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At this year’s restaurant trade show, there was a lot of talk about the latest technologies like robotic servers, AI voice technology, autonomous delivery vans and more.
While it’s easy to be fooled by a cool new thing, it’s much harder to decide if it’s a good fit for a particular brand. One area of the restaurant tech stack that hasn’t gotten a lot of attention is getting off-premises orders to customers and delivery drivers.
Choose technology that focuses on what matters
Some restaurant technology is so complex and expensive that it can be difficult for operators to predict whether it will help them solve pressing real-world problems, including optimizing labor, increasing service speed and cutting costs for outside services such as third-party deliveries.
Most carriers don’t have months or years to wait for results.recent Black Box Intelligence Data showed that although junipers were more frequently opting for out-of-store dining, they did not Very satisfied with this. In the second quarter of 2022, limited-service restaurants had a Net Sentiment Score of -33%, indicating an urgent need to improve the off-site customer experience.
That’s where OrderHQ is™ Apex’s smart food lockers come in.
Targeted technologies for improving off-site order fulfillment
The third-generation OrderHQ smart food locker brings efficient automation to traditional order-and-fetch shelves. They provide security and organization to the otherwise chaotic process of delivering the right order to the right customer at the right time. Their seamless workflow immediately improves labor efficiency, increases order throughput, and reduces wait times, reducing lobby congestion. More importantly, they reduce friction in the customer pickup experience.
In its latest research, Bluedot found that 40% of customers are frustrated when a takeout order says it’s ready, but they still have to wait for an employee to help them. With OrderHQ lockers, customers don’t have to wait for someone to deliver their order to them. They don’t have to check all the shelves and bags. They just come in, scan their code, and take their order in less than 10 seconds.
With this fast and reliable experience, customers can choose to order directly from the restaurant’s app instead of third-party delivery. This means brands can have the full customer journey and start reducing the fees they pay to third-party delivery services.
OrderHQ lockers can handle high volumes of digital orders and collect data on pickup and loading times. With an average order dwell time of 6 minutes (based on all Apex customer locations), a seven-bay OrderHQ locker can manage up to 70 orders per hour, and more lockers can be connected as needed.
Real-time order pickup data for customers and delivery services
Reducing friction between employees and customers is just the beginning. ApexIQ for Lockers™ The software also provides real-time data to complete the digital chain of custody of each order, providing an opportunity to optimize every step of the OTC order journey. In fact, leading QSR brands have uncovered data insights about delivery service performance, gaining new clarity and bargaining power to negotiate contracts and fees.
Adding the OrderHQ smart food locker to the restaurant technology stack brings precision, efficiency and security to off-site orders, making this part of the business more efficient and profitable. They greatly improve service speed, convenience and order fidelity.
Talk to Apex Order Pickup Solutions to find out how the OrderHQ smart food locker can instantly improve the off-site experience and profitability.
This post is sponsored by Apex Order Pickup Solutions