Guest Post: Steve Schildwachter, rVue
Recently, the rVue gang took a field trip to Downers Grove, Illinois, one of the test locations for Create Your Taste, a new initiative from our good client McDonald’s.
This is an experience very different from any other McDonald’s. It’s fast food with much more emphasis on the latter — the beef is cooked differently, and cooked to order, with a customized array of condiments and sides that requires you to sit down and wait for your order.
The reason this merits a post on Sixteen:Nine is that the entire process can be conducted via a handsome touch screen that greets you as you walk in the door. You’re also greeted by an employee who walks customers through the screen-ordering process because … well, because a screen is not what you expect walking into McDonald’s.
The nearby photos give you an idea of the screen and the product you can order. The in-screen experience was well-plotted — logical but still human. I kept having to reset my expectation of what kind of bun, what kind of sauce, what kind of cheese … these weren’t familiar choices at Mickey D’s.
Which is why this test will probably need some time. In its current state, it won’t work in the drive-thru, although mobile ordering could make it feasible. But it’s the customer experience we thought about most. Will people in a hurry still go to McDonald’s when they’re ready for a more burger-ful experience?
That’s the thing: Food quality was A+, so was the service. But will it scale for a customer base that’s always in a hurry?
For the moment, I bet the Culver’s across the street is hurting. On the other hand, if Fuddruckers were to start using these screens …