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Best Served Hot: What Consumers Want in QSR

The Quick Serve Restaurant, or QSR, is quick and convenient: a great place to satisfy your appetite for food. But research shows that consumers are hungry for more, and by and large, QSRs are not feeding those needs. Why are customers unfulfilled even after a great meal? The most highly rated quick serve restaurants, according…

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The Quick Serve Restaurant, or QSR, is quick and convenient: a great place to satisfy your appetite for food. But research shows that consumers are hungry for more, and by and large, QSRs are not feeding those needs. Why are customers unfulfilled even after a great meal? The most highly rated quick serve restaurants, according to information complied by PYMTS.com, are excelling in four areas of innovation.

  • In-store events: 97% of the top-rated restaurants offer participation in regular events sponsored by the company. It’s no surprise that consumer engagement is key in today’s culture.
  • In-store inventory: 83% of these high-ranking locations offer updates on inventory to its visitors. Information is key to QSR diners.
  • Accepts QR codes: Only 18% of all QSRs in the Restaurant Readiness Index accept QR code, but 43% of the favored locales offer this service.
  • Accepts contactless payment: 57% of the most innovative companies accept contactless payment, compared to 35% of their less innovative competitors.

The results show a clear preference for digital innovation in the industry, yet these areas are being ignored by most QSRs. In evidence of this trend, the Restaurant Readiness Index also revealed that the presence of time-saving in-store kiosks is an area of growing preference. It turns out that besides good food, the Q in QSR is a much-adored innovation in eating out for today’s consumer.

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Diners cite inconvenience before price when cutting chain visits, William Blair finds

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  • 01Convenience is the top reason diners order takeout or delivery (65 percent), and inconvenience is the top reason they visit a chain less—suggesting the same factor may cut both ways.
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  • 03A useful benchmark for off-premises leaders: surveyed diners average 13.6 restaurant interactions a month, roughly 70 percent of them off the dining room floor.

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Why drive-thru gets first claim on 2027 CapEx

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  • 01The National Restaurant Association counts 42% of operators as unprofitable in 2025, with total restaurant expenses up 36% since 2019.
  • 02Only 18% of QSR executives run drive-thru voice AI at scale, in a September 2026 Elo and Coresight survey of 147 leaders, and Qu finds 9% of AI investors report meaningful impact.
  • 03Telaid's Jeff Wayman says brands are ranking 2027 CapEx and tech stack changes now, judged on comp sales, guest counts and average check.

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