COVID-19 accelerated the digital transformation for Quick Serve and Fast Casual restaurants which has been on the cards

for years. The largest chains have flipped to digital-first environments and have reset consumer expectations and ordering habits. It's now time for the rest of the industry to catch up.

Embracing digital is a journey, not a single project. To start navigating this, QSRs need a partner that can help deliver a simple, scalable, and affordable solution that they won't outgrow down the line. We've carefully put together compelling packages with our own hardware and installation partners to make this first step as easy as possible and fully supported.

Digital signage for restaurants is more than just creating a digital menu board. The real value goes far beyond this.

Digital displays in QSRs can provide multiple – measurable – financial benefits, especially in this post-COVID environment where franchise owners and operators are having to respond to new consumer expectations and habits.

The impacts of COVID-19 pandemic affects every industry – on a global scale.

Yet even with the implementation of new health protocols QSRs (kerbside pick up and contactless ordering, for example), survival within an industry so related by relying on finding solutions to adapt to this new business environment.

Lifestyles are changing, and with it, the increase in demand for convenience; especially convenience food.

In order for QSRs to keep up with this growing demand for convenience and remain relevant, success and profit is as dependent upon the customer experience as it is on the food being quick and good.

Digital signage – and the implementation of digital menu boards – is a simple, affordable, and scalable solution for this.

Digital signage is an appropriate and effective strategy for:

ü Driving sales via positively influencing purchasing decisions

ü Enhancing the customer experience and brand

ü Reducing pressure on staff with scalable solutions for menu updates

And for the purpose of this page, we define QSRs* as being:

A casual food service where pre-prepared fast food – from a limited menu – is assembled and served to customers, either to dine in or take away. QSRs are usually part of an existing restaurant chain or franchise operation where menus and ingredients are standardized.

*NB: When referring to QSRs, we are excluding brands within the 'Big 10' such as Subway, Starbucks, and McDonald's.

The QSR industry was hit hard by the pandemic. With restrictions on movement imposed globally, many QSR restaurants were forced into rapidly adopting digital technology to mitigate the inevitable financial losses.

This increase in the cash-conscious culture surrounding the post-COVID QSR industry has been met equally with an increase in the sanitary-conscious nature of public dining; highlighting new health protocols is now as important as showing nutritional and allergy information in store.

The acceleration of digital transformation within the industry has therefore become a necessity. Expectations and behaviors have changed. Capitalizing on this requires one thing: effective communication.

The power of the screen

(and the neuroscience of communication)

There is growing evidence to show that the way information is perceived when presented on a screen is more effective than when presented via other media.

Having an understanding of the neuroscience behind effective communication is therefore essential to understanding the value that digital signage can bring to QSRs. It boils down to two things: the physiology of the eye, and how this affects the way that the brain processes, stores, and understands visual information.

It's all about the fovea, located at the back of the eye. This is where there is the highest concentration of photoreceptors, where light is converted into electrical impulses that are then sent to the brain – much like the lens of a camera when transferring the image you're looking at to something you see on screen. You could say, effective communication is quite literally in the eye of the beholder.

When you focus on any object, your brain is getting as much information about that object as the rest of your entire visual field put together. Even when you focus on one object, the eye moves 3-4 times a second in rapid ballistic movements known as saccades. This gives our brain the illusion of rich visual information because we are continually pointing our fovea at areas that catch our eyes. The richer the information, the more likely we are to engage, understand and remember it.

Where we choose to look is therefore critical and printed menus just don't cut it anymore.

Digital menu boards: strategy & benefits

Put down the “sold out” stickers, and forget the expensive menu reprints. When it comes to real-time updates, smart scheduling and multi-location consistency, digital menu boards are the perfect scalable solution.

Digital signage has been proven to improve the customer experience and boost sales. In fact, when it comes to digital menu boards, industry research by Panasonic indicates that up to 74% of QSR customers consider an easy-to-read menu the main influence behind their purchasing decisions; and in fact, promoting a specific menu item via digital signage placed above the sales counter can increase the sale of that item by up to 38%.

Studies also show restaurants report a 15% increase in customers after installing a digital menu board.

And every benefit one digital signage menu can be felt simultaneously across every restaurant within the chain, with easy multi-location and multi-screen management; a menu change only needs to be updated in one place for it to be visible everywhere.

Business benefits & strategies

Enhancing the customer experience, increasing sales, and achieving greater staff productivity doesn't need to be complicated.

Digital signage can become one of the most versatile and powerful marketing tools in your arsenal. From keeping menu boards up-to-date to running local promotions, everything can be handled from one central content management system – scalable across multiple screens and multiple locations.

Every time you make a change to your menu, operating hours, or prices, you no longer need to multiply printing costs by the number of locations.

5 digital signage benefits for QSR businesses

1.  Make updates, for free

ü No need to purchase and place “sold out” stickers over unavailable menu items.

ü Seasonal menus can be created and scheduled to show across all locations, without having to print and post.

ü Ingredient changes can be shown instantly across all locations to comply with government labeling requirements.

ü Images of new dishes or price changes can be updated in real-time.

2.  Stay on brand

ü Enhance your brand with pre-made templates with your logo, colors and fonts for quick content creation that looks the same across every location.

ü Give local content editor rights to your franchise managers to create relevant and localized content within your own brand parameters.

3.  Create targeted promotions

ü Using data from your POS, create targeted promotions to upsell less popular menu items or schedule special deals on popular orders at the right time of day.

ü Become part of the local community with localized promotions in every store; allow franchise managers editing access to create promotions of their own for their audience.

4.  Enhance the customer experience

ü Reduce frustrations in the queue by giving your customers something to look at. Show the local news, sporting fixtures, or posts from your social media. Even show behind-the-scenes videos of their favorite menu items being made.

ü Allow the customer to make a positive and informed menu purchasing decision by instructing your menu is kept up to date with correct pricing, ingredients, and beautiful imagery.

ü Scale across all locations

ü  Schedule consistent content to run across all your screens in every location, controlled from only one.

Customer benefits

The benefits of digital signage for QSRs far outweigh just updating menus and running promotions. There's huge benefits for the customer too.

The more engaged your customers are, the more likely they are to remain loyal to you. Especially if customer experience is high on your priority list.

There are two key benefits of digital signage and digital menu boards for QSR customers:

ü Informed purchasing decisions

ü Reduction in queue perception

Informed purchasing decisions

If your QSR has a reputation for not keeping menus updated, customer loyalty is likely to want.

Make sure your screens can be the 'source of truth' when it comes to your customers making a purchasing decision.

Benefits: 

ü Keeping all menus up-to-date with accurate information – including different menus throughout the day – scheduling reduces the risk of customer frustrations. 

ü As a legal requirement to display clear allergy and nutritional advice (for chains above 20 locations), this information can be quickly updated across every location as soon as a menu item changes.

ü Run relevant promotions to each franchise location with local content editing capabilities to create a sense of community, in the community.

ü Build excitement for the holiday season by showing a countdown to your scheduled seasonal menus and promotions.

Reduction in queue perception

It's been said that digital signage can reduce perceived wait time in queues by as much as 35%.

This can be a revenue booster during the lunch and dinner rush hours.

Benefits: 

ü Enhance the customer experience by showing relevant content. Is the local team in the playoffs? Show good luck messages and run promotions throughout the games.

ü Engage customers with competitions that they can participate in while queuing.

ü Increase dwell time by pulling in user-generated content from your social media accounts.

ü Entertain and inform customers by showing local news or live games, the latest score, or even short videos showing how their food is being made.