Article
Is your menu slowing speed of service?
Increasing order thruput is always top of mind, but too many chains don't understand how their menu design may be to blame.
February 24, 2010
As consumers demand more choices at quick-service restaurants, chains are walking a tricky line. New flavors and product lines answer that desire for something different. But adding all those items can leave menus overcrowded and sometimes confusing.
According to research from Mintel Menu Insights, the QSR segment has added more than 6,800 items to their menus over the last five years. And chains launching new menu categories were more likely to add sandwiches during that time period. Among the top 10 menu item additions, breakfast and burger items led the way.
In 2009, QSRs added nearly 1,400 new menu items, up 4.7 percent from 2008, and the menu additions are taking a toll on consumers.
According to a recent QSRweb.com informal poll of more than 240 consumers, consumers said they like the amount of variety on QSR and fast casual menus (66.7 percent), but many (50 percent) find the menus more difficult to read than in the past. Among male respondents ages 18-35, the typical QSR core user, 44 percent are finding menus more difficult to read.
Consumers also are spending more time looking over the menu board, ultimately impacting speed of service. According to our survey, 43 percent of respondents said they take more than 30 seconds to read a QSR or fast casual menu. Among male respondents ages 18-35, 33.3 percent take at least that long. And for all respondents ages 19-35, 38.5 percent spend more than 30 seconds to find what they want.
So what can operators do to help consumers navigate the growing array of choices? The key is in understanding how consumers think, experts say. And unfortunately, too many chains haven't done their homework.
To their credit, some chains do get it right — or at least better than most. McDonald's, for example, simplifies the ordering of combos by using large graphics and numbering the items. But customers interested in other options must still search the menu, often reading smaller text.
Fast casual Chipotle is known for its user-friendly menu, mainly because the chain focuses on a limited number of offerings. The menu also guides customers through the ordering process. Quizno's, on the other hand, is renowned for its complicated menu and the abundance of danglers and point-of-purchase materials in its stores— all vying for customer attention.
Most chains fall somewhere in between.
"Many companies want to appear that they offer a lot of products and possible combinations, but they make the mistake of trying to communicate every possible permutation on their menu board — often with all of them at an equal volume, unfortunately," said Kevin Scoresby, a user experience consultant and president of Scoresby Interactive.
When no particular item or menu line stands out on the menu board, customers don't know where to look. So those unfamiliar with the menu, or who are looking for an item they've seen advertised, have to scan the entire board.
Many quick-service chains are aware that customers who have difficulty ordering from the menu slow down speed of service, Scoresby said. "But they don't know how to solve it."
Discovering the problem
Some QSRs have tried to address the issue by installing pre-menu boards at the entrance to the drive-thru lane so customers can familiarize themselves with the menu. While those boards do help customers prepare their order, it doesn't solve the problem inside the store.
"There's a big opportunity for organizing things in a better way, in a more logical way," Scoresby said.
Scoresby works with QSRs to study how customers and employees interact at the point of sale to solve speed-of-service issues. Primarily, he redesigns POS systems to help increase employee efficiency and improve customer satisfaction, and his customers include Wendy's, Starbucks and Subway.
Through his observations, he has witnessed how customers' interactions with the menu slows service. Loyal customers tend to ignore the menu and order what they want. Newer customers take more time to study the menu — and need more help, he said. They also change their minds as they discover something else they want on the menu. And they seem to feel pressured while doing so, impacting their level of satisfaction.
So QSRs who pay attention to menu design will not only improve speed of service but quality of service as well.
The root of the problem is that QSRs don't seem to understand how customers actually read the menu board, Scoresby said. They could benefit from studying that behavior, "not only how customers organize items in their head" but how to organize the menu boards to match that thought process."
Harvey Friedman, founder and president of Epicure Digital Systems, agrees that few chains take the time to learn that information. They also fail to apply the principles of menu engineering in their menu design, he said. Instead, smaller chains tend to rely on the backlit menu board manufacturer to design the layout while larger chains leave the design to their advertising shop, depending on their artistic expertise.
The result is a board that often is hard to navigate because it is either too cluttered or with no clear focus.
"A well-designed menu board should lead people through the menu choices quickly and easily," Friedman said. "It shouldn't raise questions and confuse people but should answer questions so that the decision comes quickly."
Leading customers' decisions
Menu engineering experts understand how to lead customers from one menu item to the next, relying on graphics and in the case of digital menu boards, motion.
"Menu engineering is really about information management," Friedman said.
John Cecconi, creative director for Epicure, said the first step to creating a well-designed menu board is to develop a hierarchy. Even a complex menu can be easily read using such design elements. Color and category headers draw customers' attention to different menu lines, for example. And motion will always capture attention.
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"We try not to put movement on a board for the sake of putting movement because then it's all over the place," Cecconi said. "The customer doesn't know where to look, so it becomes clutter."
The goal is to help the customer make a decision, appealing to their appetite and leading them through the choices. In many cases, that means putting the emphasis on the advertised menu item of the month, possibly featuring it in the center panel. Or the menu design could lead the customer from the sandwich to the side to the drink selections, using color, graphics or motion — or a combination of those elements.
"What a customer wants is to be able to make a decision," Cecconi said. "We're trying to (help them) reach that without having too much thinking."
Traditional menu boards also can accomplish that ease of ordering, Friedman said.
"Even without motion, a good presentation of graphics will lead you through to where you want people to be looking," he said. Customers at a traditional menu board tend to read left to right, "but it doesn't have to remain that way. It depends on how you design the look and feel of the board, so that you bring the attention to where you want them to be looking."
MexicanBurger/Steak/BBQProfessional ServicesSandwichMenu BoardsDigital SignageDrive-thruOperationsFood & BeverageTechnology
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