Here's How Taco Bell Is Embracing Self-Service, Personalization, and More
Brought to you by WBR Insights
The foodservice industry has been evolving rapidly as of late. As customers demand higher quality food at reasonable prices, it falls to the biggest brands in the business to meet new expectations.
However, there is more to the modern dining experience than product and price. Much like the retail industry, when people go out to eat, they want a great experience, too. Many factors can contribute to the customer experience, and the form it takes will depend largely on the type of restaurant. For example, when people go to a fine dining establishment, they will expect a level of service and attentiveness which fits the style. However, when they visit a fast food restaurant, they will place a higher value on factors such as convenience and speed of service.
As one of the biggest names in the fast food space, Taco Bell recognizes these expectations and has been busy bringing a host of new technology to bear to meet them.
Taco Bell
In the fast food industry, people want to be able to order their food quickly with a minimum of waiting time. Along with customers' increasing preference to interact with brands via digital means, this has given rise to many restaurants in the space offering self-service and home delivery options to their hungry clientele.
To meet this demand, Taco Bell has embarked on a brand-new partnership with home delivery service provider Grubhub. Grubhub has been trialing its home delivery service with Taco Bell since 2018. The two brands recently announced that the test period is over, and they plan to roll it out nationwide very soon. Obviously, a big focus for Taco Bell is that customers receive their food while it's fresh and, to this end, Grubhub deploys a geofencing capability.
With geofencing, Grubhub alerts restaurants when a delivery driver is nearby, allowing the food to be prepared at the last minute and making sure it reaches the customer at optimum freshness.
Taco Bell has also announced plans to add another layer of convenience to its offering by installing self-service kiosks in all of its 6,600 nationwide locations. The kiosks feature massive 22-inch touchscreens and allow customers to order food and pay with a range of options including credit and debit cards, gift cards, and mobile or digital wallets. If the customer prefers, they can also check out at the cashier if, for example, they want to pay with cash.
The kiosks also allow customers to apply filters based on their dietary preferences. For example, a vegetarian could apply a filter that removes any options which contain meat, allowing them to more quickly and easily find the menu items they can eat. Taco Bell has also installed the machines with multiple language options, and the ability to plug in headphones and be navigated through the menu by audio cues.
"In the past few years, there's been so much change and digitization of that customer experience in restaurants," said Taco Bell's Senior Director of Digital Technology, Rafik Hanna. "We've been really intentional about making a dramatic shift to make Taco Bell experiences more digital. We are becoming an omnichannel company like a lot of top retailers out there, and we're going to see that growth and modernization of our brand continue. We want to meet the customers where they want to be."
Personalization
Another factor impacting industry is the desire for personalized experiences. So powerful is this factor that most customers say they'd be willing to pay a little more if it means they feel treated like an individual.
To meet this need, Taco Bell has announced a partnership with the omnichannel personalization platform Certona. Certona will be integrated with Taco Bell's mobile app and provide registered users with personal menu recommendations based on a range of factors including individual guest preferences, past dining history, location, weather, and restaurant-specific menus and pricing.
"Taco Bell is all about satisfying our fans with the most craveable dining experience imaginable. Of course, we know each of our fans has their favorites and their own preferences. As a forward-looking company, we're using the latest machine learning and AI technology to better deliver on those individual preferences," said Director of Ecommerce for Taco Bell, Derrick Chan. "That's why we are thrilled to work with Certona and leverage their proven personalization platform with real-time support to present our fans with the most immediately craveable menu items every time they use our app, reducing the ordering friction and satisfying their appetite."
Final Thoughts
Meeting the needs of the modern fast food customer is made so much simpler using the plethora of amazing digital technology available today, and it's great to see a well-known brand such as Taco Bell embracing so much of that opportunity.
Self-service and personalization are set to be hot topics at Future Restaurants 2020, taking place in August at the Hilton Austin, TX.
Download the agenda today for more information and insights.
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