March 2023

Improve Point Of Order Engagements By Serving Your Consumers Digitally

Digital Point Of Order And Point Of Sale Provide Greater Value For Consumers And Restaurants

Mastercard logo

A Forrester Consulting Thought Leadership Paper Commisioned by Mastercard

Table Of Contents

New technologies are transforming the way restaurants operate and the experience that their consumers have in both the physical restaurant itself and the digital space.1 Gone are the days of stove-piped, manual ordering experiences. Here to stay is an integrated digital experience that puts consumers firmly in charge of the point of order and point of sale interaction. Restaurants must meet consumers where they are with integrated, seamless order and delivery experiences — online, by application, or on-premise — and build digital relationships with them to remain relevant.

Mastercard commissioned Forrester Consulting to evaluate customer behavior engaging with quick service, fast casual, casual, and coffee or bakery dining establishments. Forrester also evaluated the digital strategies that these restaurant types are deploying, to better understand how customer needs are being met and where opportunities are. Forrester conducted an online survey with 2,312 global consumers who frequent these types of restaurants, and 427 global technology, operations, and customer experience (CX) professionals who lead or influence point of order and point of sale experiences.

We found that restaurants need to exploit the growing digital bond with their consumers by fully developing and using digital capabilities. At the same time, they should make it a seamless extension of the in-person experience to encourage happier consumers who will buy more.

Project Team: Brett Chase, Senior Market Impact Consultant Jenna Bonugli, Associate Market Impact Consultant

Contributing Research: Forrester’s Digital Business Strategy research group

Key Findings

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    Consumers are ready to embrace digital.

    The pandemic accelerated the requirement for all consumers to become more adept at engaging with businesses in a digital manner. Although younger consumers are more likely to engage with restaurants digitally or via mobile technology, roughly 50% of consumers over 50 years old use their personal devices to look up a menu and pay online. Thus, restaurants should increase adoption of digital engagements for this demographic — consumers want digital and mobile technologies to complement in-person experiences.

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    Restaurants should utilize the robust data available to them.

    Mature restaurants are triangulating insights they collect from public consumer data from those who consent to share their information via first party or third party digital technology, competitor data, and industry data to inform their digital touchpoint strategy. These restaurants have experienced significant ROI like increased loyalty and larger check size or order value.

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    Restaurants must do a better job of meeting consumer demands in the digital world.

    Security and privacy concerns and CX limitations plague consumers’ digital engagements. These impact both digital ordering and overall patronage. Restaurants must incentivize to motivate digital behavior and ensure their digital engagements are intuitive and secure with proper governance strategies to build a strong digital rapport. Mobile initiatives are the best avenue as consumers are familiar with their devices.

NEXT SECTION: Consumers And Restaurants Meet In The Digital World

The pandemic has forever altered how consumers engage with restaurants. The push for more digital and interactive technologies commenced before the onset of COVID-19, but it was accelerated as a necessity to operate when face-to-face interactions were prohibited, avoided, or discouraged. The shift to digital has had a lasting impact in providing a greater choice for digital and omnichannel consumer engagement. This thus created a more resilient, future-proof operation for restaurants to service consumers more effectively.

Now that restaurants have reopened, consumers are blending old and new habits together to create a new dynamic for how they engage with restaurants, and how they want to be engaged with. In surveying 2,312 consumers and 427 global technology, operations, and CX professionals at restaurants, we found that:

  • Consumers prefer digital experiences with a human touch

    On average, 65% of consumers under 50 years old prefer digital payments or mobile ordering and payments over person-to-person ordering. Younger generations (e.g., those under the age of 40) are also more likely to use interactive digital menu boards for ordering and payment. Consumers still rely on human experiences, especially for those older than 50 years old. Hence, these systems do not completely replace person-to-person ordering. Regardless of age, one thing is clear: Cash is no longer king.

  • Consumers are most satisfied with digital payment technologies over other methods.

    Most respondents (63%) overall prefer digital payments with debit and credit cards at restaurant locations. Younger consumers between the ages of 18 to 25 are somewhat more satisfied with mobile ordering and payment methods compared to older consumers. However, most older consumers also demonstrate comfort and familiarity with mobile technology. Compared to consumers under the age of 50, those above 50 years old are less satisfied with interactive digital menu boards for ordering and payment. This highlights an opportunity to market to them via digital literacy campaigns.

