McDonald’s CEO: We are evolving the business in a meaningful way

By | June 8, 2018
mcdonalds kiosk ceo

McDonald’s CEO: We are evolving the business in a meaningful way

9:00 AM ET Mon, 4 June 2018

In a wide-ranging interview, Steve Easterbrook, McDonald’s CEO talks about the company’s new headquarters, adapting new technology, including new ways to order food, adding an international menu, and why tariffs are unlikely to impact the company’s bottom..

McDonald’s CEO: We are evolving the business in a meaningful way from CNBC.

Customers often buy more when ordering on a screen than when standing in front a worker at the counter because they tend to linger longer, the company found.

“What we are finding is when people dwell more, they tend to select more,” McDonald’s CEO Steve Easterbrook told CNBC Monday. “So there is a little bit of an average check boost that comes with it.”

McDonald’s will add kiosks to 1,000 stores every quarter — roughly 10 stores per day — over the next two years, Easterbrook told the network. And the U.S. is late to the game: Kiosks are already fully installed at stores in English-speaking markets such as the United Kingdom and Canada. France was the first country to introduce the self-serve machines.

But it’s possible McDonald’s will run into consumer resistance. A poll conducted by MSN found that 78% of customers are less likely to go into a restaurant that has a self-service kiosk. Even if it has the kiosks, most McDonald’s restaurants still lets customers order at the counter.

CEO Easterbrook and other representatives of McDonald’s say kiosks aren’t a substitute for human workers, but rather a new way to bring the benefits of technology to the fast-food industry.

Easterbrook hopes to have self-serve kiosks in all U.S. locations by 2020.

The kiosk in your hand will work, too: The ability to order from your own smartphone will come to more stores, CNBC reported. Delivery options are under consideration as well.

Craig is a longtime writer of technical stories and documentation for many companies. He has 25 years of experience in the industry
Craig is a longtime writer of technical stories and documentation for many companies. He has 25 years of experience in the industry
Author: Staff Writer

Craig Keefner -- With over 40 years in the industry and technology, Craig is widely considered to be an expert in the field. Major early career kiosk projects include Verizon Bill Pay kiosk and hundreds of others. Craig helped start kioskmarketplace and formed the KMA. Note the point of view here is not necessarily the stance of the Kiosk Association or kma.global