Many would associate the use of big data with huge technology corporations such as Google or Microsoft. However, even global food service retailers like McDonalds use their customer’s data to create meaningful insights and leverage themselves against their rising competition.
With their daily customer traffic reaching numbers as huge as 60 million in over 100 countries, it’s clear that McDonalds has a wealth of data on their customers just waiting to be turned into measurable metrics for analysis.
McDonalds have evolved into a more information-centric company that is inherently driven by data based decisions. By combining data across every McDonalds store and creating data visualisations, the chain were able to create more comparable insights that would help garner a more holistic view of their customers. This meant that they were more able to create relevant and actionable outcomes, resulting in time and money saved.
One aspect of McDonalds that has been optimised thanks to big data and analytics has been the drive-thru experience. By knowing three different factors: design of the drive-thru, information that is provided to the customer during the drive-thru and the people waiting in line to order at a drive-thru, McDonalds are more able to create a more enjoyable drive-thru experience.
For example, knowing what times of day customers are more likely to go through a drive-thru will help them prepare and improve efficiency for the spike in demand ahead of time. Finding the optimal solutions for the design, information and people is an ongoing process that changes over time, context and cultures.
Other information that McDonalds collects includes in store traffic, customer interactions, flow throughs in the drive-thru’s, ordering patterns, point-of-sales data, video data and sensor data. These factors impact every part of the McDonalds empire from refining their menu design to optimising their training programmes.
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