Quick service restaurants (QSRs) are known for serving a high volume of customers in a short amount of time. However, ensuring quality and consistency in every order continues to be essential to both a QSR’s operation and its customers. According to a recent QSR Drive Thru Report by Intouch Insight, “Operators must address three critical elements that consumers want in the QSR experience: accuracy, convenience and speed.”
As coffee continues to be a staple beverage for QSRs, operators are looking for new ways they can streamline their operations. With continued innovation in technology and automation, QSRs can now completely automate their coffee program—saving time and focusing on accuracy, convenience and speed—while providing a high-quality coffee experience to their customers. There are three main benefits of utilizing equipment that completely automates the coffee program.
Consistency
Consistency is key in the QSR segment, and with growing competition in coffee, inconsistencies can easily drive consumers to visit a competitor. Automated coffee equipment can help ensure that every cup of coffee is made the same way every time. These machines are programmed to measure and dispense the exact amount of coffee, water and other ingredients needed for each cup of coffee. They also ensure that the brewing time and temperature are consistent, resulting in a cup of coffee that tastes the same every time at every location. This consistency is especially important for QSRs that want to maintain a consistent brand image across all locations and elevated customer experience.
Speed of service
Speed of service is crucial for QSRs, and automating the coffee program can help restaurants serve more customers in less time. With traditional brewing methods, it can take several minutes to make a single cup of coffee, which can cause lines and a long wait time during peak hours when there are many orders to fill. However, with new equipment such as the Curtis Genesis Skyline, speed is no longer an issue. This machine was designed with operational efficiency in mind and is especially applicable for drive-thru applications where speed of service is crucial. This new machine, in which where coffee is brewed fresh from whole beans, is the first of its kind that has the ability to automate coffee output based on demand. Its maximum speed can serve customers quickly and efficiently, allowing operators to serve the freshest coffee. This will help QSRs reduce wait times, increase customer satisfaction and ultimately improve the bottom line. With faster service times, QSRs can serve more customers, which leads to higher sales and increased revenue.
Training
Losing staff and finding replacement staff has long been a struggle of QSRs, and this problem has only accelerated over the past three years. When QSRs implement automation into their operations, this leads to both labor savings and easier training for staff. With coffee equipment that can automate the entire coffee program, staff can spend less time manually brewing and preparing coffee, and more time interacting with customers or handling other tasks. With automated cleaning, operators can ensure that their machines are cleaned regularly and consistently, which can help extend the life of the equipment and improve the quality of the coffee. Overall, automating the coffee programs can lead to labor savings, easier training and simplified cleaning procedures, allowing operators to allocate more time and resources to other areas of their restaurant.
While introducing automated coffee equipment will certainly improve the coffee program, maximum benefits come from finding the right partner.
SEB Professional is three brands in one company—WMF, Schaerer and Curtis. This allows SEB Professional to be a partner that has the resources and knowledge operators need to create a custom, on demand coffee experience for customers—no matter the size of the operation. To see the Curtis Genesis Skyline in action, stop by the NRA Show in Chicago starting May 20 at Booth 4438, or visit http://www.wilburcurtis.com
This post is sponsored by SEB Professional North America