DALLAS – (BUSINESS WIRE) – Logile, Inc. today announced a partnership with PDQ Restaurants to improve the drive-thru experience in its current restaurants, as well as in its restaurants of the future. PDQ, based in Tampa, Florida, operates 58 restaurants in Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, New Jersey and New York.
In addition to serving fresh, affordable food, hospitality is at the heart of the PDQ’s restaurant experience. In the spring of 2020, social detachment guidelines placed restrictions on indoor meals. In response, PDQ extended the service to its valued customers, offering online ordering with sidewalk pickup and launching a mobile ordering application and loyalty program in April.
Like other fast-casual restaurants, PDQ saw a dramatic increase in demand for drive-thru service. The restaurant’s goals are to shorten the length of lines at the drive-thru, improve waiting times for guests and maintain a strong focus on the hospitality present in its dinner service.
Kep Sweeney, president of PDQ Restaurants said: “The COVID pandemic has placed significant demand on our drive-through processes. To emphasize our commitment to providing our guests with exceptional service, we look for a partner who will provide us with new ideas and concepts that will help us improve our current way of doing things. While talking to others in the QSR industry, Logile was highly recommended for its experience and knowledge in this area. ”
Logile’s Operational Excellence team took advantage of a variety of industrial engineering approaches to assess the drive-thru experience at a variety of PDQ locations. The main objectives of the commitment were:
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Measure and analyze the PDQ drive-thru service from the guest’s point of view
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Identify bottlenecks and opportunities in existing units
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Improve service speed and guest engagement
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Explore innovative approaches to enhance the guest experience
To assess the guest’s complete perspective, Logile studied the total travel time from the moment guests entered and exited the queue. This allowed the PDQ to understand how often guests left the queue during peak hours and, generally, how long guests waited before leaving the queue.
In partnership, Logile and PDQ explored new drive-thru strategies to increase processing capacity and decrease the number of visitors leaving the queue. As the current drive-thru strategy has been analyzed, Logile has focused on rapid gains, optimizing and balancing the workload across all drive-thru stations. Logile’s industrial engineers took advantage of the data collected to develop simulations of the current and future state. The simulation-oriented strategy was used to quickly assess the impact of the proposed scenarios on the rate of transfer and retention of guests in the queue.
“PDQ did a fantastic job of creating a customer-focused restaurant experience. We were delighted to partner with them to reimagine the drive-thru experience from the customer and employee point of view, ”said Josh Ciampini, managing director of Operational Excellence at Logile.
About PQD restaurants
Founded in 2011, the award-winning PDQ – short for “People Dedicated to Quality” – offers recipes guided by chefs and careful ingredients, usually found in a fine casual restaurant with the value, speed and convenience of the fast food and fast casual segment. Steakhouse co-founder Bob Basham and MVP Holdings CEO Nick Reader are the two main owners of PDQ. Loved throughout the Southeast for its famous proposals for hand-breaded chicken and exclusive sauces, PDQ also produces delicious sandwiches, salads and fresh hand-made milkshakes in store, every day. PDQ is committed to taking deep roots in its local communities and has given millions of dollars and in-kind donations to charities, schools and organizations since its inception. On October 30, 2011, the original PDQ restaurant opened its doors in Tampa (FL) and the concept now has 58 locations in Florida, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina and South Carolina. For more information, visit https : //www.eatpdq.com/.
About Logile, Inc.
Logile Operational Excellence consulting services help organizations optimize the workplace and simplify working methods using proven industrial engineering techniques and our experience in various sectors, creating a culture of continuous improvement.
Logile is a leader in retail store planning, workforce management and execution provider. Our proven AI, machine learning technology and industrial retail engineering help accelerate ROI and operational excellence with improved performance and skilled employees.
Retailers around the world rely on Logile’s intelligent and fully mobile solutions to increase profitability and competitive advantage by offering the best service at the ideal cost. From the development and modeling of work patterns to forecasting, store-wide scheduling, hours and service, task management, food security and employee self-service – we transform retail operations. Gain the advantage with the logic of work.
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