Technology

Satisfying the hunger for frictionless tech: meeting the needs of QSR customers, franchisees

Unreliable self-service technology is frustrating customers and costing quick-service restaurants significant money, leading to the recommendation that QSRs adopt a preventive management approach through Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) systems to ensure operational consistency.

photo: Canopy

September 30, 2025 by Morgan Petty — Strategic Account Manager, Canopy

You pull into a restaurant, craving a fast, hassle-free meal. You're greeted by a sleek self-service kiosk offering an added touch of convenience, but instead, you see error messages, confusing menus or a payment system that just won't cooperate. Frustration sets in and ultimately consumes the promise of a "quick" and "consistent" meal.

This scenario is relatable because the issues are common. According to the new report, Fast-Food Friction: The 2025 Restaurant Tech Report, a staggering 80% of customers have encountered issues with self-service kiosks. Yet, four out of five say technology plays a pivotal role in deciding where to eat. This disconnect between expectation and execution is a wake-up call for the quick-service industry. As brands race to integrate new technologies to enhance speed and efficiency, they often unintentionally create friction that undermines the very essence of their promise. The report dives deep into what customers truly want from QSR technology and highlights the gaps, shall we say, opportunities, that leave both diners and franchisees hungry for better solutions.

Every frozen kiosk screen, misunderstood AI drive-thru order, and failed payment transaction erodes the trust we work so hard to build. The challenge for QSR leaders involves two critical elements: deploying new technology and guaranteeing it works reliably while gaining acceptance from both customers and staff.

To navigate this, we can look to the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM 2). This research-based model helps explain why users adopt or reject new technology. It centers on two fundamental factors: Perceived usefulness (does it help me achieve my goal?) and perceived ease of use (is it simple to interact with?). When applying the model to self-service kiosks, users often consider whether they can use the system without support. If not, the self-service method is not perceived as easy to use or useful.

When a kiosk simplifies a complex order, it's useful. When an AI drive-thru is intuitive, it's easy to use. When both conditions are met, customers and employees will embrace the technology. Conversely, when systems malfunction, frustration spreads throughout the entire experience. Brand perception takes a hit as well.

The high cost of unreliable restaurant tech

The push for digital evolution has created a complex web of connected devices in every restaurant. From POS systems and payment terminals to kitchen display systems (KDS) and digital menu boards, the modern QSR is a sophisticated technological environment. The problem is that we often lack the visibility and control needed to manage it effectively across multiple locations.

This creates substantial challenges that resonate from the C-suite to the front counter.

Strained IT help desks and franchisee support

When a device goes offline, the burden falls squarely on IT help desks and franchise support centers. Support and service architecture can be complex, particularly in chains where franchisees may opt for corporate support or develop their own Tier 1 support desk.

In either case, these teams are often inundated with tickets for connectivity issues, frozen kiosk screens, unresponsive payment terminals, or faulty receipt printers. Other unrealized failures may severely damage the business—payment node failures, to illustrate.

The average initial support call is 12 minutes. Handled domestically franchisors are looking at $36 per initial call. By outsourcing overseas, the cost can be cut to under $10 — sometimes as low as $6. This call simply acknowledges the support team of the issue. Mean time to resolution (MTTR) has been known to take an average of over 45 hours for some restaurant chains.

Often lacking remote visibility, support staff must walk franchisees or store managers through tedious troubleshooting steps over the phone. Through handling of the issue additional costs are incurred. This can include calls to and from the restaurant, costly escalations and field service. Of course, this does not cover the cost of downtime or negative brand perception among customers, employees and franchisees.

This reactive, time-consuming process leads to high costs for the franchisor, longer downtimes, frustrated employees and agitated franchisees. It also overwhelms support teams and alienates customers.

For franchisees, repeated tech failures mean lost sales and a damaged reputation. Over time these franchisees and local managers become more skeptical of proposed technologies, fearing that these systems will cause more harm than good.

