Taco Bell “Suping Up” Burritos

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As of today, October 28th, Taco Bell has launched a mobile app allowing people to order their burritos ahead after determining which location one would be ordering from.  With this new technology and the addition of thousands of new restaurants across the nation, the company has set a ten year forecast of doubling their revenue to $14 billion dollars.

This mobile app offers many new perks for both the customers and restaurants of the Taco Bell chain.  First, the mobile app offers an easier way for customers to quickly and conveniently get their food.  The accessibility this offers customers will pull people in during their on-the-go lifestyle.

The more clever way in which this app generates revenue for the company is the ability to further customize your food, in turn generating a higher check average as the add-ons will tack on extra money with every additional garnish.  The company spoke about the idea of “digital-upsell” in the Bloomberg Business Week, recognizing this trend in other fast food and delivery hubs.

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Taco Bell stated that “almost 70% of their orders are some what customized regardless as many people have some kind of special request with their order.  The company has found a way to make money off of these special requests by adding additional charges to the extra toppings that would not be seen by just ordering at the store.

With every good idea, there are always some faults to be dealt with.  The promise of a walk-in and walk-out with your food will bring in customers, but could also cause customers to become angry if their food is cold or not finished yet.  The store is attempting to combat this problem by using a button that customers can press to alert the store they have arrived.  If a customer is lazy or forgets to press this button, the whole ability of ordering online may be negated and useless.

Another issue that I found to possibly arise is a great amount of people who order food and do not show up to get it.  If the store makes all of these orders and never sees the customer or gets paid for them after they have already prepared the order could result in a great loss in product.

Taco Bell is taking a huge risk with their new mobile app program.  Risks are the only way to take a step forward, and even if it doesn’t go the way it was forecast to go, the potential that could have been would be worth the try.  I am very interested to see how this mobile app will go for the company and will surely try it out myself to see what I personally think about its functional accessibility.

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Bibliography

http://www.david-c-clark.com/62499/533147/featured/taco-bell-mobile-app

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/10/28/taco-bell-outback-starbucks-restaurants-fast-food-casual-dining-technologies/17842845/

http://appleinsider.com/articles/14/02/14/metawatch-adds-step-counter-for-iphone-5s-users-taco-bell-working-on-mobile-ordering-system

 

9 thoughts on “Taco Bell “Suping Up” Burritos

  1. I think one of the reasons why Taco Bell has adopted a mobile ordering app is because it has been so successful in other restaurants. I think the aspects of their app that are questionable, like pressing the button when you arrive, will determine the success of the app. I also think it’s interesting that they want to upcharge customers when they order on the mobile app instead of ordering in the store. If you have to go pick up your order anyway, and want extra toppings, why wouldn’t you just wait in line and order there and wait the extra two minutes to save some money? I feel like that makes people not want to use the app. It’ll be interesting to see if this increases their revenues, or decreases their wait times.

  2. I think this is a pretty cool idea. I am interested in seeing what the new extras are that you can only see on the mobile phone. This is a great strategy to get people to download the app and should lead to more purchases. However, I question whether this can double their revenue but I can see it increasing the revenue to a degree. Regarding your point about how people might not show up to pick up their food, I think the app would have some type of control to protect the restaurant, maybe they would have you link your credit card to the app so it either makes you pay for it first or can charge you later if you do not show up to pick up the food. I like that Yum!, the parent company of Taco Bell, is trying to do new things and stay innovative.

  3. Taco Bell’s usage of a mobile app not a new concept to the restaurant business. Kiosk’s have been inserted into McDonald’s locations as well as places like Panera having a pick-up order station for online orders. Yes, there can be hopeful success with the addition of technology to make customer orders more accurate and the process more efficient. However, I do agree that there is a lot of risk that comes along with this innovative idea. As a Panera employee, there has been many cases where customer’s do not pick up large orders of food. In addition, by not arriving on time many of these individuals make it easy to complain about their food. In the end, many restaurants have succeeded by linking online ordering with their restaurants. Risks come with every situation, but in the end it is all up to the company to determine what is best for their business by taking such steps.

  4. YES! This is a beautiful thing. Unfortunately, there is not an easily accessible Taco Bell near me. This is a good move by Taco Bell because not many people want to be seen buying “food” from inside so the quicker the better. I would like to compare this app to the Chipotle’s mobile app. I am able to order my custom burrito from home, pay online, walk to Chipotle, walk to the front of the line that stretches out the door, and my burrito is there waiting for me. This method works great for Chipotle because it takes time to craft a burrito. I don’t believe it takes nearly as long to fill a Taco Bell order so for that reason I would say that this is not a very practical venture.

  5. Cool post, I don’t eat Taco Bell that often but I must admit, it is very creative. To be honest, I like the idea of this App. Yes it is a risk, but could one day prove to be worth it. Their projections of doubling revenue to $14 billion are phenomenal. It may be a rough process in the beginning, but they could perfect it down the road. You also brought up how you could see people ordering and not picking up the food. If this is a serious issue, Taco Bell should require customers to pay on the mobile application prior to coming in and picking up the food. I believe that Taco Bell giving their customers the ability to customize their food is a great idea. They just need to have the proper operations in order to make a profit. There will need to be the right amount of staffing in order to take care of the orders, great Tech Workers to make sure that the App is always running smooth and without glitches, and finally ordering the right amount of ingredients to meet the demand or not go over the demand. As we have learned in class, there’s nothing worse in the food industry than throwing ingredients in the garbage.

  6. Much like the kiosks that are beginning to pop up in McDonald’s, I question the practicality of this app. I’m certain a lot of money has been invested in order to launch this app, and although in theory, this should be a good idea, I’m not certain this will be great in practice. I’m not a frequent customer at Taco Bell by any means; however, the few times I’ve been in the past couple years, I’ve always utilized their drive-thru, which was extremely quick. If anything, I think the app may inform customers just how much they are able to customize their orders, because unlike Chipotle, you can’t see every add-on that’s available. It’ll be interesting to see if Taco Bell truly is able to tremendously increase their revenue with just the addition of this app.

  7. I think this is a great idea. As someone who rarely eats Taco Bell this would be something I would try. Any instance where I would be eating Taco Bell I want my food now. The ability to have my food ready once I walk in the door and have customized only adds to my consumer experience.

  8. Taco Bell, a fast food restaurant in my opinion instinctively does not need a mobile app to increase revenue. In my personal life I could not see myself needing to cut the time down at the Taco Bell line but I do not eat fast food as often as say someone Taco Bell is looking to reach. As it goes with creating new customers, I do not think this could work to create new demand for the product. There could be some real good created for those whom Taco Bell is a restaurant they go to often. There’s no way convenience can hurt the company but if there are surcharges for using the APP it becomes more of an inconvenience which is the opposite of what it’s looking to accomplish.

  9. Awesome post! I don’t understand why taco bell would create a mobile app to quickly create food that’s already fast to make, hence its called fast food. I think they should follow burger king’s footsteps and start to deliver food to increase revenue. Also, I would be skeptical to enter my credit card information onto the mobile app in case of a breach.

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