Wendy’s is often credited with pioneering drive-thru ordering, but the burger chain’s drive-thru accuracy and customer satisfaction scores lagged behind its rivals this year, according to a new study.
The study released Tuesday comes after drive-thru lanes became even more of a critical sales driver for the fast-food sector during the early days of the pandemic, when many restaurants closed their dining rooms and customers felt safer inside their cars.
The shift to drive-thru ordering has pressured fast-food chains, which are still working on getting service back to pre-pandemic speeds. This year, the total average time spent in the drive-thru lane was 6 minutes and 13 seconds, according to Intouch Insight’s annual drive-thru study. That’s about 10 seconds faster than last year, but still about 45 seconds slower than 2019’s average.
The lagging performance by Wendy’s comes even though founder Dave Thomas helped popularize drive-thru windows by building a pickup window as part …