AmCham Slovakia

Innovations in ordering and fundraising

In recent years, restaurants have undergone a significant digitization process that has changed the way they operate and communicate with customers. In order to be closer to their customers and make the ordering process as easy as possible, restaurants have become much more visible online, mostly via delivery services. But some businesses have pushed the boundaries as regards refining their digital presence even further.

McDonald’s confirmed its position as a technological leader by launching innovative services that not only improve the customer experience and the availability of its products, but also help in the company’s charitable efforts.

Comfort first with MyOrder

Last year, McDonald’s launched an innovative food ordering service MyOrder in Slovakia. It allows customers to order their favorite food before entering one of the 43 McDonald’s restaurants in the country. Using the new service is easy and customers can rapidly place an order with a few clicks. The advantage for the customers is that the MyOrder service is available in the McDonald’s app, so there is no need to install another app on their phone.

All the customers need to do is go to the Order section, select the desired restaurant where the order will be prepared and pick their meal. Subsequently, they select a method for picking up the order, at the counter or the table in the restaurant, where they are served by McDonald’s employees, or at McDrive. The last step is to select the payment type, enter contact information and complete the order by clicking “Pay and order”. The food is prepared immediately after the payment, except for pick-up at McDrive, when the preparation only starts after arrival at the location.

In selected restaurants, customers can also use the “Park and pick up” service for an even more convenient order, which is delivered directly to the customer’s car in the parking lot by restaurant employees.

These efforts contribute to simplifying and speeding up the ordering process to make it as timesaving as possible. The MyOrder service basically moves the popular self-service kiosk directly to customers’ mobile phones.

Same experience in all restaurants thanks to kiosks

McDonald’s, as one of the largest quick service restaurant chains globally, is aware that waiting in line belongs to the past. To create the best customer experience possible, good food, good design and good service need to complement each other.

connection2024_021.png That´s why the company has introduced and deployed self-ordering kiosks on a global scale. This strategy enabled McDonald’s to revolutionize the industry by rapidly speeding up the ordering process. This innovation enhances the standardized service that McDonald´s is renowned for. The company’s goal is for customers to have the same experience with the same quality and product range across all its locations.

Functioning as a digital menu board with a large touchscreen, the self-service kiosk provides a user-friendly interface to showcase menu items accompanied by images and relevant details, for example about allergens, which eliminates the need to ask employees for clarification and possible errors when ordering.

The kiosks also help reduce lengthy queues at the cashiers and give customers greater control over their orders. They can also customize their meals according to their preferences and can browse the menu as long as they want. A big advantage of kiosks is their multilingualism, which removes the language barrier, especially for foreign visitors.

Another way customers can quickly get their favorite McDonald’s products is the McDelivery service, which guarantees delivery of an order directly to the customer’s door. The popularity of the service continues to grow. In Slovakia, customers created more than 1.2 million orders via this service in 2023. This was an increase by almost 500 000 compared to the previous year.

Help is just a few clicks away

Digital channels not only improve the efficiency of orders, but McDonald’s also uses them for fundraising for its non-profit organization, Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC). The chain offers its customers the opportunity to give as easily as possible. No matter how they place their order, via the app or self-order kiosks, they can contribute to a good cause with just a few clicks, by rounding the subtotal of their purchase order to the nearest whole euro.

McDonald’s customers around the world like to use this option. Every day they show their compassion by donating to help sick children and their families. In 2023, almost 310,000 euros were collected for the RMHC this way in Slovakia.

“Rounding was introduced by McDonald’s as an innovative form of support for this key charitable activity. It’s a method that enables continuous year-round fundraising for RMHC. Thanks to the generosity of Slovak customers, together we can actively help hospitalized children and their families,” said Lucia Poláčeková from McDonald’s.
 


McDonald’s