The famous fast food chain is working on a new app to order from smartphones and avoid lines, by the end of the year it will be available worldwide
McDonald's is throwing itself headlong into the difficult world of apps to order food at home. Other big chains have already tried with mixed results, as in the case of Starbucks or Domino's Pizza. Will McDonald's, with its new app, be able to streamline the queue and manage orders from a smartphone?
Recently Starbucks had equipped its stores with a special app, customers could order before arriving at the point of sale directly from their smartphone, enter without queuing up and pick up their coffee or breakfast, without wasting time. That was the plan. Too bad that in reality the app created more inconvenience than benefit. Bringing to physical stores only further delays in product deliveries. McDonald's has a similar project in mind, again focused on a smartphone app, to relaunch its stores and streamline lines.
How the app works
From McDonalds's they say that improving the food delivery app represent is one of the main goals for the company. "What's the point of me using my smartphone if I have to wait in line again or eat cold chips," said Jim Sappington, executive vice president of digital at McDonald's. To augment this, the fast food restaurant chain will use automated systems for food delivery and more importantly implement separate lines for those who make reservations from the app. The new feature is being tested at 29 restaurants in California. And it will soon be tested on 51 other stores in the D.C. area as well. This testing phase aims to bring the app to market, available to customers worldwide, by the end of this year.
The solution lies in the kitchen
To avoid the mistakes made in other chains, McDonald's is considering low-tech solutions for its kitchens. The staff will be trained to optimize the delivery time of orders made by smartphone. In addition, the app will track the location of the customer so that a precise stopwatch will run from the time of ordering to the time of delivery. This will prevent the food from getting unnecessarily cold, lowering the quality of the customer experience. Through the app it will also be possible to choose whether to pay directly with a credit card or in contacts at the checkout. But that's not all, you will be able to decide whether to physically pick up your lunch, or take it via McDrive, or even choose home delivery. According to the first surveys, this system would increase the efficiency of McDrive, which at the moment in the United States represents 70% of the total revenue of the physical restaurants of the famous chain.