  • Not all digital touchpoints are created equal.

    Most consumers, regardless of age, frequently look up a menu online with their personal device and pay online using a credit or debit card. Younger age groups in the survey (i.e., under the age of 50) performed these activities more often than older ones, and digital engagement with older consumers decreases with more nuanced activities (e.g., accessing coupons or writing reviews). Digital wallets are also used much more frequently by those under the age of 50 (see Figure 1). Interestingly, consumers of all age groups expressed high satisfaction with digital touchpoint technology, which highlights an opportunity to improve CX for all through digital engagement.

  • Increasing the adoption of the right technologies can encourage higher satisfaction overall.

    Certain digital technologies offer high satisfaction but are underutilized. Consumer engagement technologies deployed through a mobile channel received overwhelming interest: 90% of responding consumers were somewhat or very satisfied with mobile ordering and payment technology on personal devices, but only an average of 49% of restaurants have deployed this technology. This delta highlights the chasm between owners of restaurants and consumers when it comes to engagement preferences and is seen with other point-of-order or point-of-sale solutions that are used less frequently by restaurants but draw high consumer satisfaction (see Figure 2).

Figure 1

Frequency In Which Customers Use Digital Technology For The Following Actions When Engaging With A Restaurant

18-25 26-40 41-50 Over 50
Look up a menu online with their personal device Pay with a digital wallet from their phone Access a coupon online through their personal device Pay through a digital kiosk or device with a touchscreen at the restaurant using their credit or debit card Look up a menu in the restaurant through a digital or device with a touchscreen Access loyalty programs through their personal device Write an online review or digitally engage with other customers using their personal device Pay online using credit or debit with their personal device

Base: 2,312 global consumers who frequent quick or counter service restaurants
Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Mastercard, December 2022

Figure 2

Consumers Are Highly Satisfied With Under-Deployed Technologies

Customer satisfaction (showing only "somewhat satisfied" and "very satisfied) Deployment rate at restaurants*
Digital payment for debit, credit, and digital wallets at restaurant locations
Mobile ordering and payment on personal devices
Digital offers, coupons, etc.

Base: 1,564 global consumers who frequently use digital technology when they frequent quick/counter service restaurants
*Base: 427 global technology, operations, and customer experience professionals in quick/counter service restaurantsSource: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Mastercard, December 2022

The digital growth among restaurant consumers is clear. Younger consumers are engaging more frequently in digital settings, and thus are more willing to have a closer relationship with restaurants in a digital or mobile environment. Older consumers may have more restrictions to their digital relationship with restaurants (i.e., less frequent usage and satisfaction of certain technologies), but they are still embracing technology for the fundamental components of ordering and paying, especially when it is through their own personal device. This highlights the opportunity to better serve these conumers’ digital needs.

Digital Touchpoint Technology Covers The Customer Lifecycle But Focus Is Needed

With the digital push from consumers, restaurants are deploying a suite of vendors to help improve CX for core engagement activities (i.e., ordering, payment, interacting with their loyalty program). Interestingly, vendor deployment to support these engagement activities differs by restaurant type. Additionally, fewer restaurants currently use vendors for more niche service offerings like menu item discovery, personalization, and testing.

However, as the digital relationship between consumers and restaurants grows, these service offerings become more important as consumers expect more value from their interactions. Restaurants are now focused on deploying multiple ordering and payment methodologies to meet consumer demands.

  • Hybrid point-of-order or point-of-sale strategies enable cost savings.

    Person-to-person ordering at restaurants is still the primary method for most, but it is relied on less frequently for operations with 500 or more locations. Roughly 50% of respondents said their restaurants have adopted mobile ordering, either in-store or online. Among restaurant types, fast casual restaurants are the highest adopters of out-of-store mobile ordering — 60% of them have adopted out-of-store mobile ordering via a QR Code, website, or application using their own technology or from a third-party aggregator. This restaurant type also leads the way with interactive digital menu boards or device adoption. Investments in this space demonstrate a desire to save on labor costs as fast casual establishments compete with each other and quick service restaurants (QSR).

  • Digital technology is needed throughout the consumer lifecycle.

