RBI to Deploy 10,000 High-Tech Screens

Digital Drive-Thru Menu Boards at Double Drive-Thru Location at Burger King. Photo courtesy of CNW Group/Restaurant Brands International Inc.
Digital Drive-Thru Menu Boards at Double Drive-Thru Location at Burger King. Photo courtesy of CNW Group/Restaurant Brands International Inc.

Restaurant Brands International announced today that in plans to install 40,000 digital screens with “predictive selling” technology that personalizes menus and offers to the customer.

The screens will be installed at more than 10,000 Burger King and Tim Hortons locations, with Popeyes beginning later this year.

The company said a typical drive-thru lane includes 4 digital screens, while double drive-thru lanes typically include a total of 7 digital screens. RBI said it’s assessing drive-thru locations and, where possible, is installing double drive-thru lanes to increase capacity and efficiency at our restaurants.

The digital screens will also allow integration with restaurant loyalty programs and the ability for remote, contactless payment, RBI said in a statement.

“We believe strongly that it is time to modernize our drive-thru lanes throughout the US and Canada to provide even better, quicker and contactless service for our guests,” said Jose Cil, CEO of RBI.   “This includes presenting menu options on digital screens that are tailored for each guest, as well as integrating our loyalty program at the moment of ordering and providing remote, contactless payment to speed up our drive-thru lanes in the near future,” continued Cil.

“We have been on an exciting digital journey to become a leader in our industry,” said Josh Kobza, RBI’s chief operating officer.  “We have attracted exceptional digital and technology talent to join our global team and our digital drive-thru menu board initiative is just one in a series of strategic projects that we are rolling out over the next year to strengthen our business model and improve the level of service we provide to our guests,” concluded Kobza.

Designed by RBI’s in-house Guest Intelligence team, predictive selling allows “promotions to be tailored based on previous orders, regional weather patterns, the time of day and many other factors,” the company explained. “This home-grown technology can dynamically learn preferred ordering habits and also show the latest and trending menu items most-ordered in your location.”

The menu boards have been designed with the ability to integrate loyalty programs, allowing for customized menu options to be displayed that are based on a customer’s past purchases and redemption history.  This company said that this functionality is currently live and being tested at 30 locations in Canada with the Tims Rewards loyalty program. All digital drive-thru menu boards in the U.S. and Canada have been designed to accommodate loyalty integration via scanning, Bluetooth or near-field communication.

The digital drive-thru menu boards also have the flexibility to add contactless payment to allow guests to order and pay simultaneously and speed up drive-thru lanes, says the company.  RBI has partnered with Verifone to develop a new global remote contactless payment device for a drive-thru lane.  The first prototype is currently at a Tim Hortons restaurant in Canada, with 15 more locations to test this functionality by January 2021.

Other features of the screens that the company is highlighting:

  • “New installations are using enclosures that have been designed to withstand the heat, cold, water, and corrosive salty air.
  • The 40,000+ outdoor-rated 46″ screens are powered by the latest STRATACACHE Media Engines that are clustered together, redundantly, for high-availability – meaning that if any one of the four digital screens in a standard drive-thru loses communication with its primary media player, the secondary media player will take over and ensure that content continues to be displayed correctly.
  • The company said that as of September, Tim Hortons has installed digital drive-thru menu boards at approximately 800 locations in the U.S. and Canada; Burger King has installed digital drive-thru menu boards at more than 1,500 locations in the U.S.; and Popeyes is starting installation at new locations later this year.

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