The customer experience contradiction

We invest in technology to create a better, faster customer experience, yet unreliable systems often achieve the opposite. The report reveals a substantial gap between potential and reality:

Self-service kiosks: While 60% of customers use kiosks, 80% have faced issues. Customers turn to them for speed and accuracy, yet a frozen screen or a broken printer negates those benefits instantly.
AI drive-thrus: Early adoption shows promise, with two-thirds of users satisfied. However, 75% of those who had a bad experience cited the AI misunderstanding their order. This points to an urgent need for refinement and reliability.
Payment systems: This should be the most seamless part of the transaction, yet 76% of customers have had problems. From unresponsive tap-to-pay devices to slow processing, payment friction is a major obstacle that directly impacts a customer's final impression.

When technology fails, it undermines customer confidence in the entire brand experience.

Building a smarter foundation for QSR excellence

To deliver on the promise of the connected restaurant, QSR leaders are shifting from a reactive support model to a preventive management strategy. Sophisticated remote monitoring and management (RMM) systems serve as the intelligent infrastructure that provides complete visibility and control over the entire technology stack in every location.

These RMM platforms give IT and support teams a centralized dashboard to oversee the live health of every device across the enterprise — from the network router to the POS terminal. This capability transforms how QSRs manage their technology. It also reveals tremendous opportunities.

Preventive issue resolution before it impacts service

Imagine a kiosk's receipt printer is running low on paper. While this may not seem like such a big deal, it can be. Some US municipalities require quick-service restaurants to provide receipts. Some customers who tend to be skeptical about order accuracy often demand receipts. Instead of waiting for a customer to complain, an RMM system can send an automated alert to the store manager, providing them an opportunity to proactively address the issue with a simple paper roll swap.

If a payment terminal repeatedly fails transactions, the system can flag the device for inspection and even attempt to reboot it remotely before it causes a bottleneck during the lunch rush. This preventive approach transforms support teams from firefighters into operational partners who can solve problems before they damage operations or disappoint customers.

Scaling excellence without overloading support

Introducing new technologies like AI drive-thrus becomes far less daunting with an RMM foundation. Instead of placing the entire support burden on already strained help desks, an intelligent system can monitor device performance, diagnose problems automatically, and execute repairs remotely. It confirms that new deployments are stable and performant from day one. This allows QSRs to advance with confidence, knowing they have the underlying infrastructure to support a positive customer and employee experience across all locations. By reducing the number of support tickets, IT can focus on higher-value initiatives that serve to drive the business forward.

Delivering consistency across every location

A brand's promise is built on consistency. Customers expect the same high-quality experience whether they're in a bustling city or a remote town. The report's finding that suburban customers are twice as likely as rural customers to say payment tech works perfectly highlights a substantial gap in service delivery. An RMM platform helps close this gap by standardizing performance everywhere. IT teams can deploy software updates, adjust device settings, and implement security measures remotely, confirming every restaurant is running on identical, secure, and high-performance technology standards.

The connected restaurant revolution

Customers are ready to embrace technology that makes their lives easier. Yet their patience for friction is thin. Earning their loyalty requires sustained commitment to operational excellence and reliability, not fleeting adoption of trending technologies.

By adopting an intelligent infrastructure powered by remote monitoring and management, QSR leaders can finally bridge the gap between their digital ambitions and the on-the-ground reality. This approach empowers IT teams, supports franchisees and, most importantly, delivers rapid, consistent and seamless experiences that keep customers coming back. It's time to move beyond fixing broken tech and start building a connected restaurant infrastructure that simply works.

About Morgan Petty

Morgan has studied and implemented digitally-enabled and self-service customer experiences for over 10 years. She's led on-premise self-service transformations, supported manufacturing of custom kiosk fleets, and served as a consultant on customer experience and operational alignment. Morgan now supports QSR, c-store, specialty retail, grocery leaders and other consumer-facing brands in implementing remote monitoring, management, and automated issues resolutions at Canopy.

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