Can I take your order? Why self-service kiosks should be a staple in QSRs

Kiosks never forget to upsell customers, take more orders, and get orders right every time.

With contactless service increasingly becoming a norm in today’s society, QSRs are finding self-service kiosks to be more of a necessity than a mere nice-to-have. However, if utilised strategically, kiosks can be so much more than a contactless feature for QSRs.

Self-service kiosks are still in a relatively nascent stage in Australia, but in the US, reports say 41% of QSRs planned to invest in more kiosks in 2019, whilst a whopping 67% of customers were willing to place an order with a self-service kiosk in 2020. Australia is not too far behind, though, as data from NPD Group show that the use of QSR self-service kiosks has grown by 53% in 2019.

Australians who use kiosks usually order either bundled meals or kids’ meals, and without having to deal with a cashier face-to-face, they tend to enjoy customising their orders and adding more items to their basket. Hence, convenience, value, and user experience are the top three things that motivate Australians to use a kiosk.

QSRs who may not be too convinced about the benefits of self-service kiosks can learn a thing or two from their US counterparts. Those with kiosks saw a 40% drop in total order time, or the time from when the customer started to order until the meal is ready for pickup. This is a significant improvement for QSRs, as research reveals that a 7-second reduction in customers’ wait times can lead to up to a 3% increase in potential market share3. Moreover, QSRs with kiosks saw a 21% jump in average order size with 1.4x more items in the customers’ cart at checkout, and an increase of at least $5 per transaction4.

Reaping all these benefits from kiosks takes more than just installing a fancy new gadget inside the restaurant. The kiosk has to haveuser-friendly, intuitive software partnered with advanced intelligent data-gathering and reporting solutions for QSRs to maximise their investment.

Global tech company Fingermark™ helps QSRs on this front with its sophisticated yet ultra-friendly self-service kiosk powered by Supersonic™. This advanced kiosk technology upsells customers, takes more orders, and gets orders right every time.

The kiosk acts as a valuable extra staff member especially during peak times. Even when the restaurant is busy, it never forgets to upsell and guarantees 100% accuracy of orders at all times. Fingermark™ kiosks also have an intelligent suggestion engine that presents new items, promotes upsize and add-ons, and showcases the latest promotions, thereby improving customer experience and increasing basket size at the same time. The intuitive software also makes it easy for customers to take full control over their order and customise their meals as much as they like.

“QSRs should put customers in control and give them more choices, from how they order to how they get their food. It’s all about speed and convenience. The important thing will be integrating the customer’s end-to-end experience and understanding how technology can enhance the overall customer journey,” says Luke Irving, founder and CEO of Fingermark™.

Apart from improving the customer experience, the kiosk also collects real-time data 24/7 and provides daily reports that show individual revenues for each kiosk, thereby helping QSRs make data-driven decisions.

Photo credit: Fingermark Facebook

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