For both the hard-hit restaurant industry and the increasingly crowded delivery services sector, the brands that have managed to come out on top during these challenging times have had one thing in common: They've prioritized creating best-in-class digital-first experiences to drive customer outcomes.

Amidst this new reality, with customer expectations continuously evolving and brands having to adapt quickly, we're introducing a new resource—the Global Customer Engagement Review (CER)—designed to help teams navigate the changing landscape and think strategically about investments and priorities for the months ahead. This annual report is packed with insights about how industry executives plan to spend their marketing budgets, what brands say are their top challenges, and where some of the biggest opportunities for customer engagement growth and optimization lie.

Here you will find some of the most important highlights about the state of customer engagement, specifically within the QSR and delivery industry.

Customer Engagement Benchmarks and Priorities for QSR & Delivery Brands in 2021

Despite the disruptions the industry faced in 2020, nearly one third (32%) of QSR and delivery brands exceeded their revenue goals over the past 12 months, according to a 2020 survey of 1,300 VP+ marketing executives conducted by Wakefield Research on behalf of Braze as part of the CER. Still, that comes in at the lowest among all of the industries Braze analyzed across retail, finance, media and entertainment, and more.

In line with these findings, a majority of executives surveyed (84%) said one big challenge they're grappling with is tying their customer engagement metrics to their revenue goals, the highest reported of any other industry surveyed. According to our analysis, however, when QSR and delivery brands prioritize customer engagement and cross-channel messaging to support their efforts, they can see significant ROI—in the form of increases in activation, monetization (including nearly 5X more purchases per user), and retention.

It's also worth noting that while QSR and delivery brands struggle with acquisition, retention is less challenging, according to 48% of executives surveyed.

Top Customer Engagement Opportunities for QSR & Delivery Brands

#1: Increase app use and in-app conversions (restaurants)

While delivery services see among the highest app usage and in-app conversions across all industries, at 34.72% and 6.43%, respectively, restaurant brands have room to improve on both metrics. Restaurants have below-average app usage and purchase conversion rates, at 4.43% and 3.06%, respectively.

That said, there’s plenty of things that restaurant brands can do to move the needle. In-app messages, deep linking, and personalization are all incredibly effective tools for restaurants that want to take their in-app conversions and in-app purchases to the next level.

#2: Add more channels to the messaging mix (both QSR and delivery)

It should come as no surprise that investing in relationship building is the key to staying top of mind for today’s customers. And that, given our increasingly fractured messaging landscape, where customers move seamlessly between mobile, tablet, connected, and desktop devices, the brands that are best set up for success are those that meet customers where they are in their journey. That might be over SMS when sending delivery updates, via email when following up on the quality of the service provided, or using in-app messaging to showcase new items that have recently been added to the menu or inventory.

We see the payoff of adding more channels to the messaging mix for both QSR and delivery brands in the form of increases in purchases, repeat buyers, sessions, and average lifetime value, with sending messages via one channel generally more effective than using no channels, leveraging two channels more powerful than using one, and so forth.

How Braze Helps QSR & Delivery Brands Achieve Best-in-Class Customer Engagement

Braze has teamed up with leading food and on demand brands like Delivery Hero, Burger King, Domino's, and more to pioneer mobile app and messaging experiences and deliver huge gains in monthly active users, in-app conversions, and other critical customer engagement KPIs.

Head to the complete 2021 Global Customer Engagement Review to find out how Braze empowered Grubhub and other leading brands to generate growth across key measures of LTV, retention, revenue, brand awareness and equity, and more.