Uncovering Fast Food Loyalty
Project Overview
The Challenge:
The lines are blurred between fast food and other forms of dining, making it harder for brands to build lasting customer loyalty.
This project aims to uncover the underlying motivations for fast food loyalty aiming to uncover behaviours and unmet needs that go beyond traditional factors.
The Goal:
My role is to conduct ethnographic research aimed to uncover insights that would inform the design of a new loyalty program focused on adding value to the entire dining experience ultimately building a lasting customer loyalty and competitive advantage.
Note: This is an independent usability case study where research was conducted with friends, family, and peers.
Research & Analysis
Beyond Assumptions: What Drives Customer Loyalty?
As someone who commonly uses mobile ordering, my initial assumption was that loyalty was purely about speed, cost and rewards. However, to move beyond assumptions, and truly understand what drives customer loyalty, my team and I conducted a multi-phase research study to build a deeper understanding of the customer's journey.
Contextual Observations
We began our research with participant & non- participant observations in various fast-food restaurants to understand how people behave naturally and factors that may influence their experience. Through our observations, we found 3 common themes:
Timely convenience: Customers often prioritize the speed in which they can place and pick up their meals to go.
Value: This goes beyond the cost of the meal, rather the perceived quality of the experience. Customers value innovative methods that streamline their overall experience enhancing their perception of value
Environment: The physical environment played a role in shaping the customer's experience, influencing their overall satisfaction.
While timely convenience and value are obvious themes, the environment is a less- explored area our team chose to focus on. This allows us to understand how the hidden needs and experiences of the customer relate back to the environmental aspects of a fast food restaurant.
Click here for Participant & Non Participant Observations
Diary Study
To build upon the results from our observational research, our team conducted a diary study to gain in-the-moment experiences and understand the role the environment plays a in the customer’s experience.
Diary Study Prompts | |||
Prompt #1 | Prompt# 2 | Prompt #3 | Prompt #4 |
|---|---|---|---|
When arriving at the restaurant, take 5 Photos of the first things that stand out to you within the space. | How does each photo you took make you feel? | What specific aspects or items of your experience made you feel like you got the most value? | Did anything about the experience surprise you or challenge your expectations? |
Prompt purpose | |||
This prompt aims to capture different components within an environment that can peak a response | This prompts allows participants to reflect on what has been observed and the emotions, feeling or response based on what stood out | This question provides us their thoughts about the positive experiences they encountered | This question helps us understand what the participants' expectations are and how those expectations are perceived. |
Through our analysis of participant entries, we identified 2 key themes that influenced how the environment shaped their experience:
Intentional inclusivity
Participants often noted a sense of belonging when a space is thoughtfully designed to met a variety of needs.
Clear way finding.
Participants valued clear signage and layout that made navigating easier while providing a thoughtful experience.
Click here for Diary Study Analysis
Co-Creative Workshop
The insights from the diary study show a shift in customer expectations. They are no longer motivated by traditional factors such as speed and low cost, but are expecting an overall experience that creates value to them.
To address this, we designed a 30 minute co-creative workshop to have participants reflect on previous dining experiences beyond the motivated factors of speed and low costs. By finding common problem areas, we can ideate solutions with the target users to find solutions that meet their needs and expectations.
Findings
Beyond Speed and Convenience: The Shift From Transaction to Experience
Our research uncovered that a customer's loyalty to a fast-food restaurant is driven by more than just speed and low costs. While these factors are important, we discovered that the in-store environment plays a crucial role in shaping a customer's experience and the likely-hood of returning.
Through our research along and co-creative workshop, we identified 3 common barriers beyond speed and low costs that impact the customer's overall experience. While they expect a space that is welcoming and comfortable, they encounter friction such as:
Operational Efficiency:
Order inaccuracies: participant noted the frustration of inaccurate orders creating a feeling of distrust and made the experience feel more transactional rather than of value.
Friction with mobile kiosk: Participants noted the difficulties in using mobile kiosks, often leading them to order directly with an employees.
Poorly managed pick up area: Participants noted how poorly managed the pick-up area often is, creating confusion for customers who are unsure where to stand. This leads to unnecessary congestion and a chaotic experience.
Poor way-findings:
Congested Areas & Walkways. Participants found that walkways and seating areas that are congested made it difficult to move around, creating a physical discomfort
Cleanliness:
Unkept restrooms , dirty tables & seating. The environment often fails to meet customer expectations for comfort and hygiene, which negatively impacts their perception of the restaurants value and their willingness to return.
