Wingstop makes big moves to fix a big customer complaint | Official Website of Louis Velazquez, entrepreneur, finance guy and tech innovator

Many of us have experienced the uncomfortable sounds of loud, uncontrollable stomach growls. We begin to get irritable because all we can focus on is the emptiness in our bellies.

At this point, “hanger” has set in, and to make matters worse, the food has taken way too long to be served. Nothing is worse than waiting what feels like hours as you are about to pass out from the blend of hunger and anger that has reached its peak.

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When thinking of this scenario, everyone has a restaurant that instantly pops into their heads. Many continue going despite the long wait times, but life would be less complicated if orders were prepared faster.

Now, a restaurant chain has answered consumers by introducing an innovative tool that could end this major issue.

Wingstop reveals results of its Smart Kitchen integration.

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Wingstop customers are fed up with long waiting times

Wingstop (WING) is an American quick-service restaurant chain specializing in chicken wings and sauces, with over 2,600 locations worldwide .

Fans can’t get enough of its spicy chicken wings. However, many have an issue with this restaurant, which, if not dealt with quickly, could lead to a worrisome future for the chain.

Although Wingstop’s food may be mouthwatering, some customers cannot deal with long wait times.

Many netizens took to Reddit to express their frustration with the restaurant chain, with a user claiming that “it takes at least 30 minutes to an hour to get food.”

Another user commented in the same thread saying, “I ordered and waited 30 mins. and still had to wait another hour when I got there. They weren’t even taking carry-out orders.”

A Reddit user in another thread claimed, “When there’s no one (it takes) about 15-20 mins. If there’s three people ahead of me, [it takes] like 45 mins. to an hour, which I don’t get.”

Not all posts were negative, with some users saying their local Wingstop usually takes 15-35 minutes to prepare an order. However, the range is vast and inconsistent, given that the service comes from the same chain.

Wingstop adds an innovative helper to its kitchen

WingStop launched Smart Kitchen earlier this year, and after only a few months of testing in all its Dallas-Fort Worth and Las Vegas locations, the results have been shocking.

Smart Kitchen is an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered system that uses restaurant data, such as restaurant sales, and traffic-focused factors, like weather, sporting calendars, peak hours, etc., to make operations more efficient and faster. It helps ease the daily chaos and reduce order preparation time.

For the past two years, Wingstop has been training the system with this data to predict customer traffic and demand for better turnover.

This digital system does everything from providing orders in an easy-to-understand manner to helping with order accuracy and consistency. It even gives order status updates to guests.

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Wingstop shared in its latest earnings call that the integration of Smart Kitchen has already improved the business by making operations smoother and cutting the time to prepare an order by approximately half, to only 10 minutes. The results have also raised customer satisfaction and staff performance.

Wingstop’s system appears to be working because it plans to integrate it at all locations nationwide by the end of this year.

Other major restaurant chains, such as Yum! Brands’ Taco Bell (YUM) , Chipotle (CMG) , Wendy’s (WEN) , and McDonald’s (MCD) , have also begun integrating AI in their operations and claim the results have been nothing but positive.