A self-service food ordering kiosk is a big touch screen kiosk which includes the entire menu and allow the customers to order their food and drinks through the touch screen interface and let them make payments through their debit or credit cards. In Dubai and all around the UAE the restaurants and fast food services are rapidly adopting to self-service food ordering kiosks. The main reason of this adoption is to maximize the customer experience and make the customer journey easier for them. Along with that the self-service food ordering kiosks are also generating good amount of revenue.
Several studies have suggested that the people tend to prefer the self-servicing rather than waiting in the long queues. On an average if a restaurant or fast food service implement a self-service interactive kiosk, they will going to get a rapid hype in the sales of about 20 to 60 percent per month. The statistical data have shown that the customers tend to spend more per order amount when they are placing an order on the self-service food ordering kiosk. Especially the quick-service restaurants with higher footfalls, the interactive self-service food ordering kiosk is a great solution to maximize the customer satisfaction and reduce the wait time.
Why Interactive Self Service Food Ordering Kiosks are so Successful?
There are two major factors that lead to the success of the interactive self-service food ordering kiosk. First is that it reduces the wait time and the second is that it provides more freedom to customers to choose from the entire menu. Wait time is very bad for customer experience and customer satisfaction. It is an estimate that normally a customer can wait up to thirteen minutes in any service based industry before getting upset or annoyed about the queues. In food industry that time is even less, sometimes there are certain circumstances that can help you scoring more leads, but normally when a customer sees a long queue, they either look up for the alternate.
As in Dubai and all around the UAE the food industry have grown a lot, so there are restaurants and cafes everywhere. If you will fail to satisfy your customers they can easily go to another store/restaurant. That is why wait time is very important. People also tend to buy more from self-service interactive food ordering kiosks, as it provide them easy access to the entire menu and they can also take time to choose any item. So, when people are ordering from the food ordering kiosk, they also choose some desert or small item along with their primary food order. Which increases the sales and help business generating more revenue.
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What are the Necessary Features of a Successful Food Ordering Kiosk?
Many businesses have this question, as when you see any food ordering kiosk from the outside, they all look almost the same. However there are certain features that can significantly boost the customer experience. The interactive self-service food ordering kiosk are also used to maximize the operational efficiency of the restaurant. It should be able to support the staff to conveniently handle the crowd and enable them to process each order with more accuracy and speed. Here are some key features which will influence the performance and revenue generated from the interactive self-service food ordering kiosk:
1. Excellent Touch Screen Size
The touch screen is the most important component of any interactive self-service kiosk. For ordinary applications the screens are kept small or medium, for example for the HR operations the screens are usually small or medium sized. However when it comes to generate sales and leads from the interactive self-service kiosk, the more is the better. For food ordering kiosk the screen size should be adequately larger. The larger is better and it provides more space to put useful information. The menu can be displayed with more visibility, more product details can be listed and the customer can view more products in a single screen, above the fold. Usually it is ideal to not to have any scroll on the menu, and all the products should be listed above the fold.
The quality of touch should be excellent. As customers will frequently touch the screen in order to go through the food ordering process, so the touch quality matters a lot. There are different types of touch screen displays, the two most common are IR Touch and Capacitive Touch. The IR Touch is very successful for industrial use, however for consumer applications, the Capacitive Touch is always recommended. The capacitive touch is almost similar to like of your latest smartphone, it is very sensitive, and it allows multi-touch facility and is very accurate. If the customer is unhappy with the touch screen performance, the customer churn rate will rise.
2. Powerful Internal Electronics and Computer
Each modern day interactive self-service kiosk comes with some internal electronics and computer. As a user interface has to be provided, so a computer module is must to process the information and maintain the link. The food ordering kiosks act as a client and are connected to a mainframe or server. Everything has to be managed through a software. Which is either installed at the client or at the server. There are two types of kiosk computers, one is Android platform and one is Windows based platform.
The computer type usually depends upon the application/software that is running the entire self-service food ordering system. Apart from that there should be a POS connectivity, which requires supportive electronics such as network availability and power. The kiosk computer itself also requires the network and the power. Apart from these a receipt printer is also must to have. This is the basic configuration of an interactive self-service food ordering kiosk.
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Moreover the businesses can also include other peripherals such as RFID, Barcode, and/or QR Code reader for customer loyalty cards, etc. There are tons of hardware accessories available that can be integrated in the system, but the best approach is to keep the process simple and try to complete the customer journey is less steps. The customer journey should be simpler and easier, more you make it complex more customers will left or prefer the counter rather the self-service food ordering kiosk.
3. Efficient Food Ordering Kiosk Software System
The food ordering kiosk software plays an important role in the success of the entire system. The food ordering kiosk software has three major components:
- Customer Dashboard/Kiosk Interface
- Administrative Dashboard/Management Control Panel
- Server Application/Software
These all are the basic components of the entire food ordering kiosk system software. Each component has a separate role to play and should be designed to ensure optimum performance.
There are some other components too which can also be used to improve the usability and operational capabilities, such as:
- Kitchen Staff Interface
- Digital Signage Module
- Voice Commands Enabled Customer Dashboard
The food ordering kiosk with its basic configurations and components is enough to maximize the operational efficiency and profitability. However, some businesses can also invest more to gain more advantages by adding optional components. On top of that RSI Food Ordering Kiosk and System are completely customizable, so each and every component can also be customized as per the needs.
