How to Drive Profits with Restaurant Self-Ordering Kiosks

Whether you’re a fast food joint or a sports arena, one thing will always ring true — speed of service is the priority. However, your ordering experience may be bogged down by long lines, understaffing, and human error. Wouldn’t it be great if customers could cut out the middleman and place orders in your restaurant themselves?

With restaurant self-ordering kiosks, they can. The sleek, digital interfaces of today’s restaurant kiosks hold the potential to completely transform your customer ordering experience.

With a few key considerations, you can reap serious benefits (and profits) from a properly configured kiosk.

Read on to understand the table stakes features in today’s self-service technology and how you can optimize them to drive revenue for your business.

Benefits of Self-Service Kiosks in Restaurants

The self-service customer experience dates back to the 1880s, though the self-ordering kiosk did not debut until the late 1970s. Now, these kiosks are the pinnacle of modern restaurant hardware, combining intuitive touchscreen interfaces with seamless software that flows orders right to the kitchen.

Conceptually, a restaurant kiosk offers many benefits, including efficiency, order accuracy, and, if configured correctly, higher profits for operators.

Before we unpack the best practices for a modern restaurant self-ordering kiosk, we’ll take a closer look at five different benefits of kiosk software.

1. Offset Front-of-House Labor Challenges

Finding and retaining great staff has long been a challenge for restaurants. Today’s labor market remains as competitive as ever, compounded by factors like gig work, regulations for higher wages, steep inflation rates, and the questioning of the restaurant tip credit.

Kiosks offer a reliable release valve for front-of-house (FOH) operations and order flow. Whether they help your FOH keep lines moving or replace your on-site order process entirely, kiosks are an excellent solution for service efficiency.

2. Improve Order Accuracy and Reduce Waste

Humans are amazing. They are also fallible and can mistakenly input the wrong details when translating a customer order at the point of sale.

When empowered to place their orders directly, your customers are far less likely to forget to hold the cheese or upsize their drink. This translates to happy customers, faster order fulfillment — and, for the icing on the cake — less food waste due to inaccurate orders.

3. Boost Speed of Service and Ordering Efficiency

When directly integrated into your restaurant’s POS system, kiosks move orders seamlessly from your customers’ fingertips to your kitchen display prep screens.

With customers directly inputting their orders, there’s never a question of staff mishearing or incorrectly submitting the wrong items. And, since orders flow directly from the kiosk to the kitchen, no time needs to be spent on staff manually submitting those orders. Instead, staff can focus on providing premier customer service while customers submit orders and wait.

4. Increase Your Average Check Size

Adding a kiosk to your restaurant isn’t just a way to increase order efficiency — it’s also a great upsell opportunity.

The step-by-step order flow on a restaurant self-service kiosk makes it easy for customers to see and order every available add-on and modification for their meal. You can go even further with promotional tactics like “frequently purchased together” messaging or upsell prompts.

Encouraging customers to order complete meals with appetizers, desserts, sides and more, boosts profits for your restaurant while expanding their culinary experience.

5. Ensure a Convenient Payment Experience

It’s not just the ordering flow that increases sales — it’s also the checkout and payment experience. With a restaurant kiosk, customers can pay for orders in a variety of convenient ways, including:

• Mobile wallets (Apple Pay, Google Pay, etc.)
• Card-present payments (EMV, NFC, and swipe backup)

When customers don’t see their preferred payment method available, research by Xero states that a fifth of them will abandon the purchase and go elsewhere. So, not only are you encouraging more sales by providing a variety of payment methods — you’re also protecting lost ones.

How Can I Drive Adoption of Restaurant Self-Ordering Kiosks?

If you are considering a self-service kiosk for your restaurant, there are a few must-have factors if you hope this ordering channel will be successful:

• Visibility
• Ease of use
• System integration

Visibility

This may seem obvious, but if you want guests to use your self-service kiosks, you’ll want to make them easy to find. Especially if kiosks are a new ordering channel for your restaurant, take extra steps to ensure new and longtime guests alike can see them.

• Clear Signage: Incorporate large, clear signage directing guests interested in self-service to the physical location of your restaurant kiosks.
• Prominent Placement: Consider foot traffic patterns for your restaurant and ensure the kiosks are front and center for your customers as they enter and move through your space.
• Managed Expectations: Getting your customers to your restaurant kiosk is a great first step, but you’ll also want to set their expectations for what to do next. Use on-screen messaging to direct them to a pick-up counter or to alert them that their name or order number will be called when their food is ready.

Ease of Use

• Frictionless Experience: Prioritize an intuitive interface and a clear order flow when you select and configure your kiosk software. The easier it is to navigate your kiosks, the more likely your returning customers will use them.
• Visual Reinforcement: Compelling imagery can help your customers quickly and confidently make their order selections as they navigate the on-screen prompts.

System Integration

• Connected Tech: Seamless integration with your point of sale (POS) and kitchen management system is essential to ensuring kiosk ordering efficiency. Choose a kiosk designed to “talk” with the other technology in place at your restaurant.
• SMS Configuration: Keep your guests in the loop on their order status no matter where they wander. Real-time status updates remove the guesswork — along with any associated anxiety — over when their food will be hot and ready.

4 Ways to Optimize Your Kiosks for Profitability

Once you’ve installed self-service kiosks with clear signage in a prominent location in your restaurant and ensured interconnectivity between your other operational systems, there are a few more ways to optimize them for profitability and take advantage of all the great benefits we outlined earlier in this blog post.

1. Identify Upsell and Cross-Selling Opportunities

Maximizing revenue per customer is crucial, and your kiosk can play a pivotal role in this by capitalizing on upsell and cross-sell opportunities.

Design your kiosk interface to suggest add-ons or premium versions of items customers are already interested in. For example, if a customer selects a coffee, the system should suggest upgrading to a larger size or adding a pastry.

2. Strategically Select Your Categories

The arrangement of items and categories on your kiosk should follow a logical order that mimics the customer’s thought process and decision-making path.

Start with main dishes, followed by sides, drinks, and then desserts, ensuring each category is clearly visible and accessible. A user-friendly experience minimizes order time and confusion, enhancing customer satisfaction.

3. Layer in Key Messages

Use your kiosk not only as a transaction tool but also as a communication platform. Integrate key messages about your loyalty program or promotional offers to engage customers.

For instance, when customers are about to checkout, have a pop-up reminding them how much more they need to spend to qualify for a loyalty reward. This strategy not only increases the average ticket size but also boosts enrollment in your loyalty programs.

4. Test and Refine

Before going live, it’s critical to test the kiosk system extensively. Conduct multiple rounds of testing with your team to identify errors and streamline the user experience.

Observing team members as they use the kiosk can provide insights into potential chokepoints or areas of confusion in the order process. Use this feedback to refine the user experience continually. Post-launch, collect customer feedback to further enhance the functionality and user-friendliness of the kiosk.

Boost Your Bottom Line with Restaurant Self-Ordering Kiosks

Adding a self-ordering kiosk to your restaurant’s POS hardware lineup can be a great way to increase revenue and improve customer experiences. The ultimate goal of your kiosk should be to serve the customers in the most efficient, engaging, and profitable manner possible.

Are you ready to add a great self-ordering experience to your restaurant? Check out the future of self-service with SkyTab Kiosk, now available.