Coca-Cola Leverages Drive-Thru Frustration to Boost Foodservice Distribution

With drive-thru ordering in high demand and with restaurant staff in short supply, many brands are seeing bottlenecks at their drive-thru locations. As wait times grow longer, the need for solutions to speed up the process becomes more pressing.

Noting this opportunity, Coca-Cola announced Tuesday (May 17) via a press release in news outlet QSR that it is launching a new back-of-house beverage dispenser, Coca-Cola Freestyle 8100, designed specifically for efficient service at the drive-thru.

The machine, created in partnership with QSR Automations, integrates with restaurants’ point-of-sale (POS) systems to automatically dispense a beverage when the order comes in, and it is made to be easy for employees to use, refill and repair.

“With Freestyle 8100, we set out to not only deliver a revolutionary beverage experience for diners, but also to make the job of foodservice crews easier,” Ren Powell, director of platform innovation at Coca-Cola Freestyle, said in a statement. “The new features and technology will make pouring the right beverage — a time-consuming task for crews who are busier than ever due to the labor shortage and increased drive-thru traffic — infinitely simpler, which means diners get their favorite Coca-Cola beverage at the drive-thru even faster.”

Since the start of the pandemic, the demand for drive-thru pickup has increased. Restaurants that once eschewed the channel pivoted and debuted drive-thru store concepts. This rise in desire for the channel has coincided, however, with a challenging labor market, leaving many restaurants unable to meet demand. With the risk of alienating consumers with long wait times, brands are seeking out solutions to speed up the process, including the introduction of mobile pickup lanes and of automated order-taking (AOT) technology.

Typically, these initiatives to speed up the process come from solutions providers or from the restaurant brands themselves. However, with the debut of this beverage dispenser, Coca-Cola is showing that the need for quicker drive-thru experiences presents a market opportunity for food and beverage brands as well.

These issues are even more pressing now, as rising fuel prices make the wait more costly for customers.

“When someone pulls in, they want to be in and out very quickly,” Dwayne Chambers, chief marketing officer at Checkers & Rally’s Drive-In Restaurants, said in a March interview with PYMNTS. “They don’t want to sit; they don’t want to idle. Literally, as gas prices go up, that time is money when they’re driving, and so I think you’re going to see a lot more people ordering ahead, where they don’t even have to stop at the drive-thru … It’s already paid for. It’s done. And they’re going to whip through, at least at our place. It may be different at some of the other restaurants.”

Read more: Checkers & Rally’s CMO: Rising Fuel Costs Demand Greater Drive-Thru Efficiency

Research from PYMNTS’ 2022 Restaurant Friction Index, created in collaboration with Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) customer experience management (CXM) solutions provider Paytronix, which drew from a survey of more than 500 managers of quick-service restaurants (QSRs) and full-service restaurants (FSRs) across the United States, found that about half of all restaurants offer the ability to pick up orders at the drive-thru.

See more: Loyalty Programs Best Way to Get Diners to Spend More

Additionally, nearly two-thirds of those that do not offer this ability plan to invest in adopting the feature in the future. Moreover, the study, which also drew from a survey of more than 2,100 U.S. adults, found that 35% of consumers said drive-thru pickup options would encourage them to purchase from restaurants.