Subway Prioritizes Comfort | PYMNTS.com

For years, quick-service eating places (QSRs) and fast-casual manufacturers have bent over backward to satisfy customers’ want for personalization. Many chains now supply objects that customers can successfully construct from scratch, with add-ons and substitutions obtainable each step of the way in which. Nevertheless, with the rise of digital ordering, accelerated by the pandemic, diners now count on to have the ability to have a fast, easy expertise, and being requested to make tons of selections can get in the way in which of that comfort.

QSR sandwich chain Subway, for one, which has practically 40,000 eating places worldwide, for its half, is transferring away from the build-it-yourself mannequin in favor of pre-selected choices. The corporate introduced Tuesday (July 5) a brand new line of 12 sandwiches, “the Subway Collection,” meant to be ordered by identify or quantity with few to no substitutions. The chain is referring to this transfer because the “most important menu replace” in its historical past.

“The Subway Collection is essentially the most formidable endeavor in firm historical past, as we’re altering the practically 60-year-old blueprint that helped make Subway a world phenomenon,” Trevor Haynes, president of Subway’s North American operations, stated in a press release. “Whether or not you allow the sandwich-making to us or are craving your customized creation, there are extra causes than ever to make Subway your eating vacation spot.”

The information comes shortly after the model introduced in Might the relaunch of its catering program with the same concentrate on ready-made choices. In an interview with PYMNTS, Subway Director of Catering Jenn Saunders-Haynes defined that the corporate’s analysis main as much as this launch revealed a desire for comfort.

 “We … recognized some key tendencies in catering which have helped information our program,” she stated. “Our visitors are in search of easy and handy choices to make decision-making straightforward, which is why we’re leaning into straightforward order and preselected catering choices.”

Learn extra: Subway: Comfort Takes Precedence Over Customization for Catering Clients

Subway’s pivot to supply pre-selected choices along with its build-it-yourself choices suggests {that a} comparable shift might be coming for different customization-centric manufacturers. Contemplate, as an illustration, a fast-casual model akin to Chipotle, whereby customers go down the road, making selections about each ingredient of their meal.

Whereas it appears unlikely that the choice for customers to make their very own meals would go away, particularly with the proliferation of various diets and dietary restrictions creating vital demand for choices wherein customers management what they eat, it’s fairly doable that manufacturers that don’t supply pre-selected options will threat falling behind.

Actually, comfort is top-of-mind for almost all of customers when deciding between eating places. For instance, analysis from the March/April version of PYMNTS’ Digital Divide sequence, The Digital Divide: Regional Variations In US Meals Ordering Developments And Digital Adoption, created in collaboration with Software program-as-a-Service buyer expertise administration options supplier Paytronix, which drew from a survey of greater than 2,500 United States adults performed in February, discovered that greater than half of all customers think about proximity when deciding between eating places. This desire suggests that customers want to get their meals and get out as rapidly as doable, and pre-selected choices solely pace up that commerce journey.

See additionally: New Analysis Reveals That Regional Eating Quirks Matter In Tailoring Restaurant Presents