There has been plenty of coverage about voice AI in the drive-thru. No need to rehash the story of Wendy’s. But that’s not the story of CC’s Coffee House. It has a platform that deploys AI that it has been testing in three locations. And it has reached a verdict: sold — even if there was a learning curve.
Paul Claxton, senior director of operations
“At first I was like, OK, you have to break this down for me, I’m in my 40s here,” said Paul Claxton, senior director of operations at CC’s Coffee House, with a laugh. “But the platform is working well for us. It doesn’t replace the human element. I think some other companies stumbled when they got away from that. Our customers still interact with a person when they go through the drive-thru. Only we now have all these new features.”
Johann van der Westhuizen, CEO of uKnomi, CC’s tech vendor, confirms the commitment to human interaction. “Our goal is help staff perform better. We’re not looking to replace people,” he said, in an interview. “What we do is leverage AI to improve speed of service by providing real-time insights and actionable prompts.”
How much time a customer waits at the window is key for Claxton. “That really is the best indicator for us,” he said. He wanted to see data around this, and he wanted a platform that could integrate with Toast, which the brand installed a year ago, and Paytronix. He got it with uKnomi.
“We have been getting infinitely better insights since we started using the platform,” he said. “What I love is it will ebb and flow the expectation of drive-thru based on the length of the line, knowing that a team of four or five can only produce so much, and we make every beverage by hand. It can also read if a delay was due to an overly complex order, which happens, like if a bus pulls up and 10 people get out and they all order blended drinks. It understands that. The amount of information provided to our staff is incredible. It can read the length of a car line and say, Hey, the line is backing up, deploy outside order-taking. It’s an exponential amount of information that we can actionably use.”
Johan van der Westhuizen, CEO of uKnomi
The platform can also make gathering feedback easier.
“We were using another company to collect guest surveys and what we found was that while it was good data, you couldn’t really leverage the data to grow the business because we weren’t driving traffic to Google reviews,” Claxton said. “We now have that tool. But the platform also has the ability to read the room. If there was an overly complex order and the times got pushed back, it won’t prompt a request. But if it reads that the customer is familiar and the times were fast, it will prompt the team member on the inside to say, ‘Hey, here’s your drink. If you have time, here’s a QR code to scan to leave us a Google review.’”
Claxton said the brand intends to roll out the platform in all the drive-thru locations in its roster of 43 establishments. It’s a progression that uKnomi hopes other brands will follow.
“We want to help brands create an emotional connection with the customer. We’re more interested in that than creating an automation feature,” van der Westhuizen said. “We want to make staff more efficient. But it’s ultimately about driving revenue. We feel like we are well-suited for brands with 50 to 200 locations. We’re in talks with some big brands right now. It’s all about helping brands maximize the drive-thru experience.”
