While breakthroughs in digital menu boards are exciting for the digital signage industry, David Vance, from Mood Media, believes there is a lot more on the horizon for the technology. Vance provided his thoughts on the present and future of digital menu boards and how to increase customer engagement in an interview with Digital Signage Today.
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Feb. 25, 2022 | by Kevin Damask — Editor, Digital Signage Today
Digital menu boards at quick service restaurants has become an ideal way to enhance customer experience, streamline ordering and make food delivery faster and more efficient.
The pandemic also heightened interest in digital menu boards. Restaurants realized customers could use them to conveniently order in the drive-thru lane, thus scaling back on in-person ordering. The industry began investing more dollars into better, more equipped menu boards with updated features.
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While the breakthroughs are exciting, David Vance, vice president of QSR at Mood Media, believes there is much more on the horizon for digital menu boards. Mood Media, based in Austin, Texas, works with display companies to help foster customer experiences through audio-visual and mobile technology. Along with QSRs, clients include brands in banking and other small business sectors.
Vance has worked with Mood Media for 26 years and his role is focused on North America account management. He has seen many changes in both digital signage and QSRs. He shared is insight on the present and future of digital menu boards and how to increase customer engagement in an email interview with Digital Signage Today.
Q:What do you enjoy most about your position with Mood Media?
A: There’s certainly never a boring day in the QSR world, which I love! Plus, I greatly enjoy the hundreds of relationships I’ve forged across the QSR landscape and helping to support the continual evolution of branding within this unique sector. Advancements in brick and mortar have traditionally followed a five-to-10-year strategy, so it’s quite refreshing and motivating to see that technology, digital strategies, and customer experience are being prioritized at the top of the list right now.
Q: What are some of the advances you’re seeing in digital drive-thrus?
A: The capabilities of doing everything by design, and nothing by chance, are endless. This includes digital advancements such as menu dayparting, analytics, internal gamification, as well as added avenues for adept branding and multiple new “connection” opportunities with customers.
Q: Do you feel more QSRs are embracing outdoor digital signage and changes in drive-thru ordering? And if so, why?
A: Yes, we see adoption growing as we are all reimagining our different businesses. Digital signage and the overall drive-thru experience is certainly now at the forefront of considerations with QSR operators. For decades, businesses connected with their drive-thru customers only twice while they had a person’s attention: at the speaker when taking the order and at the window. With the drive-thru business accounting for upwards of 85-90% of revenue, that attention should now be today’s currency. For example, if the average drive-thru experience is two and a half minutes, QSRs should consider how many touch points they have at their disposal, and whether they are optimizing these opportunities to connect and engage with their customers. The digital world fills many voids.
Q: Can you briefly talk about a few QSRs that have embraced digital drive-thrus or other digital advances in the past two years?
A:Several brands began reengineering their drive-thrus in 2020. Multiple “timer” spots deployment; sophistication of anything that was deemed static and investments in employee communication and back-of-the-house digital signage are all examples of some of this new out-of-the-box thinking that has emerged.
Q: What are the biggest challenges for QSRs as they transition to digital?
A: One major challenge we see is when QSRs don’t 100% define their strategy before implementation. The hardware is only the instrument of the orchestra and so many put too little focus on what they actually want these instruments to accomplish when unified. Additionally, creative and impactful ways to reach the rapidly evolving consumer should be a topic of conversation every day, if not every hour. Inspiring, promoting, educating, and entertaining through digital technology dies on the vine without a strategy in place.
Q: What do you think the future holds for the QSR industry as they pivot more into the new normal of digital and online ordering?
A:As dining rooms, playgrounds, and other point-of-sale areas continue to shrink, digital assets will continue to bloom not only in the drive-thru lanes, but the take-out lanes, store entrances and exits, and of course in the palm of your hand (on your phone). The ecosystem of one’s digital business plan will and should encompass all components of the consumer experience and be driven by a single content management system tool. The harmony and consistency of the drive-thru experience with a brand’s digital signage, music, messaging, mobile ordering, sound systems, and analytics is at-hand and increasingly important.
source https://duchonsigns.wordpress.com/2022/03/15/digital-menu-boards-on-the-rise-at-qsrs/
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