We’ve all been there. You pull into your favorite drive-thru, hoping for a quick meal, only to find yourself at the end of a lengthy line. Fifteen minutes later, you finally hit the speaker and strain to convey your order to the crew member on the other end of the staticky drive-thru intercom speaker.
After repeating yourself twice and clarifying the details, you’re still not positive the crew member has received your order correctly. Sure enough, when you receive your food, your favorite sauce is missing, and cheese is on your sandwich — despite your request for none. You drive away frustrated, and it takes a month before you are ready to return to the establishment for another try. Everyone can relate to restaurant experiences like this. What few realize is that the tenets of a bad experience — long lines, clumsy interactions and inaccurate orders — share a common culprit: poor drive-thru audio.
For restaurant guests, poor drive-thru audio can erode loyalty over time. But for the restaurant business, their effects are even more significant. Drive-thrus, which can account for two-thirds of a QSR’s revenue, are vitally important to restaurant success. Despite their importance, research suggests that drive-thru wait time decreased only slightly in 2024 compared to 2023.
In this article, we will take a closer look at guests’ expectations for the modern drive-thru and elaborate on the potential business impact of poor-quality audio.
The Drive-Thru Dilemma: Why Speed Matters
More Than Ever
Before we dive into audio’s outsized impact on drive-thru performance, let’s discuss how drive-thru dynamics have changed over the past few years. Recall that the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 contributed to a surge in drive-thru demand — and due to its convenience, the popularity of the drive-thru has remained. In fact, a 2023 study found that 40% of American consumers use drive-thrus to purchase fast food.
Meanwhile, customer expectations are rising, and patience is waning — a phenomenon that is not limited to the drive-thru lane but certainly impacts quick service customer expectations. Forty-two percent of customers expect drive-thru orders to be speedy, while 58% said accuracy was the biggest factor influencing a repeat visit.
Research shows that drive-thru customers will typically abandon the line after six minutes, which can lead to significant revenue loss for QSRs. Even if a customer stays the course (like the scenarios we described in this article’s opening), delayed service can still have significant impacts on satisfaction and repeat business.
Don't let poor quality audio from other headsets impact your ROI.
According to an annual drive-thru study, even a 30-second delay in drive-thru service can cost $32,000 per store in a year. For a chain with 2,000 locations, that adds up to $64 million in lost revenue per year! Conversely, research suggests that even small improvements can positively impact restaurant revenue. According to one report, every seven-second reduction in service time saw an increase of 1% in sales over time. That would mean a nearly $15 million dollar increase in revenue for the 2,000 location chain in our example.
The Hidden Costs of Poor Drive-Thru Communication
Clear communication is directly correlated to speed and order accuracy. InTouch Insight’s 2024 report found that when the drive-thru intercom speaker was clear and understandable, order accuracy was 15% higher and orders were 28 seconds faster.
Think about it — if the basis of lightning-fast, high-quality communication is simply hearing your customers, what happens when you can’t? The answer is that orders could be wrong, customers may be left waiting and frustration will likely build. The negative impact ripples throughout the entire guest experience, affecting not only your employees and customers but also your bottom line. Let’s unpack the hidden costs of poor drive-thru communication using several industry benchmarks:
Increased Order Errors
Miscommunication caused by fast food headsets’ and speakers’ unclear audio can contribute to drive-thru inaccuracy, which research suggests is already high. The 2024 Intouch Insight Drive Thru report found that order accuracy was 15% higher when the speaker was clear and understandable, compared to when it was not.
When customers receive wrong or missing items, team members must correct these mistakes — often by re-making the entire order. Incorrect orders mean food waste, extra preparation time and dissatisfied customers who must ask for corrections.
The impact of these errors is staggering. According to one report, a single QSR can lose $26 million annually due to order inaccuracy. While some of this loss comes from direct costs like replacing incorrect items (about $1.8 million), the majority — 67% of the total cost — comes from indirect impacts such as lost customer loyalty, negative brand association and reduced return visits.
Longer Service Times
Every second counts in the drive-thru lane. Poor audio quality forces customers and staff to repeat themselves — and all the while, the clock is ticking.
A 2024 drive-thru trend study found that service times were 27 seconds faster when customers didn’t have to repeat their orders, and inaccurate orders averaged 50 seconds longer than accurate ones. Based on an average drive-thru meal cost of $11.05, the same study calculated the potential losses per store unit to be over $84,000.
In addition, these delays compound during peak hours, creating longer lines and reducing the number of customers who can be served. With long wait time identified as the biggest issue for customers — 27% of respondents in a hospitality tech drive-thru study said wait times have significantly worsened — even minor audio improvements can make a significant impact.
Decreased Customer Satisfaction
A smooth, fast and accurate drive-thru experience is fundamental to satisfying customers. Poor audio quality creates unnecessary stress during the ordering process, making customers feel unheard or misunderstood — eroding their satisfaction, and positive brand sentiment along with it.
When customers leave frustrated, they’re less likely to return. Dissatisfaction leads to a drop in loyalty and sales, with 61% of QSR customers saying they will switch to a competitor after only one bad experience. Repeat customers spend 67% more per order than their initial purchase, so their loss can have a significant impact on lifetime revenue.
Customers may also leave negative reviews of their experience, influencing potential customers and shaping their brand sentiments before they have even interacted with your business. And the potential impact of negative reviews is huge, considering across industries, 97% of consumers say customer reviews factor into their decisions, and 35% say even one negative review can be enough for them to decide against a purchase.
Today’s restaurant leaders have no shortage of digital priorities — from cross-channel ordering solutions to point of sale, kitchen management, loyalty apps and drive-thru technology. In a world of many digital investments, it is easy to overlook or deprioritize drive-thru audio. But due to the significance of the drive-thru in overall restaurant revenue and the outsized costs associated with slow or inaccurate orders, reliable drive-thru audio is so much more than a ‘nice to have’ — it is among the restaurant’s most business-critical digital priorities.
And yet, drive-thru headset systems are not created equal. It’s important to understand how to choose the right drive-thru headset for your business needs, as addressing this foundational issue can unlock faster service and ensure fewer errors and happier customers, transforming your drive-thru operation into a streamlined, revenue-driving machine.
Make Your Drive-Thru Move at the Speed of
Sound with PAR Clear™
The business impact of poor audio quality cannot be overstated. Static-laden communication creates a domino effect — slowing service, increasing order errors and frustrating customers to the point of lost loyalty.
Many quick service restaurant businesses have accepted these as unavoidable drive-thru equipment realities. But with PAR Clear™, they no longer have to. This innovative solution sets a new standard for drive-thru communication, empowering restaurants to deliver exceptional service with new speed and precision.
PAR Clear takes the challenge of poor audio quality head-on, with advanced noise-canceling technology that ensures crystal-clear audio, even in the busiest environments. With the industry’s longest range, it also ensures this quality is maintained from anywhere in your restaurant.
Designed with both customers and restaurant crew in mind, PAR Clear offers lightweight comfort and intuitive controls that make it effortless for employees to use shift after shift. The solution’s modular and configurable design enables it to keep performing, even when it is being serviced. Best of all, PAR Clear integrates seamlessly with your other restaurant solutions, providing you with the benefit of a comprehensive, service-centered partner.