    Restaurants provide the most digital touchpoints for ordering and engagement activities. On average, 43% of respondents said their establishments use an integrated online ordering system through a third-party aggregator or their own website. QSRs have the highest adoption rate of integrated online ordering systems through their own website at 50%. Technology integration with digital customer engagement, marketing, and loyalty programs is also popular among restaurants for 41% of respondents (see Figure 3).

  • Restaurants turn to third-party digital ordering aggregators to supplement digital capabilities

    The use of third-party digital ordering aggregators highlights the importance of digital strategies for restaurants as these ordering solutions serve as a digital proxy for several of them. These tools broaden restaurants’ consumer reach while ordering data helps the business. For example, customer time of order and time of delivery or pickup data helps restaurants improve operational efficiencies, while coupon or loyalty program order information helps them to understand the effectiveness of CX and marketing efforts. However, 71% of respondents said they fear their restaurants will lose their brand identity by using an aggregator, leading to the need to develop strategies with these partners to maintain or increase brand identity as part of an integrated digital marketing and engagement strategy.

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90%

of responding consumers are somewhat or very satisfied with mobile ordering and payment technology on personal devices. However, only an average of 49% of restaurants have deployed this technology.

POLL

Which of the following digital touchpoints do your organization currently use?

(Select All That Apply)

POLL

Which of the following digital touchpoints do your organization currently use?

(Select All That Apply)

Integrated online ordering through third-party aggregator (e.g., DoorDash, UberEats, Deliveroo, etc.) Technology integration with digital customer engagement, marketing, and loyalty programs Integrated online ordering through our own website Digital kitchen display menu systems Mobile dining apps with QR code capabilities Digital drive-through menus Always-on digital offers, coupons, etc., via app or website Self-service kiosks/in-store tablets

DID YOU KNOW?

On average, 43% of respondents said their establishments use an integrated online ordering system through a third-party aggregator or their own website

Figure 3

Which of the following digital touchpoints do your organization currently use?

figure

Base: 427 global technology, operations, and customer experience professionals in quick/counter service restaurants
Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Mastercard, December 2022

NEXT SECTION: Build Stronger Relationships At The Table With The Right Digital Strategy

Digital technologies drive engagement and interaction to expedite and enhance the point of order or sale experience. However, restaurants can still become more digitally friendly with their customers and that can be best established through loyalty programs and user experience.

  • Loyalty is royalty when drawing consumers in.

    Forty percent of consumers reported that special loyalty perks specifically for the restaurant (e.g., discounts, “buy one, get one free” offers) would encourage them the most to digitally interact with the restaurant in the future. This sentiment is consistent across all age groups. Additionally, 25% of consumers desire special loyalty perks for partner organizations (e.g., gas points).

  • Respondents have favorable views of their restaurants’ loyalty programs but more can be done.

    Decision-makers believe their restaurants offer robust loyalty programs that create a more intimate customer relationship with mutual benefits, but these programs can be improved. Over 70% of respondents feel that their restaurants’ loyalty programs lack a modern digital interface, is difficult to use, is old and outdated, and lacks the ability to deliver one-to-one personalized offers or experiences.

  • Loyalty is helped by personalization and transparency.

    On average, more than 80% of consumers under the age of 40 consider personalized recommendations important to their digital ordering experience. Overall, consumers are more likely to participate when the brand makes it easy to stay informed, be it through tracking rewards or sending regular updates about available benefits.2

While loyalty programs are key for drawing people in, consumers consider ease of use, fast processing times, enhanced data security, and improved security when logging in as critical attributes of a long-lasting relationship. In all, ease of use is the most important metric consumers use to judge their experience. Digital experiences were crafted to provide consumers with an easier way to engage with restaurants. Without a simple and intuitive interface, digital technology becomes less relevant, and consumers will rely more on traditional methods for ordering and payment. It is critical to maintain user-friendly experiences to nurture digital customer engagements over time. User experiences must improve in simplicity and intuitiveness while the back-end technology naturally continues to evolve in complexity with more channels, technical elements, data integrations, and more. Addressing this paradox between consumer demands and technological maturity is a critical part of effective digital enablement.

