QSR (quick service restaurant) brands have only begun to scratch the surface of geofencing. Beyond providing better delivery analytics and clever marketing campaigns, location context can help restaurants understand customer loyalty, impact customer engagement, and help them save on operational and delivery costs.<\/p>\n
A rather long but interesting article especially for fast food and fast casual brands about the possibilities presented by geofencing. A guest blog by the company Radar<\/a>! They give examples on how some QSR brands have started experimenting with geofencing to improve the customer carryout experience. They indicated that API\u2019s (application program interface) are the next big thing in the SaaS (Software as a Service) wave and have been recognized as a Rising Star on TechCrunch<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n From impossible meat to CBD (cannabidiol) in everything, there are some new and intriguing trends taking the restaurant industry by storm in 2019. Sustainability and conscious eating continue to loom large in the minds of consumers; but as far as the customer experience goes, geofencing is dominating the dining world.<\/p>\n Restaurant delivery is a growing facet of the dining industry driven by the increase in mobile ordering and the needs of the on-the-go customer. According to forecasts by Investment Bank UBS, restaurant delivery sales are expected to rise more than 20% annually and reach $365B in 2035, up from $35 billion in 2018. Critical to this growth is the increased adoption of geofencing marketing within the in-app experience. Here\u2019s how geofencing is revolutionizing the future of the restaurant industry.<\/p>\n Despite the increasing popularity of restaurant delivery, some food merchants have a hard time mitigating the impact of delivery on their bottom line. Delivering a $10 meal with a $3 delivery fee isn\u2019t sustainable in the long-run. Between high gas prices, wages, other vehicle costs, and the expense of packaging delivery, many restaurants will be hard-pressed to absorb the high operational costs.<\/p>\n Carryout seems like the best possible alternative, where \u201clast-mile delivery\u201d is outsourced to the customer. The primary motivation for diners to prefer delivery and carryout is convenience: delivery is more often the first choice for customers who don\u2019t want to arrive at a restaurant only to find that their order isn\u2019t ready and waiting for them. This is where geofencing can streamline the takeaway experience to be fast and efficient for the customer, and more cost-effective for the restaurant. Geofencing tracking within the restaurant app can help the restaurant understand location data to trigger alerts to the back-of-house, telling the kitchen when to fire up the order or when the customer is stuck in traffic. For the customer, contextually-relevant messages can be sent to remind them to start traveling to the restaurant at the optimum time, depending on how far they are.<\/p>\n Companies like McDonald\u2019s and Starbucks have begun testing in-app software that lets a customer order ahead and uses geofencing to predict when the customer will arrive. This ensures the customer receives a freshly-made order that\u2019s ready when they arrive. As HBR describes, \u201con-site carry-out creates value because it outsources last-mile delivery to the consumer, who is often able to perform this task at a lower cost than the delivery company.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2017, McDonald\u2019s began to experiment with geofencing built into its app to allow customers to create an order anywhere and pay for it through the app upon arrival. The goal of the test was to reduce wait lines, cold food, and customer congestion at McDonald\u2019s locations across California and Washington state. With the initial success, McDonald\u2019s has since rolled out order-ahead to locations worldwide. The app doesn\u2019t allow customers to order outside a certain geofence, ensuring the carryout order will be hot and ready by the time the customer arrives.<\/p>\n Not one to sit out on a new technology, Burger King responded to McDonald\u2019s use of geofencing with a campaign of their own. The Whopper Detour campaign of 2018 made use of in-app geofencing to lure customers away from a McDonald\u2019s. When the customer\u2019s mobile app was within 600 feet of a McDonald\u2019s location, geofencing would trigger the delivery of a digital coupon offering the Burger King Whopper for just 1 cent. This campaign had the double benefit of increasing foot traffic to Burger King locations while also increasing app downloads, helping Burger King continuously reach customers after the campaign ended.<\/p>\n Geofencing isn\u2019t just for optimizing carryout. Dunkin\u2019 Donuts partnered with food delivery service Grubhub to leverage geofencing for better data and customer insight. Grubhub placed geofences around the 400 New York City Dunkin\u2019 locations to measure traffic and delivery times. According to industry analysts, Dunkin\u2019 Donuts plans to use geofencing analytics to \u201coptimize efficiencies, as well as order accuracy and consistency.\u201d Geofencing can provide the detail brands need to constantly tailor and improve the customer experience no matter how the customer chooses to dine in (or out).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The future of the customer experience | Will you include geofencing in your delivery<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Geofencing and the contextual experience<\/strong><\/h3>\n
McDonald\u2019s tests order-ahead <\/strong><\/h3>\n
Burger King\u2019s real-time geofencing campaign<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Grubhub and Dunkin\u2019 Donuts improve delivery data<\/strong><\/h3>\n