Guest Experience to Be Major Focus of McDonald's 2018 Capital Spending

OAK BROOK, Ill. — McDonald’s plans to spend approximately two-thirds of its capital in 2018 on enhancing guest experience. 

Chief Financial Officer Kevin Ozan spoke about the quick-service restaurant chain’s plans for serving up the “experience of the future” to its visitors during the company’s recent fourth-quarter 2017 earnings call. "We have realized that we are going to need to continue to invest in technology and digital in order to keep up with where the world is going and our customers' expectations," he said.

In 2017, McDonald’s partnered with UberEATS in the United States to provide delivery to its customers. Delivery orders tend to be 1.5 to 2 times more than the average check size, and encourage repeat business, according to McDonald’s President and CEO Steve Easterbrook.

In addition to delivery, McDonald’s “experience of the future” platform includes digital menuboards, self-ordering kiosks, and a mobile app that has more than 20 million registered users in the U.S. alone.

"We are well positioned to capitalize on that user base," Easterbrook said during the earnings call. "We ended 2017 with 20,000 restaurants around the world offering mobile order on pay. While still very early with customer usage, we're encouraged by digital orders as we're seeing higher average check size and greater customer satisfaction among the customers. In particular, many customers are appreciating the added convenience of curbside pickup."

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