Restaurants Must Fuel Digital Strategies Through Multiple Datapoints

To capitalize on the digital revolution and improve customer service, decision-makers must better leverage insights to enhance how their restaurants engage with consumers on an individual level through personalization and loyalty rewards.

  • Insights from digital touchpoints help restaurants get closer to their consumers.

    Roughly half of respondents stated that their restaurants use insights to improve personalization capabilities by delivering menu recommendations and suggestions during ordering or dining. Others use insights to improve loyalty programs and other components of CX. Investments in personalization efforts provide significant value for restaurants and have been proven to increase average order value. In fact, 93% of respondents believe customer personalization drives additional revenue for their restaurants. However, over 80% of respondents said their restaurants struggle with personalization due to privacy and security requirements (see Figure 4). Additional obstacles make personalization difficult as well. Technology and business leaders at these restaurants most notably battle with distilling data and making it actionable, and they struggle with internal resourcing and messaging mistakes (i.e., sending the wrong thing at the wrong time to the wrong customer). These leaders are thus turning to mobile and digital technologies that allow them to action their data to improve personalized experiences.

Figure 4

How strongly do you agree, or disagree, with the following statements about customer personalization?

figure

Base: 427 global technology, operations, and CX professionals in quick or counter service restaurants
Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Mastercard, December 2022

Digital strategies are also mastered through the art of gathering intel and decision-makers have multiple ways to gather information about their restaurant’s competitors and the industry at large to perfect touchpoints. Each avenue offers unique value that feeds into digital investments, and this enables significant payout.

  • Competitive intelligence helps decision-makers react in real time.

    Competitive insights are primarily used to fuel service and product offerings, implying a prevalent copycat attitude within the industry. Interestingly, respondents said their restaurants were somewhat less likely to use competitive insights to inform business decisions — except for coffee shops or bakeries — further demonstrating how this type of information is more readily used to change service or product direction in the moment versus setting long-term strategic goals. Respondents from casual dining restaurants were also even less likely than others to value competitive insights.

  • Restaurants use industry data for strategic needs.

    Industry data fills in where competitive insights leave off as nearly all restaurants use it to inform business decisions. Ninety percent of respondents agree that industry data is a critical asset to inform their restaurant’s business strategy. This sentiment is especially true for those from fast casual dining establishments.

Competitive and industry insights are used to identify needs and help restaurants build their digital strategy, and restaurants will continue to center investments on digital and mobile ordering and payment technologies (see Figure 5). These point-of-order investments are primarily being driven by savvy digital teams as investments in digital touchpoint technologies provide significant ROI for restaurants. Over half of respondents reported that their restaurants’ digital touchpoint solutions (e.g., mobile technology, integrated online ordering, digital coupons, marketing) have increased loyalty and revisit rates, and increased check size or order value. As such, it is clear why restaurants are embracing digital point-of-order or point-of-sale technologies to keep pace with changing customer demands (see Figure 6).

POLL

What are the top-three digital touchpoints (e.g., ordering, researching, reviewing info post-transaction, etc.) your organization must invest in, or continue to invest in over the next 12 months?

(Select All That Apply)

POLL

What are the top-three digital touchpoints (e.g., ordering, researching, reviewing info post-transaction, etc.) your organization must invest in, or continue to invest in over the next 12 months?

(Select All That Apply)

Integrated online ordering through third-party aggregators like DoorDash, UberEats, Deliveroo, etc. Technology integration with digital customer engagement, marketing, and loyalty programs Mobile dining apps with QR code capabilities Digital kitchen menu systems Integrated online ordering through our own website Self-service kiosks/in-stor tablets Technology integration with digital inventory Mobile touchscreen capabilities

DID YOU KNOW?

On average, 43% of respondents said their establishments use an integrated online ordering system through a third-party aggregator or their own website

Figure 5

Digital Touchpoints Organizations Must Invest In Or Continue To Invest In Over The Next 12 Months

figure

Base: 427 global technology, operations, and CX professionals in quick or counter service restaurants
Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Mastercard, December 2022

Figure 6

Top Features Decision-Makers Use To Measure Digital Ordering Technology Success

figure

Base: 427 global technology, operations, and CX professionals in quick or counter service restaurants
Note: Respondents selected two options.
Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Mastercard, December 2022

NEXT SECTION: Advance Engagement By Avoiding Digital Hurdles

Consumers are far less forgiving with the obstacles they face when digitally engaging with restaurants than if they were to face the same issues while ordering in person. Decision-makers must consider this as they build their restaurants’ digital engagement strategy and seek to strengthen touchpoints that balance improving efficiency without sacrificing the human connection.

