Tips to Enhance Drive-Thru Experience at Your Restaurant

By Morgan Fitzgerald

Over the last several decades, drive-thrus have become a staple element of the quick-service restaurant experience. This has largely been thanks to the large number of on-the-go consumers and their need for fast, efficient service. While the value of having a drive-thru has always been great, it has grown exponentially in the past six months.

Despite the fact most businesses saw sales come to a screeching halt during the months of lockdown, the fast-food industry was able to weather the storm. According to QSR magazine, drive-thru visits saw a 26% increase in the months of April, May and June and a 13% increase in July, even when a majority of restaurants had reopened.

With such a large volume of sales coming from drive-thrus, owners should capitalize on the influx of business. Here are a few tips to enhance the drive-thru experience at your restaurant so they’ll keep coming back:

Develop a script

Your drive-thru employees should have a script to politely streamline the ordering process. Customers expect employees to be patient and happy to help, all without slowing down the line.

Guests should always be greeted as soon as they arrive to the speaker to order. This probably seems obvious to most, but too often drive-thru employees are multi-tasking and unable to immediately help the customer. While it makes sense from a staffing standpoint for employees to fulfill multiple roles, you should never create an opportunity for a guest to be left unassisted and confused. Simply train employees to follow their initial greeting with “Can you please hold for a moment?” when they are unable to immediately take an order. Guests more than likely will use that time to decide on their order instead of sitting there frustrated and confused.

Consider going through your restaurant’s drive-thru and compare the experience there to that of a local competitor. Pay close attention and determine what both drive-thrus did well and what you felt your experience was lacking. Then, use that information to coach your employees.

Minimize traffic in drive-thru lane

With many – or all, depending on your state’s restrictions – sales going through drive-thru lanes, your restaurant needs to take thoughtful steps to ensure operations run smoothly. This especially applies to restaurants whose dining rooms are still closed, which means third-party delivery drivers and customers with mobile orders must go through the drive-thru line.

A simple solution to this potential traffic jam is installing a doorbell on the front door. Pair this with a professional sign directing these customers to ring the bell when they’ve arrived. This will allow delivery drivers and customers who ordered ahead to skip the drive-thru line.

Additionally, advise staff to always keep an eye on the flow of cars in the drive-thru lane. If the line begins to get long, employees should know how to direct the line so traffic doesn’t overflow into the road or block entrances and exits.

Make your space visually appealing

Drive-thrus are almost always located behind the restaurant, which isn’t exactly an area that is pleasing to the eye. All employees probably know there are certain standards for inside the restaurant, but don’t realize the outside needs to be held to the same degree of cleanliness.

For this reason, employees should keep the drive-thru area clean by checking the area for trash at least twice a day. Also, consider adding a trash can to the sidewalk area next to the drive-thru area or somewhere similar where the guest can easily dispose of their trash without having to get out of their car.

Speaking of trash, remind employees of back door standards. Bags of trash should be taken straight to the dumpster and never left outside where customers can see them. Employees should also avoid taking smoke breaks in this area, as customers often have their windows down and could be sensitive to smoke.

Go the extra mile by planting flowers and placing decorative plants in the drive-thru area. This will improve the area visually and show you pay attention to detail and have a well-kept restaurant inside and out.

Restaurants everywhere have adapted to life during a pandemic by offering more to-go options for the consumer, which means more competition for their business. Take the time to make sure their experience in your drive-thru stands out in the crowd.