Overview
A kiosk is an unattended POS terminal that allows customers to self-serve. While retail has been comfortable with the idea of customer self-service for years (unexpected item in the bagging area), hospitality has taken longer to catch on. Partly, this is because the hospitality market has lots of small operators, whereas retail has fewer, larger operators - an easier market for tech companies to serve. Also, a kiosk somehow doesn’t ‘feel’ very hospitable. Few operators open restaurants hoping not to interact with customers, so kiosks and other automated systems have faced cultural barriers to adoption.
Some larger chains (like McDonalds) have now adopted kiosks, and customers are much more comfortable with them than they once were. As a result, more and more hospitality operators are looking at kiosks as a way to reduce labour spend, increase throughput and even improve the customer experience. For these goals to be realised, the new system must be demonstrably better than the human alternative. If your kiosks need a human operator to fix problems, take non-standard orders or explain how the system works to customers, you have failed.
Critical functions
The kiosk will typically show the menu, take orders and take payment. It should also display nutritional information, ingredients and allergens. Some operators will only use it for showing information, and not for taking orders and payment. This is definitely an improvement on the allergen folder kept behind the counter, and can facilitate discovery of new products if done well.
Many of the considerations for kiosks will be the same as for POS:
A simple user interface for customers - how easy is it to follow, and how quickly can they place orders?
A simple user interface for staff - e.g. if the customer has a non-standard request, makes an error or the equipment fails
A simple user interface for head office staff (or whomever is setting up products, updating prices etc); is this easily done? Can different venues have different ranges and prices? Can it be locked down (if needed) so venues can’t make unauthorised changes? Can updates be pushed automatically?
Conversational ordering (particularly for coffee-centric venues that might have thousands of permutations of size, style, caffeinated/decaff, milk type, syrups, temperatures and so on)
Support for the types of discounts, promotions or loyalty schemes you already run
Also like POS, kiosk providers sometimes provide both the hardware and the software, particularly for the large-screen format terminals. However, a growing number of software-only (‘POS-on-an-iPad’) providers are introducing self-serve options. You’ll need to think about whether a big or small screen is more appropriate for your venues, considering both the size of the venue and the complexity of your menu.
One critical issue with kiosks is how they relate to a grab-and-go range. For example, if a customer can grab a readymade sandwich off a shelf but uses a kiosk to order a coffee, do they ring in or scan the sandwich on the kiosk? If so, who validates that they have scanned correctly or honestly? And where/when do they pay for the coffee? Kiosks are much easier to implement when there are no grab-and-go items, because a blend of two can be confusing for customers and staff. Before committing, spend time mapping out the various customer journeys, and consider what changes you might need to make as a result of implementing kiosks.
Important integrations
Kiosks will typically have the same integration requirements as POS. You may wish to replace your POS system with kiosks entirely, though few (if any) operators have done so successfully. You would almost certainly need ‘traditional’ POS terminals to take cash payments, for example, and many operators like having a back-up option in case the kiosks fail for some reason. You might also need a different approach to handling time-and-attendance, if your staff use POS terminals to clock in and clock out. Your kiosk provider should help you to integrate the system with your existing technology, but you should do some preparation before even looking for providers, so you have a reasonable idea of what you’re looking for.
To consider integrations, think first about what printers or production screens your kiosk terminals will feed - barista station, kitchen printer, coordination station and so on. Kiosks will need to be linked to this production system seamlessly. They may also need built in barcode scanners and receipt printers - this is worth considering in the context of your loyalty scheme, in particular.
You need your kiosk system to link to your inventory management system, so you can do accurate stock takes and (maybe) predictive ordering based on sales data. You might want a connection to your food database, e.g. to populate allergen information or nutritional data, rather than having to rekey this data into the kiosk application. You may also have a sophisticated kitchen production system, i.e. software that uses algorithms to tell the kitchen what to produce. Your kiosk system should be able to integrate seamlessly with your loyalty scheme (maybe via QR code scanner) and/or CRM system.
Large-format kiosks will typically integrate a card payment device, in which case, you’ll need to ask whether you can change the device and/or the card payment service provider. If you haven’t already, make sure you read the separate section on card payments before you look for a kiosk provider. You will also want your kiosk system to integrate with your financial accounting system, so you can automatically upload and reconcile sales data with banking and financial reporting.
Users
Kiosks are of course primarily used by customers. When considering a kiosk system, you should think about which subset of your customers would be using it. It might aid discovery by new customers, or perhaps existing customers can quickly jump in and avoid the queue. If you see lots of tourists, maybe it would be worth introducing foreign language versions of your menu. Finally: it really isn't feasible to launch kiosks without product photography. If this isn't something you routinely do, factor it in to your plan. You'll want to aim for products to be photographed at a consistent size, angle, background and so on, which can be hard to do from one launch to the next.
You will also need to consider how (if at all) staff will interact with the terminals. Will you need a staff override, for example? What about age checks for alcohol sales? While you should certainly aim for kiosks to require zero input from staff, it would be sensible to plan for errors, faults and non-standard requests.
