Technology

Lee's Famous Recipe deploys AI to build drive-thru success

Photo: Provided.

May 20, 2021

A Dayton, Ohio-area Lee's Famous Recipe is partnering with a tech company to give drive-thru customers what it hopes is a faster, more efficient drive-thru experience.

The chicken QSR worked with Israel-based AI company, Hi Auto, to bring conversational AI to the Englewood, Ohio store's drive-thru at a time when QSR customers are clamoring for more in-car restaurant orders and retrievals. Drive-thru orders last year alone grew 22%, accounting for 44% of all off-premise orders across the restaurant industry, according to a press release on the partnership.

The big problem with all the drive-thru success is that drive-thru wait times got longer — nearly 30 seconds longer, according to the release, putting a strain on brands, customers, employees and restaurant systems. Add the complexities of the industry labor issues now to the mix and an answer was sorely needed.

To address it, Hi Auto created an AI solution that greets guest, answers questions, suggests menu items and enters the orders into the POS using Intel technology to isolate the customer's speech and talk like a human, while also ensuring order accuracy, the release said. Hi Auto said Lee's plans to implement the conversational AI solution at more of its drive-thrus as it is designed to shorten drive-thru service and wait times and eliminate manymistakes that occur daily in the nation's growing number of drive-thru restaurants.

"The automated AI drive-thru has impacted my business in a simple way. We don't have customers waiting anymore. We greet them as soon as they get to the board and the order is taken correctly," Chuck Doran, owner/operator of the Lee's Englewood store, said in the release. "It's amazing to see the level of accuracy with the voice recognition technology, which helps speed up service. It can even suggest additional items based on the order, which helps us increase our sales.

"If a person is running the drive-thru, they may suggest a sale in one out of 20 orders. With Hi Auto, it happens in every transaction where it's feasible. So, we see improvements in our average check, service time and improvements in consistency and customer service. And because the cashier is now less stressed, she can focus on customer service as well. A less-burdened employee will be a happier employee, and we want happy employees interacting with our customers."

Hi Auto co-founder and CEO Roy Baharav said the team at the Englewood Lee's clearly has a heart for customer service and the AI system is helping them meet that.

"We operationalized our AI system based on what we learned from the owners, general managers and employees," Baharav said in the release. "They have embraced the solution and within a short time began reaping the benefits. We are now applying the process and lessons learned at additional customer sites."

Lee's is planning to deploy Hi Auto's conversational AI in additional drive-thru locations. Pilots with the largest QSRs are already underway, as well, according to the release, and Hi Auto's engineers are adding Spanish language capabilities to the solution, which is available as an Intel IoT Market Ready Solution.