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McDonald's Mobile Technology

The question McDonald’s marketers are asking before they place technology bets

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By Natalie Mortimer, N/A

June 2, 2016 | 3 min read

As McDonald’s looks to build up its digital prowess, the fast food chain is mulling which strategic direction will be more compelling for its visitors; customer experience or customer engagement.

McDonald's

McDonald’s is splitting its technology and digital strategy between the two – experience and engagement – with the former dedicated to making visits to the chain smoother, such as customised ordering via its app, and the latter focussed on the “fun” stuff such as McDonald’s sports sponsorships and community engagement programmes around sustainability.

Speaking at the Bernstein Annual Strategic Decisions Conference yesterday (1 June) McDonald’s president and chief executive officer, Steve Easterbrook said that he sees technology as both an “enabler” of growth and a “driver”.

“We have access to the best talent and the best partners out there. Ultimately when we really get ourselves moving in this direction [we will ask if] it will be more compelling as a customer experience or a customer engagement.

“We see technologies being, as I say, an enabler of growth to smooth experience, and also a driver, because we believe we can build a stronger relationship with our customers through technology through than we can two 15-second interactions on a drive through window.”

To that end, McDonald’s is playing around with technology and the drive through experience in markets such as France and Australia, where it is testing out ordering ahead through its app and using geo location to recognise when you arrive at a McDonald’s drive through.

“That’s a very, very seamless experience… That will smooth out the operational procedure for the remaining customers in the drive through lane…So we are playing with these concepts, we are unable to upscale any of them yet, but we figure that we will be unlocking different options that is hopefully in the control of the customers,” said Easterbrook.

By utilising such technology in tech-savvy markets, McDonald’s is hoping to improve speed, accuracy when ordering, and a more relaxed customer experience, and hone this before transferring it “quickly” across its matures markets.

Earlier in the year McDonald's said that it is judging its digital efforts against sales made in a restaurant for the first time following the roll out of its app in the US in 2015 and will build weekly and monthly in-store sales into digital KPIs, which Easterbrook admitted at the time were “a little modest in 2016”.

McDonald's Mobile Technology

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