Frictionless ordering: Mobile Wallets & Voice Assistants Take Center Stage

Consumers at QSRs are generally looking for two things: great tasting food – that’s a given- and convenience. They want speed, efficiency and no unnecessary hold-ups. Great food, fast and easy – or in other words, a frictionless experience. Delivering frictionless transactions to your QSR customers means removing anything that slows down the process of them ordering and paying for their meal.

Eliminating friction

Frictionless transactions are the goal of all QSRs – after all, you want to make it as straightforward as possible for your customers to engage with you. The concept of frictionless transactions is not new, but it is important to remember that what actually constitutes ‘frictionless’ is relative. That is, the perception of whether or not something is ‘friction’ depends on whether the customer believes there is a more efficient way. What is perceived as friction today was the norm a few short years ago. For example, putting your credit card into a machine and entering a pin was normal, now it is friction. Before that, writing a cheque was normal in shops and restaurants, nowadays it would be seen as the height of friction.

The point is that what is friction is constantly shifting – as soon as a consumer knows that there is a better, faster, more effective way to do something, doing it the ‘old’ way becomes friction. That means that if your competitors are offering an easier way to do things, your way will be seen as ‘friction’. So it’s essential to stay ahead of the game – and your competition – by removing all possible friction from your processes.

Technology for frictionless

QSR as an industry is always moving forward and is open to adopting new technology. Two technologies that are helping to remove friction from the QSR ordering and payment process are mobile wallets and voice assistants. So let’s take a look at each of them and just how they are removing friction.

Mobile wallets

Mobile wallets, such as Apple Pay, Google Wallet, and Samsung Pay, are everywhere. In fact, in 2023, around half of all global e-commerce transactions were made via mobile wallets, and growth is forecast at a further 15% by the end of 2024. Mobile wallets can help to remove friction for QSRs through:

• Convenience of payment – mobile wallets make payment fast, efficient and easy. Customers don’t need to carry cash or even physical cards – they simply need to tap the phone on the reader and enter a security code or biometric recognition. They reduce the time spent with the cashier, whether that’s in the store or at the drive-thru.
• Convenience of ordering - it’s not just at the time of payment that mobile wallets remove friction: they have also changed the face of ordering, opening up new opportunities for customer engagement. Mobile wallets can be integrated with mobile ordering apps, allowing customers to order ahead, skip the line and pick up their food faster.
• Integrated loyalty – By using a mobile wallet instead of traditional payment methods, you can avoid touching anything besides your phone².
• Integrated loyalty – QSR customers love loyalty programs: they want to earn and spend points, be sent special offers, and feel part of your community. So it makes sense to remove any friction associated with participating in the loyalty program. Mobile wallets do just that - customers can easily store and redeem loyalty points, coupons, and discounts directly from their mobile wallets, creating a more seamless and rewarding experience.
• Security – for a transaction to be truly frictionless, the customer must know it is secure. Mobile wallets include tokenisation and biometric authentication for added security and ease.

Voice Assistants

Voice assistants are growing rapidly as a way to search and interact – as of 2023, 27% of all Google searches were done by voice and 1 billion voice searches are made every month. Consumers are using voice assistants via a smartphone or smart speaker and are also comfortable using voice assistants offered by QSRs at drive-thrus. Voice assistants help to reduce friction through:

• Ordering convenience – a voice assistant means your customer can order their meal completely hand-free, without having to interact with a screen. That means they can order whilst engaging in another activity, such as driving, and all they need to be able to do is talk.
• Faster - when you consider that the average voice search is 29 words, and think of the difference between speaking and keying, it’s easy to see that voice search is far faster. The same is true with voice at drive-thrus, where they reduced the average time to order by 7.5%.
• Personalisation – a voice assistant offers more opportunity for personalisation, for example by making it easier for the customer to re-order their favourite meal, reducing the time and effort and therefore friction.

The Impact on Convenience and Future Prospects

Mobile wallets and voice assistants offer the opportunity for QSRs to reduce friction and deliver the fast, efficient experience their consumers are looking for. It helps them stay ahead in the relative friction stakes and win in the highly competitive market that is modern QSR.