McDonalds Offers Taste of Technology

Along with most other UK retailers, McDonald's is evaluating chip-and-PIN payment card readers for its UK branch network.

The restaurant has rolled out readers in all its Scottish branches, though a project with technology provider Ingenico. Results have been encouraging, with nine per cent of customers using payment cards since its introduction nine months ago, says Tiley.

"The key is to make paying by card as quick as paying by cash," he says. "Customers want the same quick experience as if they were going through a drive-thru."

Using ADSL broadband connections to authorise transactions, McDonald's has been able to reduce the time to process card payments from thirty seconds to just four.