How does digital economy effect Fastfood Industry ?

High-quality customer service is at the heart of the fast-food industry as service plays a pivotal role in customer satisfaction for fast food (Aftab, Sarwar, Sultan, & Qadeer, 2016). The storefront cashier job role in fast-food restaurants has traditionally been considered as an essential relationship between the customer and the company, and inadvertently, the company’s brand reputation. Therefore, customer service training is at the forefront of an organization’s priorities (Aftab et al., 2016). 

However, as the digital economy continues to grow with more organizations transitioning into eCommerce business, the storefront role in fast-food restaurants has also changed considerably. As a result of the digital economy, the storefront role in fast-food restaurants has transitioned to artificial intelligence and online delivery services.

       Artificial intelligence is becoming a leader in the fast-food industry’s digital economy. While customer service has traditionally been an important factor in the success of the fast-food industry, artificial intelligence steadily changed how customers view ‘service’ in fast food restaurants (Yang, Goodsir, & Poulston, 2019). In many fast-food chains, automated self-checkout lines have been implemented in the fast-food industry (Yang et al., 2019). A study on consumer perception of self-checkouts suggests that the automated systems help improve customer satisfaction and convenience as customers can place their order by taking their time to look through the menu. The automated menus also allow customers to see detailed information about the product, discounts, and special promotions. Hence, automated checkouts are replacing the traditional human interaction at the service counter, while increasing efficiency and convenience for the customer (Yang et al., 2019). According to Forbes, the introduction of automated self-checkout kiosks poses a threat to labour in the fast-food industry. In some regions, major fast-food chains, such as McDonald’s are seeking to make their cashier role obsolete by implementing all self-served kiosks at the storefront (Rensi, 2018). Therefore, a major change that the digital economy has made in the fast-food industry is making storefront roles obsolete while the storefront cashiers have traditionally been a leading factor to customer’s overall satisfaction.

       Another aspect of the storefront role that has changed with the digital economy is the integration of delivery services. Traditionally, customers must visit a fast-food restaurant or, at the least, visit the store’s drive-thru to order meals to go (Hirschberg, Rajko, Schumacher, & Wrulich, 2016). However, with the emergence of food delivery apps, such as Uber Eats, the fast-food industry is changing the way that they interact with customers. Previously, a customer must interact with a storefront employee to make an order. When the kiosks arrived in the United States, customers were able to make an order on the automated menu (Hirschberg et al., 2016). However, when receiving their orders, the customer still interacts with an employee. When food delivery services began to emerge, more consumers had the option to order fast food online and have their meals delivered to their doorstep. Hence, the storefront employees completely avoid interacting with the customers. Therefore, digital technology is redefining the market and the way that fast food companies interact with their customers.

       In the fast-food industry, the abundance of customers that are served daily decreases the ability to provide individualized customer service. Hence, personalized services have been a difficult task for the fast-food industry to achieve with human staff. Hence, some predictions for the future that may happen with the implementation of technology and the digital economy is the personalization of digital fast food menus based on demographic demand. In 2015, McDonald’s began to experiment with the ‘decision technology,’ that analyzes patterns of orders made in the local fast-food chain based on the weather, traffic, time of day, and other demographic characteristics (Tiffany, 2019). The McDonald’s menu board that highlighted popular items based off of the analyzed data (Tiffany, 2019). The digital menu will change as the hour, weather, or other external factors changes. Hence, fast food restaurants will eventually be able to implement more self-serve kiosks that use artificial intelligence to predict what items are best sold in a particular location (Tiffany, 2019). For example, a neighbourhood McDonald’s with more family demographics may use the AI-informed data and offer more varieties in children’s meals at the new self-serve kiosk. Moreover, implementing artificial intelligence technologies at self-serve checkouts helps the growing fast food industry solve labour shortage issues as the demand for fast-food restaurants and kiosk are higher than the employer’s ability to fill every position needed (Carpenter, 2019). Hence, artificial intelligence technologies will serve to fill the 800,000 positions currently in the fast-food restaurant industry (Carpenter, 2019). In the future, artificial intelligence will optimize customer service in the fast-food industry by implementing customization and personalization to each customer’s experience. 

References

Carpenter, R. (2019). How AI Can Solve Fast-Food Labor Problems. QSR.    https://www.qsrmagazine.com/outside-insights/how-ai-can-solve-fast-     food-labor-problems

Hirschberg, C., Rajko, A., Schumacher, T., and Wrulich, M. (2016). The changing market for food delivery. McKinsey & Company. https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/technology-media-and-telecommunications/our-insights/the-changing-market-for-food-delivery 

Rensi, E. (2018). McDonald’s Says Goodbye Cashiers, Hello Kiosks. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/edrensi/2018/07/11/mcdonalds-says-goodbye-cashiers-hello-kiosks/#32ed5fa86f14 

Aftab, J., and Sarwar, H. (2016) Importance of Service Quality in Customer Satisfaction (A Study on Fast Food Restaurants). Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management Journal, 4(4), pp. 161-171. 

Tiffany, K. (2019). McDonald’s new drive-thru menus will change based on the weather, traffic, and time of day. VOX. https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/3/27/18284045/mcdonalds-tech-startup-artificial-intelligence-menu-drive-thru

Yang, Q., Goodsir, W., and Poulston, J. (2019). Automation of the fast-food industry: Gen Z perspectives of self-service kiosks versus employee service. Hospitality Insight, 3(2), pp. 7-8.