  • Digital challenges lead to empty tables.

    Security and CX challenges plague over a third of digital consumers. Interestingly, consumers between the ages of 18 to 25 were the most concerned about security issues, while consumers over the age of 50 were the least concerned. The latter reported fewer challenges across the board, but they also do not engage digitally as often as younger consumers. Patrons also expressed frustration with challenges that reduce or limit CX, such as slow checkout or processing. This was another challenge that those between the ages 18 to 25 were more vocal about, implying their higher standards when digitally engaging with restaurants. These challenges not only impact the use of ordering technology, but also reduce the consumer’s willingness to visit and advocate for the restaurant. This is particularly true for consumers over 50 years old. In all, roughly half of responding consumers stated that they were less likely to visit the restaurant, use their digital technology, or recommend them due to the challenges they experienced. Over 40% reported a loss of trust in the brand due to that.

Digital bonds take time to cultivate. To transform a transactional digital relationship to one that embodies meaningful engagement, restaurants must first build trust and credibility. To do so, restaurants need to cultivate a deeper understanding of their consumers and what motivates them to advance their digital relationship with the restaurant.

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Customers are far less forgiving when they face obstacles while digitally engaging than in an in-store setting.
NEXT SECTION: Key Recommendations

Every sector of the restaurant industry — from quick-service restaurants to fine dining establishments — is well-positioned to reap rewards from digital investments. Both consumer and internal digital tools can reduce the cost of serving patrons, improve satisfaction and ultimately increase revenue and margins. Consumers are well accustomed to digital tools because of the ubiquity of mobile devices and because the pandemic accelerated the adoption of digital skills, even for online laggards.

Forrester’s study of consumers and restaurant executives showcased several opportunities for the industry:

NEXT SECTION: Appendix

Appendix A: Methodology

In this study, Forrester conducted an online survey of 2,312 consumers who frequent quick or counter service restaurants, and another with 427 technology, operations, and CX professionals who lead or at least influence point of order or point of sale experiences in the United States, the United Kingdom, India, Canada, Brazil, Germany, New Zealand, and Australia to understand how consumers are engaging with quick-service restaurants, and how the digital strategies these restaurants are deploying impact CX. Respondents were offered a small incentive as a thank you for time spent on the survey. The study began in November 2022 and was completed in December 2022.

Appendix B: Demographics

B2B Countries
United States 41%
United Kingdom 20%
Brazil 12%
Germany 10%
Canada 6%
New Zealand 4%
Australia 4%
India 4%
B2B Position
Director 41%
Manager 34%
Vice president 16%
C-level 9%
B2C Countries
United Kingdom 22%
United States 19%
India 15%
Canada 14%
Brazil 12%
Germany 11%
Australia 7%
B2B Point Of Order/Sales Experiences Responsibility Level
Final decision-maker 40%
Influence decisions 38%
Part of team making decisions 22%
Number Of B2B Restaurants
500 or more 54%
400 to 499 12%
300 to 399 13%
200 to 299 21%
B2C Age Range
Over 50 years old 43%
41 to 50 years old 17%
26 to 40 years old 32%
18 to 25 years old 8%
B2C Restaurant Type Most Ordered From/Visited
Quick service restaurant 59%
Coffee/bakery 21%
Casual restaurant 13%
Fast casual restaurant 7%

Appendix C: Supplemental Material

Related Forrester Research

“Research Overview: Mobile App Experiences,” Forrester Research, Inc., September 20, 2019.

Appendix D: Endnotes


1 Source: “Research Overview: Strategies For Digital Success At Quick-Service Restaurants,” Forrester Research, Inc., April 24, 2020.

2 Source: “US Consumers Need Help To Stay Engaged In Loyalty Programs,” Forrester Research, Inc., June 17, 2022.

3 Net Promoter and NPS are registered service marks, and Net Promoter Score is a service mark, of Bain & Company, Inc., Satmetrix Systems, Inc., and Fred Reichheld.


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