Fast food restaurants need to use smart phone apps to create a better customer experience, by speeding up customer service.

There are many ways in which fast food restaurants can use current technology to speed up the drive thru service and in store counter service. However, I would prefer drive thru’s with new designs. Yet, I know it’s costly to redesign existing establishments. Therefore, I’ll leave such thoughts to myself.

If fast food restaurants created a system that catered to smart phone users, such a system would be capable of the following… and more:

(1) Such a system would allow for individuals to make and pay for their orders at any time prior to picking up their order. However, such a person would have to trigger an intent to pick up order alert on the app.

After triggering the pickup alert, the individual would start to drive to the fast food restaurant in which the order was made. (From this point McDonald’s will be used as a reference.)

Once the individual gets within a certain distance of the McDonald’s, the individuals order would automatically be added to a digital tablet in which would be in the possession of a drive thru assistant, and onto a digital board in the food preparation area.

Depending on how packed the drive thru is, the drive thru assistant would be able to direct the person ahead of time to enter the drive thru upon arrival, or to direct such an individual to park in an available spot in the parking lot.

(Quick note: to make such a system work more efficiently, individuals signing up for the app would be asked to provide a picture of their car, and a picture of themselves. And be notified to provide a picture of a different vehicle, if on a particular day they were to be driving or riding in a different vehicle.)

If such an individual is directed to the parking lot, they would be able to choose to have the order brought to the vehicle, or select an option to receive an alert to pick up the order inside.

(2) Individuals who plan to eat their meals inside the McDonald’s location would be able to use the same system. However, upon making their order they would indicate their intent to eat inside the establishment. Yet, they would be able to change such an intent at any time with the smart phone app.

(One more final note: when signing up for such an app, individuals would be notified that preorders would be automatically relayed to the workers within the McDonald’s, once the individual got within a certain distance to the location, and that they would receive an alert verifying such prior to them entering the McDonald’s parking lot.

And they would be encouraged to trigger a second preorder alert if they haven’t received the verification alert upon entering the parking lot.)

If the fast food restaurants implemented a similar system, as to the one stated above, they would be able to provide better customer service, and give their bottom line a boost – especially since they would be able to allow participants to accept coupon alerts via the app, convince more customers to stick around through rush hours (the busiest hours), and so forth.

In closing, there are many ways in which fast food restaurants could utilize such a system, and since I mainly based this article on the ideas that came to my conscious mind as I wrote all this out, I might write a part two later at a future point in time.