Here are the details of each food ordering kiosk software component:
Customer Dashboard/Kiosk Interface
This is the interface that is being provided on the interactive self-service kiosk for the customers. The customers should be able to view the entire menu, the photos and content of the items should be very clear. The interface should be simple, in fact flat interfaces are more suitable for such applications. The photos, media and information are important. If larger screens are used, the instructions can also be displayed along with the menu, which also improve customer experience. The customer dashboard should be simple and the customer journey should be shorter.
Here are some important features of a good customer dashboard or customer interface of an interactive self-service food ordering kiosk:
- Excellent Customer Experience and Easy Navigation
- Clear and Distinguished Product Listing
- Provide Good Quality Photos and Product Details
- Visible CTA, Next/Previous Buttons
- Instructions for Each Step
- Provide Multi-lingual Interface
- Provide all available Options such as Dine-in or Takeaway, etc.
- Include Products Suggestions such as with the Main Item Suggest Desert, etc.
- Publish Special Deals and Promotions on the Kiosk
- Integrate Food Ordering Kiosk with your POS
- Integrate Multiple Payment Gateways such as Credit/Debit Card, Contactless via NFC, etc.
- Allow the Customer to Edit/Amend the Order Before Proceeding to the Payment Step
- Display a Thank You Screen after the Purchase
These are some of the basic features that every good food ordering kiosk interface should have. Furthermore businesses should carefully analyze their customers and customer journey to make the user interface simpler and attractive.
Administrative Dashboard/Management Control Panel
The administrative dashboard or management control panel is the interface of the food ordering kiosk system which is designed for the business’s management. The managers and staff can use this interface to update the menu, products, offers, images, and all other information on the customer interface. The management can also compile and download system reports and perform other administrative tasks.
Server Application/Software
The server application or server software is the core application. All the computing, processes and logics are done at the server, then the information and functionality is accessed through the respective interfaces and control panels. The server application can be installed at in-premises network as well as on online hosting and cloud. The backup, recovery and failover configurations should be supported. The information center should be centralized and all client/customer interface/kiosks should be connected to the network.
4. Easy System Integration
The food ordering kiosk system is an extension of any existing order management system. It should be able to integrate with that system. Any other integration which is required should be supported. Mainly the interactive self-service kiosk systems are integrated using secure web services of APIs. The payments, transactions, order details and everything should be integrated with the central system. With the help of API technology the interactive self-service food ordering kiosk can be integrated with ERPs, Sales System, Order Management System, etc. The orders and the details are also integrated with the counters and can be accessed by the service staff as well. They should also be able to change or cancel the order if required. The food ordering interactive self-service kiosk system should integrate all the records with the central information center so the core sales application/software can also be updated in real time and there should remain no discrepancy or delay.
The food ordering kiosk is a great tool to reduce the wait time and work load of the staff and at the same time it can significantly enhance customer journey. The customer satisfaction and happiness is the top priority for any such system. That is why the customization and integration with other systems is a must to have feature with the interactive self-service food ordering kiosk.
5. Improved Productivity and Efficiency
The interactive self-service food ordering kiosk provide alternative channels to the customer which automatically reduce the work load from the counters and sales staff. When the sales staff worked under a balanced work load they tend to perform better. The customer journey and customer experience both got improved. The customer who are using the kiosk can place their order, immediately, they can have more time and flexibility to amend or change their order. This is what encourages them to purchase more. Moreover the customers can pay from the POS through their credit or debit card, which is also the most convenient way of payment. The ordering process become fully automatic which means a business doesn’t require more staff, as the interactive self-service food ordering kiosk doesn’t need salary. The labor cost can be reduced and the overall efficiency of the employees can be boosted.
Since the orders are being done through an automated system so the chances of error are slim to none. The customer can easily have enough time to choose and rethink their order and once the order is placed it is directly transmitted for the kitchen staff. Hence the traditional hustle of taking wrong or incorrect order is eliminated. This also improve customer experience and customer happiness and help businesses earn more loyal customers and a good brand reputation.
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Conclusion
The food ordering kiosk is basically an interactive self-service kiosk. Usually the food ordering kiosks are larger than most and have excellent quality display and touch panels. The food ordering kiosks are easy to customize and comes in compatibility with Android and Windows platforms. The display and its touch quality is very important as the entire customer journey is programed in the kiosk. The receipt printer is usually a thermal printer used to print the orders and receipt. The order is also transmitted to the kitchen staff and made available to access from the counters as well. The order is completely integrated with the staffed POS/counter. There are several payment methods but usually the POS support only credit and debit cards. The interactive self-service food ordering kiosk has a very powerful software component, which provides various interfaces along with several integration with other enterprise solutions and business tools. The software can be hosted online, cloud or local data centers. The reporting module collect necessary system usage stats and other information which is made available in the form of downloadable reports.
The food ordering kiosks are very popular because of they improve customer journey and the customer tend to purchase more item while placing the order form the food ordering kiosk as comparing to the same order on the counter. It also reduces the work load of the employees and staff which further improve the customer journey and customer experience. RSI Concepts is a leading name in the customized interactive self-service kiosk industry. If you want to boost your sales and make more loyal customers with the help of a self-ordering kiosk, feel free to reach us out through our Contact US page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.
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