Do you know how long it takes to process an average drive-thru order from start to finish? How about peak hours when your drive-thru is experiencing the most traffic? Do you know what causes bottlenecks at peak hours? If you answered “no” to any of these questions, how can you expect to have great drive-thru efficiency?

Drive-thru timers are a necessity for efficiency. In depth reporting provides insight on trends and pinpoints problem areas so managers can tweak schedules or shift employees around to different positions to compensate for bottlenecks. Drive-thru timers aren’t only great for reporting, most of them have an in-store dashboard display that provides employees with a real-time picture of what is happening in their drive-thru. Here are some features you should look for in a great drive-thru timer.

Intuitive Color Display—Most timers can be configured to your stores’ specific goals. The best timers have an intuitive color display that changes from green to yellow and red when your goal times have been exceeded.

Real-Time Comparisons—With the ability to compare current cars to previous car averages in a given time period, your employees can estimate about how long an order should take to execute and work to beat that time.

Multiple Check-Points—By timing individual events, managers can tell where processes are backed up and can quickly rearrange staff to fill in trouble areas. If a car has been sitting at the pick-up window for a long period of time it’s a good indication that the kitchen is behind on the order. Managers can task an idle counter employee to help in the kitchen until the congestion clears. If there’s a long pause at the menu, this could indicate an indecisive customer or a preoccupied employee. If this is the case, put someone with more experience in charge of drive-thru orders until the bottleneck is cleared.

Optional Alerts—Some managers prefer audible alerts to sound when employees exceed their goal. This puts a little more haste into the process of getting orders out as quickly as possible. Other managers and employees prefer color-changing displays or blinking lights to notify them when an order time has been exceeded. Great drive-thru timers will allow the incorporation of both of these options.

Reporting—In-store and Cloud-based reporting are also important in a drive-thru timer. The best timers will provide both so managers and owners can view real-time data in the store or on the go.