Burger King UK (BKUK) has embraced delivery as it becomes a more profitable channel for the business and an integral part of its strategy going forward, according to director of digital Timothy Love.
Speaking to delegates at MCA’s Hostech conference earlier this month, Love said delivery had held up “incredibly well” over the past year and increased as part of BKUK’s sales mix.
“Since the pandemic, we’ve embraced delivery in a completely different way compared to a couple years ago,” he said. “We’re also looking into how to make it more profitable for us.”
BKUK is also increasingly pushing customers to use its white label delivery service, which offers benefits such as exclusive offers and reward points.
“We have a massive job to do in terms of awareness of that channel,” Love added. “It’s not something we’ve pushed particularly hard, while some of our rivals are very much pushing their own delivery service.
“We have a massive database of customers who we know are fully engaged with us. There’s lots for us to do to grow this service faster than it has up to this point.”
Looking at positioning on delivery aggregator platforms is another part of driving delivery sales, according to Love, who said positioning depends on a range of factors like ops metrics, the customer experience, and having a strong brand.
“All these things add up. There are different initiatives from each partner, like the Deliveroo value program, which takes into consideration price point and ops metrics to unlock potentially higher positioning within the search results for each customer.”
Within its stores, BKUK is determining how digital can work for its customers across a diverse estate, half of which falls under its franchisees.
“We need a consistent digital experience so customers don’t have a different experience in BKUK and with a franchisee.
“We’re putting hundreds of more kiosks into our restaurants at the moment. There’s a definite drive to increase digital spend as such, but not to discourage customers who want a more traditional route of ordering.
“Whether it’s the app, kiosk, or a drive-thru, customers should be comfortable using it. It’s not just a case of throwing tech at them.”
Restaurant Brands International (RBI), the parent company for Burger King as well as Popeyes and Tim Hortons, has provided a go-between for the different brands and various markets they operate in.
“Each country might have a different functionality or idea around what helps drive digital sales, which we can jump on as well,” Love explained. “There’s increased contact between each territory – which RBI is at the centre of – which is incredibly beneficial for us, and one of the reasons we wanted to go into partnership with them at the beginning.”
Another digital priority for the business is its loyalty app, Your Burger King – a UK-wide programme launched last year – with the focus now being to add layers of personalisation.
“We’ve had a great year with it…we’re trying to move the programme along and map out what the future of it looks like.”
