EdNurg/Fast food restaurant self-service kiosk
By Bobby Marhamat
Chief Executive Office, Raydiant
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Creating great guest experiences is key for quick service and fast-casual restaurants. But quality food, friendly staff, and a pleasant atmosphere aren't the only things that QSR leaders should focus on. Creating a great ordering experience can play a big part in whether customers frequent your restaurant, or never come back after their first visit.
Speed, convenience, ease of ordering and paying — it's what customers look for in their favorite QSR. And all of these factors, and more, can be achieved through implementing self-service kiosks so that customers can order and pay through self-guided screens as soon as they step into your dining room.
Read More on Experts
If you haven't yet offered self-service options to your guests, here are some reasons why it can improve the dining experience and how to get started.
How Self-Service Kiosks Can Create Great Experiences
Self-service kiosks are a great way to create personalized experiences for your customers. A guest walks into your QSR and immediately has the option of choosing how they want to order. They can go up to a cashier and order in the traditional way. Or they can go to a self-serve kiosk if they simply don't want to interact with a human that day, if they're more health conscious and want to social distance, or simply if they enjoy the self-guided experience.
They can browse the menu as much as they would like without worrying about having to come up with a decision on the spot, and choose what they want to order. Log in with a member card, and the menu will automatically display their favorite selections, or recommend new items based on past purchases. At a self-service kiosk, they may also add that extra order of fries they didn't want to say out loud to a cashier. Once they pay, all they have to do is wait for their food.
It may seem a simple shift — ordering and paying on a screen rather than with a person — but self-service kiosks are gaining in popularity and usage. 60% of customers would choose a restaurant with self-serve kiosks over one that doesn't, and 91% of Gen Z say they would visit a restaurant more often if kiosks were available. 85% of customers believe that self-service checkout is faster than going through the line to a cashier.
Guests also tend to order more when there's a self-service kiosk, with the average order jumping to 10% more. In 2022, Panera announced that 50% of its sales are now through digital means, including the self-service kiosks located in their restaurants, and that they see an average of 3 million transactions per week.
The future of better customer experiences, more streamlined visits, higher ticket prices, and more personalization lies in implementing self-service kiosks in your QSR.
How to Integrate Self-Service Kiosks
If you're ready to add self-service kiosks to your QSR, here are seven things to keep in mind as you get started.
• Start with a strategy: First, determine how you want to implement self-serve kiosks. Will they be in addition to your cashiers? Will you implement self-service kiosks ordering only and remove your cashiers? Where will you put the stands or tablets? Determine as well your objectives and what you want to achieve with the kiosks and your budget.
• Source vendors and select your product: After you determine your business objectives for implementation, evaluate vendors for both hardware and software needs. Do you want free-standing units or tabletop? How big should the screens be? What payment hardware will you use? How customizable is the software? Are menus easy to navigate, and are they enjoyable to use overall?
• Installation and floor space: New self-service kiosks have to go somewhere, ideally near the entrance where the flow of traffic makes the most sense. Do you have a space where the kiosks will go? Will you have to make a space where they'll go? You may need to re-envision line flow to make finding and using the kiosks intuitive for customers. Don't forget to add signage so customers can find the kiosks, and be clear about where they pick up their orders as well.
• Promote the kiosks and teach guests: Once you've installed your self-service kiosks, you need to ensure that customers will use them. Promote your new self-service kiosks through your marketing channels so that customers know they have that option now. Dedicate a team member to greet guests, point them toward the self-service kiosks, and show them how to use them.
• Manage operations and staffing: Make sure that your staff is prepared to handle orders from self-service kiosks. Ideally, orders placed there come through the same ticketing system, but an increase in orders from self-service kiosks may mean reallocating your staff to handle the influx.
• Track your success: You won't know the impact your new self-service kiosks are making unless you analyze data around the user experience. Ideally, you already had a set of goals you wanted to achieve, like reducing time to order, increasing ticket orders, or increasing customer satisfaction. Now, measure the data around who's ordering, when, how long it takes, and how much they're ordering to see the impact of your initiative, and to make improvements where necessary.
• Troubleshoot: Make sure that the kiosks are being tended to as well. 67% of customers have had a self-service or self-checkout kiosk not work for them in the past. Make sure to keep your kiosks maintained, and train your staff on how to troubleshoot some of the most common questions customers have. For example, "not working" might just mean that they were unclear on how to swipe their card.
Self-Serve Solutions for Quick Service Restaurants
Self-service kiosks are a great way to give customers flexibility on how they want to order and pay in your QSR, and a great way to encourage guests through the door, increase their engagement, and give them a great ordering experience. As more QSRs adopt self-service kiosks, now is the time to position your restaurant for the future of guest experiences.
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