easier.
Are you looking to take your customer experience to the next level? The Beam Team can recommend a wide variety of options to enhance your restaurant’s look and feel. Contact our project team today at 844-232-6832 for a no-strings-attached design consultation.