Through our findings, we focused on three distinct users: Dine-in customers, Take-out customers & Pick up customers. While all groups share core motivations like fast, convenient, and affordable food, our research uncovered a distinction within their priorities:
Take- out & pick - up customers are primarily driven by efficiency valuing the ability to skip the ordering and having real-time order tracking to manager their expectations and save time.
Dine-in customers are more focused on the in-store experience. Their loyalty is shaped by factors like a welcoming and comfortable dining environment and the availability of amenities such as having charging outlets which increases the perceived value of their visit.
Recommendations
Based on our findings, I recommend a loyalty platform that moves beyond simple transactional model to build a deeper, lasting connection with customers. By focusing on the environmental aspects of fast-food experiences, I found that loyalty can be shaped by a customer's perception of value added throughout their ordering, pick-up, and dining journey.
To address the key barriers, the loyalty platform should focus on features that enhances the customer’s visit into a satisfying, comfortable, and memorable experience.
Optimizing Operational Efficiency & Way-Finding
These recommendations focus on using the app to create a more seamless and less chaotic in-store experience, tackling the core issue of inaccurate orders, kiosk difficulties, and physical congestion.
Streamline ordering: Offer reorder options and pre order list that are scannable and accessible through kiosks and cashiers. In the event of an out of stock item, the app can give customers the option to pre-select a substitute or request to be contacted for an alternative. This reduces order inaccuracies and saves customers time by eliminating the need to re-enter customized selections.
Scan & Pay: Integrate a scan-and-pay feature in the app that allows customers to pay for their order and manage their loyalty benefits in one simple step. This feature lets them to seamlessly use coupons, apply promotions, redeem points, and collect new points all at once. This reduces friction at the point of sale and provides a fast, and comprehensive checkout process.
Improve pickup & dine in experience: Provide real-time order tracking & pickup notifications.
For dine in customers, this means the app can allow them to comfortably take a seat and place their oder via a QR code at their table, receiving an alert when it's time to pickup
For take out & pick up customers, the app eliminates confusion in a chaotic environment by directing them to a designated order pickup location, such as a locker or a specific counter, and notifying them exactly when their order is ready by providing a notification.
"The order bell was really helpful. I didn’t need to stand and wait near the counter. I could just sit down and go get my food when the bell rang, which saved my time and effort." - Participant 2
Addressing The Cleanliness of the Restaurant
This recommendation leverages the app to empower customers to provide real-time feedback and ensure the environment meets their expectations for hygiene and comfort
Real-time support: by integrating real-time feedback channels directly into the app, customers can quickly report issues like unkept restrooms or dirty tables. This empowers customers to communicate their needs and demonstrate that the brand is proactive in maintaining a standard of cleanliness
Value Rather Than Transactional
These recommendations focus on using the app to foster a deeper sense of value, connection, and Inclusivity by making the customer feel valued beyond their transaction
Personalized profiles & Family & Group Option: Offer customized profiles with options to include allergies, and allow users to pre-save menu items with customized toppings & substitution options. Additionally, a family or group option allows members to share points and orders, encouraging a sense of community and connection that turns simple meal into a shared experience.
Targeted promotions: Offer personalized promotions based on users previous orders, making the brand's communication feel more relevant and valuable.
Community engagement: Include community features, such as the ability to share custom orders and reviews with other customers
It wasn’t just about eating, it felt like a full, satisfying experience. - Participant 1
Reflection & Key Takeaways
This project was a great reminder that user research often challenges our own assumptions. As an avid mobile-orderer, I was surprised to find that many people preferred a physical line over an empty kiosk. When I spoke to my participant, they revealed for them, it takes too long to navigate a customized order on kisok compared to just telling an employee. This insight highlighted the importance of a seamless, human centred experience.
In our co-creative workshop, I learned a valuable less in facilitation. The first activity was an impromptu networking session, due to the activity being completed couple of times previously by other groups, our participants appeared more disinterested in the activity when our turn came. As the facilitator of this activity, I decided to reduce the 3 rounds down to 2. Instead I should have gotten participants standing and move out of their groups and continue with 3 rounds of the impromptu networking. This experience taught me to prioritize participant engagement and adapt activities on the fly.
Moving forward, I would love to build a low-fidelity prototype of the mobile app and to test the recommended features and validate our findings.