Intouch Insight

A pattern that would be obvious in one store can go unnoticed for months once you're running fifty of them.

Each grocery or QSR location logs its own temperature checks, on its own paper trail, checked by whoever happens to review it that week.

A reading that drifts out of range twice in one store rarely gets compared against the same drift happening two states away.

With IntouchCheck®, every reading is timestamped and stored in one searchable record across the network.

Out-of-range readigs trigger an alert automatically, so a recurring issue at a single location surfaces before it turns into a health code violation.

See how digital food safety checks help grocery and QSR teams catch problems early: https://www.intouchinsight.com/what-we-do/inspection-software/

72% of convenience store shoppers belong to a loyalty program.

Cashiers mention it in just 35% of mystery-shopped visits.

A satisfaction score can't see that gap, because it measures how customers felt and not whether staff followed the script that day.

But if you put mystery shopping, surveys, and reviews together, the picture gets sharper.

→ Mystery shopping tells you if the experience was delivered as designed.
→ Surveys tell you how customers felt about it.
→ Reviews tell you what they're telling everyone else.

The takeaway: don't treat these as three programs.

Treat them as three angles on the same customer journey, and let them confirm or challenge each other.

Full breakdown, plus how often to check each source: https://www.intouchinsight.com/blog/transforming-cx-how-mystery-shopping-feedback-survey-and-reputation-management-work-together

Managers shouldn't have to review every audit to catch the ones that matter most.

In high-volume quality programs, reviewing everything wastes valuable time, but reviewing too little lets high-risk issues slip through.

Our Multi-Condition Approval Rules in IntouchCheck® fix that by routing audits for approval automatically, based on:

- Outcome
- Score
- Checker

Combine a few risk signals into one workflow, and the audits that need a manager's attention are the only ones that reach them.

It’s that simple!

See how risk-based approval routing works: https://www.intouchinsight.com/blog/cx-tech-top-ups-managing-quality-at-scale-with-smart-audit-workflows

AI in the drive-thru gets 14 points more accurate the moment a human checks the order.

We tested AI order accuracy against human lanes and found AI running a few points behind on its own, in a channel that now carries voice AI across hundreds of locations and keeps adding more each month.

Add one step: staff confirm what the AI heard before the order reaches the window.

The result was that accuracy jumped 14 points.

AI lanes are great for speed. In fact, they’re 21 sec faster than human lanes.

But the other side of the coin is that 34% of AI lanes required a repeat request, while human lanes only 22%.

The main takeaway here is that AI is definitely carving a huge space in the process, but it’s when it’s mixed with the human counterpart that it really shines.

You can check all the findings on AI, and much more, in our 25th Annual Drive-Thru Study.

Get it here: https://www.intouchinsight.com/resources/studies/drive-thru/

PS: the 26th edition will be released soon. Stay tuned!

67% of consumers spend at least $4 on a specialty drink.

57% do it for one clear reason: simply to treat themselves.

We asked 1,289 consumers directly in our latest survey, and the picture changes how you should think about these drinks.

They're not a meal add-on anymore.

They're becoming the reason someone walks in.

The top 3 things they look for in a specialty drink are:

1. Refreshing taste (54%)
2. Good value for the price (50%)
3. A new or interesting flavor (40%)

In the full report we break down what actually drives the purchase, how much consumers are willing to pay, and what turns a first try into a repeat visit: https://www.intouchinsight.com/blog/specialty-beverage-trends

Ever picked a drink just for the excuse to treat yourself?

1 in 4 shoppers using Just-Walk-Out worry they got charged wrong.

Even when checkout goes perfectly.

We surveyed 1,280 U.S. shoppers for our latest retail tech report.

Just-Walk-Out scored well on ease: 72.8% called it simple to use.

But ease didn't translate into confidence.

A quarter still worried about an incorrect charge.

One in five wanted to see a running total before walking out the door.

It doesn’t mean that shoppers are rejecting the technology.

They want proof while it works, not proof after the fact.

A running total on screen.
An easy way to check the receipt.
A fast fix when something looks off.

That's what turns "easy to use" into "I trust this without thinking about it."

We break down all six retail tech trends, self-checkout, loyalty, gamified rewards and more, here: https://www.intouchinsight.com/blog/retail-technology-trends

PS: Do you check your receipt on the way out, just in case?

A failed audit and a routine one shouldn't take the same amount of your time.

That's why we built approval routing into our audit software.

Set the rules once, and:

→ Failed audits get flagged.
→ Scores under a set threshold get flagged.
→ New hire submissions get flagged.

Everything else moves through automatically.

We layer in random spot checks too, pulling a slice of those lower-risk audits for a closer look.

So quality control still reaches the ones nobody flagged.

Less time approving checklists that didn't need it and more attention on the ones that did.

We broke down how the setup works, rules and example included: https://www.intouchinsight.com/blog/cx-tech-top-ups-how-random-spot-checks-improve-quality-assurance-audits

At GroceryNEXT, Cameron Watt and Sarah Beckett took the stage to give the first look at our 2026 Grocery Value Study.

We mystery-shopped 302 in-store visits and 175 digital pickup orders across 15 grocery chains to see how grocers actually deliver on price, product, and experience.

Inside: where grocers already earn shopper trust, and where the value promise starts to slip between the shelf and the checkout.

Full study: https://www.intouchinsight.com/resources/studies/grocery-experience/

This week at GroceryNEXT, Intouch Insight will reveal the results of a new grocery value delivery study with Supermarket News and NexChapter.

Nearly 450+ shopper missions and 15 grocery chains.
In-store and digital pickup journeys.

1 key question:

"Are grocers today delivering on their promise of value?"

Join us today for the full reveal and the conversation around what grocery value really means in practice.

This week at GroceryNEXT, Intouch Insight and Informa will reveal the results of a new grocery value delivery study.

The research shows a mixed picture:

95% of in-store shops showed prices and unit pricing clearly.
97% of digital pickup orders were ready on time.

But only 55% of in-store shops had the featured weekly ad item available.

That’s the tension we’ll unpack at GroceryNEXT: grocers are often strong on the visible basics, but value can still break down before it reaches the shopper.

Attending GroceryNEXT with Supermarket News and NexChapter?

Join us for the full reveal on August 24.