Innovation

Fast food meets fast tech

For fast food brands to differentiate themselves, the customer experience they offer needs to be better than that of their competitors, and technology is allowing them to do just that.

15 July 2019

When researching this article, I was pleasantly surprised to interact with a chatbot while scrolling through the website of one of SA’s popular fast food brands. However, my ‘request for an interview’ to help get information for the article was met with an automated email response informing me that ‘branches are independently owned and each owner manages their own recruitment’. I was instructed to take my CV to the nearest store and chat to the manager on duty. If anything, the experience showcased what I already knew – that fast food restaurants are starting to embrace tech, but there’s room for improvement. For Daniel Padiachy, chief marketing, communication and IT officer at McDonald’s SA, the company is using digital to make it easier for customers to order, pay for and consume the company’s food. Similarly, he says it shouldn’t matter if people are ordering food via an app, phoning in orders or ordering instore, technology should ensure that the process is frictionless, seamless and consistent.

The customer is king

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