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By Hugh Cameron
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McDonald's has unveiled a "digital transformation" strategy it believes will drastically lower the time customers spend waiting on their orders.
On Thursday, the fast-food chain announced in a press release that it would be upgrading its systems and making new investments in its operations to unleash "the full potential of McDonald's iconic brand and global footprint."
Among these changes, McDonald's said it will be deploying "Ready on Arrival"—designed to streamline the pickup process for mobile orders—across its top markets, and that this change could "reduce customer wait times by more than 50 percent."
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Why It Matters
"Ready on Arrival" forms part of McDonald's broader digital investments, which includes an Edge computing platform built with Google and artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled in-kitchen tools.
The company said faster pickup and drive-thru efficiency could affect customer satisfaction and frequency of visits across thousands of its restaurants.
What To Know
McDonald's "Ready on Arrival" system is enabled by geofencing—location-based technologies that sets virtual geographic boundaries to trigger responses when a mobile device moves in or out of an area. This alerts McDonald's workers so they can begin preparing orders.
"For a brand that measures progress in tenths of seconds, this is proving to be transformative," the company said Thursday.
McDonald's initially announced the launch of a "Ready on Arrival" pilot program in early 2023. In October, the company said it would be expanding the system to its six top markets by the end of 2025, following the success of this pilot. Based on restaurant count and sales, the top six markets are the United States, China, Japan, France, the United Kingdom, and Germany.
In an earnings call earlier this month, McDonald's CEO Chris Kempczinski said that "Ready on Arrival" had, in some cases, reduced waiting times for food pickup "altogether," and that it was already active in five of the company's top markets.
The deployment is part of a long-term revamp of McDonald's locations globally, also aimed at improving wait times and increasing customer engagement.
In March, Chief Information Officer Brian Rice said the company would be overhauling 43,000 restaurants, equipping them with AI-powered technology that can identify equipment failures and ensure greater order accuracy.
"Our restaurants, frankly, can be very stressful. We have customers at the counter, we have customers at our drive-through, couriers coming in for delivery, delivery at curbside. That's a lot to deal with for our crew," Rice told the Wall Street Journal. "Technology solutions will alleviate the stress."
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What People Are Saying
McDonald's, in Thursday's press release, said: "Our digital transformation strategy, which we call Digitizing the Arches, is a once-in-a-generation transformation that's redefining what it means to be a modern, connected brand. This isn't just about upgrading our systems, and global footprint to delight our customers."
What Happens Next?
McDonald's is also engaging in tailored marketing offers in an effort to boost its loyalty program. In the second quarter, the company boasted 185 million active loyalty users and is set on reaching 250 million by 2027.
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