How customers are interacting with QSRs during COVID-19

How customers are interacting with QSRs during COVID-19

The best brands in the QSR business use technology to enhance the user experience, not as a means of removing human interaction.

So with the global pandemic of COVID-19, the industry has been struck to its very core. While technology and convenience has always been important, ultimately, you’re dealing in hospitality.

Avoiding contact with other people flies in the face of all that QSRs stand for and wish to be, and it leaves many wondering how they stay connected to their core customer base when they don’t see them on a day-to-day basis.

A recent survey by Bottle Rocket, a tech company who build applications that connect businesses to their consumer, attempted to answer that question, and gives QSRs an insight into how customers are interacting with them in the current climate.

The most revealing stat showed that 80 per cent of customers were more inclined to order from restaurants that offer incentives for online or mobile app ordering. At a time when the loudest messaging urges them to stay home, consumers need greater motivation to take a night off from cooking at home. 

The survey also revealed the value of brand reputation at this time. People are seeking familiarity to help them to feel normal again, and the survey suggests that customers are narrowing their food choices to a select few, meaning many are visiting their favourite spots more frequently than they may have before the pandemic.

Ultimately, consumers are falling into one of two categories – they are either making an effort to be less reliant on QSRs, or haven’t changed their habits all that much at all.

They have also illustrated the importance of social media as a means of keeping people informed, with the majority of respondents indicating their favoured form of communication from QSRs came from their social presence.

That said, this stat is padded out by younger guests, and a thorough study of the numbers suggests there is never too many lines of communication in a crisis, with the restaurant’s website, app and EDM distribution considered by as many as two in five as how they wish to receive their information.