Drive-thru timer

Drive-thru timers measure how long it takes (in seconds) for a customer to receive their order from when they placed their order.

What are drive-thru timers?

Drive-thru timers are a critical part of drive-thru analytics. They allow a restaurant operator to know how long it takes a customer to receive their order from the time it is placed in the drive-thru lane. Most companies have thresholding standards for how long it should take to prepare and serve an order. The drive-thru timer allows them to track their progress in maintaining a speed of service standard.

Traditional drive-thru timers are physical units that track cars. Modern drive-thru timers, including the one offered by Solink, track the speed of service, number of cars served per order, and more using existing security cameras. Furthermore, Solink can pair your drive-thru transactions with video to see exactly what happened when your service slowed down.

Why are drive-thru timers important?

Drive-thrus are a major revenue generator for quick service restaurants (QSRs). Since drive-thru capacities cannot be expanded easily, the only way to increase the revenue generated is to speed up service.

Here’s a recent study on drive-thru performance

The single most important action you can take to speed up your drive-thru is to record all of your data using a video drive-thru timer. You need to have a good baseline idea of how quickly cars are serviced at your QSR and how often service times do not reach your expectations. By understanding what goes wrong and why, it is possible to prevent similar failures in the future.