37%
Drive-Thru Increase
$5-25B
Systemwide Sales Increase
1st
To Market
Summary
Objective
Increase lunchtime throughput at drive-thru by at least 25%. McDonald’s is a $23-billion world leader in quick-service restaurants, with over 40,000 locations in 118 countries.
Pivotal Insight
Knowing customers’ orders before arrival is more efficient.
Essential Change
Off-site (call center) ordering reduces footprint, labor costs, and improves service quality.
Valued Outcome
Sales grew systemwide from $5 to $25 billion (37% annually from higher-than-anticipated drive-thru usage in response to Covid).
Approach
On a 2-month timeline, the client provided prior research, one project manager, and a $250k budget. IBM supplied account and project managers and various specialists (illustrators, UX/UI designers, and presentation artists).
To imagine what ordering via smartphone would look like (before smartphones were on the market), we reviewed research, interviewed stakeholders, conducted store visits, led mystery shopping, ran ideation sessions, created an idea bank, and workshopped options. Cross-pollination between finance, operations, and customer experience disciplines yielded a comprehensive list of innovations (including clear bags, graphically accurate receipts that matched ‘construction screens’ for the sandwich makers to follow, and a multi-lingual call center). Deliverables included: storyboards of the future-state customer experience, press releases from the future, proof cases, capacity planning calculations, financial modeling, and crew member role descriptions.
Design Recommendations
- Mobile-first ordering process
- Multiple pick-up lanes
- Personalized algorithms (for marketing and operations)
- Predictive cooking guidelines
