Burger King has created “Your Way Champions” to improve hospitality. | Photo courtesy of Burger King.
In a recently remodeled McDonald’s location in Chicago, a set of temperature-controlled cubbies, accessible only by keypad, is stationed next to the door, so delivery drivers can get their orders without walking inside.
The restaurant itself features kiosks, like the bulk of the chain’s restaurants. The front counter, in fact, is quite small, with room for just one order taker, if there is one.
But there were plenty of workers in the dining room, which was busy on a weekday lunch rush. The employees delivered orders, asked customers if they needed anything and guided folks through the complexities of the kiosk. A group of dine-in customers, including two from McDonald’s corporate, were visited no fewer than four times by employees, who regularly tried engaging in conversation.
If McDonald’s has its way, this is the chain’s future: A digitally-enabled restaurant that searches for new ways to introduce hospitality.
The fast-food giant is hardly alone. Quick-service chains are working to inject their restaurants with better service and more hospitality, even as they keep pushing to digitize more of their orders.
Starbucks, which has spent the past year and a half working to improve its in-store experience, is adding “coffeehouse coach” roles in its shops. Other brands are taking similar steps, including Burger King, which is reimagining the manager role inside its restaurants and will now call them “Your Way Champions.”
“Ultimately, it’s the restaurant experience that matters,” Burger King President Tom Curtis said.
There’s a relatively simple reason for all this focus: It works.
Some of the most successful restaurant chains in recent vintage have used hospitality as a crucial driver. Workers at Chick-fil-A greet customers warmly and use phrases such as “My pleasure.”
The fast-food chain Culver’s, the industry’s most consistent burger brand in recent years, delivers orders directly to tables and requires its franchisees to be in their stores, much in the same way Chick-fil-A does.
The drive-thru beverage chains, including Dutch Bros and 7 Brew, have used hospitality as a major point of differentiation. Despite the in-and-out nature of their customer base, they have successfully implemented customer service into their business models, with workers taking orders directly from customers in line while baristas at the windows greet them warmly.
Customers love it. “Their service scores outpace those of your Ruth’s Chris, your Fleming’s and whatnot,” said Robert Byrne, senior director of consumer research with Restaurant Business sibling company Technomic. “And this has been fairly consistent since those models have introduced themselves.”
Indeed, stronger customer service translates into sales. Technomic tracks customer service scores for 160 of the largest brands in the U.S. Those whose customer service scores are in the top fifth averaged 11% sales growth last year, Byrne said.
On the other hand, the bottom 25 chains for customer service scores averaged a 0.3% sales decline last year.
“Clearly, you have some connection between how the consumer takeaway regarding service, the quality of that service, the efficiency, the friendliness of that service,” Byrne said.
And yet chains’ hospitality drive comes even as they continue to search for ways to digitize more orders.
Kiosks remain omnipresent in brands like McDonald’s, Taco Bell, and Panera Bread, even though according to Technomic data such devices are slower on average than ordering from a person.
Many major chains continue, meanwhile, to test and expand the use of AI order takers in the drive-thru. Taco Bell recently expanded its AI test to 900 locations. McDonald’s, meanwhile, is again testing drive-thru AI after abandoning a previous test of the technology.
If McDonald’s, for instance, were to use drive-thru AI at all its locations, then nearly all its initial transactions would be handled by some kind of technology: AI in the drive-thru, mobile ordering, kiosks and third-party delivery. That is seemingly contradictory to the goal of improved hospitality.
Technomic data agrees that the digital drive is not so conducive to improved hospitality: The only service format customers like less than kiosks is drive-thru AI.
“By eliminating the interpersonal, the human touch, the risks that you run are high,” Byrne said. “Yes, you do get more spend out of a kiosk per transaction as opposed to somebody at the counter. But I will tell you this: Those kiosk orders are coming from larger parties, and from people who are already familiar with your menu and know what your brand offers.
“If I come into a place for the very first time and I’m steered to a kiosk, I’m walking out and I’m never coming back.”
Starbucks invested in employees in its shops. Transactions increased immediately. | Photo courtesy of Starbucks.
Some of the biggest and most notable, true sales-driving moves in recent years have involved customer service efforts that have nothing to do with technology. Kevin Hochman got rid of Chili’s robots shortly after he took over as CEO of parent Brinker International in 2022. The company focused on improving operations in subsequent years then saw sales thrive when the marketing caught up.
Last year, Starbucks added workers to its coffee shops in a plan called the “Green Apron Service Model.” Store managers were able to use those workers during their busiest times. And the result has been sales growth. Starbucks’ same-store sales declined in the eight quarters before the company made that move. They’ve increased every quarter since the model was implemented.
That is not the only thing the company has been working on. Baristas are writing more pleasantries on cups, and the chain has taken steps to make its cafes more inviting for customers who want to hang out.
But it’s difficult to ignore Starbucks’ shift toward in-store service. The company for years had focused on takeout customers, particularly those who order through its app. In shifting toward a better in-store experience the company tapped into a consumer need for a better in-store environment, even if they just take their Iced Orange Cream Matcha with them.
“It’s the moment of connection between a barista and a customer,” Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol told analysts on the company’s earnings call this week. “It’s the smile on their face after the first sip and the feeling of belonging that follows. It’s about every detail coming together to create an experience that feels distinctly Starbucks.
“That’s the magic of the third place. It’s a human need only we can fulfill and a community only Starbucks can create.”
Other fast-food chains are also getting religion on hospitality. At Burger King, Curtis spent time working in restaurants. He was not quite good enough to make Whoppers on demand — he’s not fast enough for that — but he greeted customers in the drive-thru and at the registers and in the dining rooms.
It’s the kind of example he wants to set for the “Your Way Champions” its restaurants have already started deploying. Those champions will be tasked with communicating with customers and helping to solve their concerns.
“It’s really a proactive relationship with guests,” Curtis said. “And that’s not something you get in fast food.”
As for McDonald’s, the Chicago-based giant is trying to walk a tightrope. It wants the speed that technology can provide, with the frequency that hospitality can generate. Chris Kempczinski, the chain’s CEO, believes it can do all of it.
“We can’t ask our customers to choose,” he said in a system message. “Hospitality or speed. Great taste or convenience. Value or quality. They want what [founder Ray Kroc] called the total of everything. They won’t trade one or another because they don’t have to.”
Time will tell if Kroc’s vision proves true.
