Outdoor digital menu boards in drive-thrus have recently seen a dramatic rise in popularity. These signs are durable, flexible, and offer 24-7 performance—even in extreme temperatures.
Delivering a versatile solution
QSRs have faced several challenges where outdoor digital signage has helped this market overcome. This signage will also play a pivotal role in how consumers engage with these businesses moving forward.
Digital signage can deliver a variety of content from images to dynamic videos, all in vivid, vibrant colours. It is engineered to operate 24-7, providing night and day visibility that is unmatched by static displays and ensuring customers are deeply engaged with the content.
Increased flexibility allows businesses to quickly and conveniently update promotions, offerings, and messages to reflect consumer trends and important events, alleviating the slowdowns and missed sales opportunities these businesses may face by having its static assets made and delivered.
Bright window displays also drive awareness of order-ahead options as operators are opting for double-sided displays, which allow restaurants to maximize messaging. The outward-facing screen handles ordering, while the inward-facing screen promotes special offers and helps recruit new staff members. A digital screen with a brightness rating of 3000 nits that faces the street will be bright enough to win any battle against ambient or direct sunlight to ensure messages are visible to viewers even on the brightest day. The reverse side, facing into the store, does not need the same level of brightness; however, a brightness rating of 1000 nits will certainly overpower any potential glare from restaurant lighting.
Elevating the customer experience
The benefits of digital signage go far beyond just savings and stylish menus. Digital displays equip a business to evolve and create opportunities that are not possible with static alternatives. Consumers are constantly looking for the most up-to-date information and promotions, and the ability of digital menu boards to be updated in real-time to reflect demand, trends, and unexpected events allows businesses to act quickly and efficiently.
Additionally, the time required to update menus and other forms of content is drastically reduced with digital signage. The time between starting design planning for content and actually seeing it displayed to customers can realistically be as short as two weeks, while simpler modifications such as updating product information or complying with new calorie count posting requirements can be made in as little as two hours. Once these changes are finalized, they can be distributed across the entire signage network instantaneously.
This dynamic approach provides more engaging experiences for customers and drives both satisfaction and sales. For QSRs, purchasing decisions are often made on the spot; therefore, customers in this environment must be equipped with the most up-to-date and accurate information to ensure they make purchasing decisions they are happy with. Digital signage allows them to do just this.
The benefits of digital displays go far beyond better looking signage. By harnessing the ability to relay information in a creative manner than is both easy-to-read and current, outdoor digital displays are adding customer engagement and operator ease into the drive-thru equation.
Overall, digital signage is an efficient and effective solution when it comes to saving on costs, introducing versatility into signage, and fostering genuine and mutually beneficial relationships with consumers.
A seasoned enterprise business leader and expert in sales channel marketing, Mary Peterson is vice-president, IT and enterprise solutions for Samsung Electronics Canada, where she shapes the strategic vision for the company’s enterprise business division in Canada. Throughout her more than 30-year career in the technology industry, she has created successful business divisions within the Canadian operations of some of the world’s most respected technology companies.
