The fork within the highway
The enterprise leaders contended with operational questions that turned deeply intertwined with branding choices. They contemplated issues like web site choice, focusing on Shacks off main transit routes versus metropolis Shacks. It redesigned its kitchens to cook dinner meals extra effectively, and it created digital menu boards whereas streamlining its cellular app.
There have been dangers.
Controlling the client expertise in a drive-thru, the place there are fewer alternatives for retailer workers to rectify buyer considerations, posed a possible drawback. Think about a buyer swiftly driving off after receiving the incorrect order, solely to later face disappointment and frustration that the model can’t simply repair.
Then, there’s the query of timeliness. Whereas lots of its opponents put together meals prematurely and hold it heat for patrons who roll via, Shake Shack makes each order recent. Generally that ends in longer wait occasions than customers anticipate at different fast-food eating places. Shoppers accustomed to the model anticipate that—maybe prioritizing recent meals over a fast wait time. A drive-thru might, theoretically, encourage customers to anticipate speediness. With longer-than-average wait occasions, autos in a drive-thru might again up and create a service bottleneck, angering these dealing with lengthy wait occasions.
“It’s a tightrope. It’s a troublesome line to stroll. However the actuality is that that is one thing that companies without end have contended with,” Dipanjan Chatterjee, vp and principal analyst at Forrester Analysis, informed Adweek. “You notice that in case you open up totally different channels that enable individuals to entry you, you’re rising the enterprise. You’re simply multiplying the methods individuals can work together along with your model…however that comes with its personal set of challenges.”
A word-of-mouth technique
Understanding how one can handle every channel’s distinctive operational points needs to be the model’s precedence, based on Chatterjee.
Livingston drew some inspiration from opponents like Chick-fil-A or In-N-Out that pioneered working environment friendly drive-thrus. “We checked out issues like how they do line busting throughout the drive-thru to have a number of factors of contact, so the company by no means really feel like they’re ready too lengthy with out some form of contact,” Livingston mentioned.
