Trials or deployments of computerized kiosks, primarily for guest self-service, are on the rise. But what types of business challenges are foodservice companies throwing at them?
Delaware North Cos. turned to kiosks from Micros Systems Inc., in part to meet expectations of faster service among season ticket holders at TD Banknorth Garden in Boston, management said. Buffalo, N.Y.-based DNC owns and operates that sporting and entertainment events facility.
Executives of 39-unit Carl’s Jr. franchisee Star Chasers Oklahoma Inc. of Oklahoma City said achieving greater guest throughput and satisfaction during relatively small peak business periods spurred that group’s foray into kiosks. Star Chasers links EMN8 kiosk hardware and specialty software with Compris and Xpient Solutions point-of-sale system, or POS, software.
FHG Enterprises of Berlin, N.J., a 16-unit Checkers franchisee, enlisted a kiosk to help with walk-offs, or guests who leave before they are served, at walk-up windows. President Joe Gatas said FHG’s nine-month kiosk test involves NCR Corp. hardware, InfoAmerica specialty programs and Wand Corp. POS software. The goal, he said, is better service during off-peak hours when walk-up window cashiering is just one job of a multitasking employee.
At least one type of foodservice customer is ready for kiosks, if 2007 consumer research by the National Restaurant Association is any indication. The NRA found that 57 percent of the quick-service customers surveyed said they would use a self-serve ordering terminal if it were offered.
Whether foodservice operators are ready to dive in or not, the mainstream self-service tide is rising. POS industry research and consulting firm IHL Group of Franklin, Tenn., in mid-2007 forecast that North American consumers would spend more than $525 billion during the year using self-service checking lanes and kiosks, up from $438 billion in 2006.
Costs for self-order kiosk deployment can vary widely, depending on the hardware configuration, such as with a cash handler or without, degree of integration with POS systems or enterprise applications and software discounts for multiunit installations. Some vendors will incorporate hardware charges into monthly software or services fees.
Some operators said they were recently quoted kiosk technology prices from $8,000 to $15,000 for hardware, software fees and integration expenses.
Others said the monthly subscription programs they were told about ranged from $50 to $225 per unit, based on the number of sites involved and whether hardware costs were included.
Troy Beats, vice president of marketing and operations for Carl’s Jr. franchisee Star Chasers, said his company combines two kiosks with two conventional POS stations at 30 stores and has a store in downtown Oklahoma City with three kiosks. A great deal of impetus to try kiosks, he indicated, came from the strong preference of Oklahoma diners to eat during traditional meal periods, meaning, “we have to do a lot of business in a relatively short time.”
Beats explained that guests, on entering, are guided by an employee to the kiosks situated near each other and close to the counter in view of the menu board. Once at the kiosks, guests can serve themselves, relay their order to the kiosk worker to enter or move to the counter to be served in a conventional manner.
Many “people are faster” when they use kiosks because they know what they want and don’t have to try to convey that to another person, Beats said. Average tickets are higher by an unspecified amount among kiosks users, he said, crediting appealing food images on the devices, compared to photos on the crowded menu board, the consistent upselling messages delivered by kiosk interfaces and ability of guests to peruse all menu options.
Touting the self-exploration of kiosk users and what that can mean to menu mix and sales, Beats said, “I’m not sure many people even realized we had fried zucchini until we put in the kiosks.”
The end result is that some side dishes now sell up to four times better than before, he said.
Star Chasers has been working with kiosks since 2006. Lower labor expenses are not one of the virtues of kiosks, at least as they are deployed by Star Chasers.
“We’re spending more on labor now,” Beats said. “Where I see the real benefit from kiosks is that you can focus all, or most, of your attention on the production of orders, rather than on taking orders.”
Dunkin’ tests order kiosks to minimize service ‘bottlenecks’ Alan J. Liddle In comedian Brian Regan’s “The Donut Lady” routine, the hero struggles mightily to pick from the many different fried-and-frosted treats while keeping a running total in his head of the number selected and options remaining to fill out a dozen. About to lose it, Regan’s frazzled consumer is told by the woman behind the counter: “Why don’t you go outside and think it over? It’s a big decision. You can’t blow Donut Day.” “Donut Day” disasters of that kind may be a thing of the past, if guest self-order kiosk technology being tested by Dunkin’ Donuts catches on. The Canton, Mass.-based chain, with more than 4,300 U.S. locations and 7,900 in all worldwide, is testing touchscreen kiosks from NextChoice as “line busters” in the Dallas, Las Vegas and Nashville, Tenn., markets, Dunkin’ officials said. Sources at Dunkin’ said the kiosks are being used in a limited role in new markets where pent-up demand might overwhelm the existing guest-service and staffing model. They explained that the devices are being used only for large donut orders and in concert with “host” personnel. The kiosk host in a Dunkin’ Donuts store pre-screens incoming guests, directing those who are ordering six or more donuts to the kiosks, while sending others to the regular queue. Navigating the kiosks’ animated user interface, and taking advantage of high-resolution images of the 36 donuts available to help make their selection, kiosk users enter their order. Kiosk orders are transmitted to printers in an assembly area behind the Dunkin’ kitchen. Employees there box up orders so they are waiting when kiosk users reach the register to request beverages or other food items and to pay. At stores without kiosks, guests make large donut orders by eyeballing the stock on hand at the register, “creating a bottleneck” and “decreasing total potential throughput,” said Frank A. Trucco of Dunkin’ Donuts parent Dunkin’ Brands Inc. Trucco, who is part of Dunkin’ Brands concept innovation effort, said guests are intrigued by the technology and usually find it easy to use once they have been shown how by the host. They “appreciate that it speeds the entire process,” he said. How much do the kiosks do to decrease Donut Day madness? “We are seeing throughput increases of 30-plus percent during peak hours,” Trucco said. “We also believe it increases order accuracy and reduces walk-offs. Because there are less order instructions from guest to cashier at the register, it also affords more opportunity to upsell.” Regarding self-service ordering technology for drive-thru lanes, Trucco said, “We have hardware on the bench and will test it this summer,” but “the perceived barriers are return on investment and POS integration issues.”
That transformation, he suggested, leads to accelerated guest throughput, better food quality and higher guest satisfaction.
Delaware North’s Sportservice division manages foodservice at TD Banknorth Garden where food-service providers have only a small window of time to serve guests, said general manager Mike Zielinski. His Boston facility sees an average of 17,000 people per sporting event.
Zielinski said eight Micros kiosks were brought in late last year to support five concessions areas on three levels as part of a facility-wide technology overhaul. The kiosks, he said, help answer a request by a committee of season ticket holders “for an area they can go to for quicker service.”
“We’ve seen per-capita [spending] rise by 15 percent” from kiosk use, Zielinski said of kiosk transactions compared with conventional concessions purchases.
The Sportservice veteran said the kiosks, which at this time accept only credit-card payments, are situated adjacent to four conventional concessions stands that accept cash and credit. One employee in each stand is dedicated to filling kiosk orders.
One stand accepts only kiosk orders, and Zielinski said that is perhaps the only aspect of the deployment he might change going forward.
Alcoholic beverage sales erode some of the efficiency gained from kiosk use, Zielinski noted, as stand personnel must still check the driver’s licenses of libation buyers.
Though the responses of guests and employees to kiosks have generally been favorable, Zielinski said, “We’re taking baby steps” and “making sure things are operating correctly and that our personnel can function properly with [kiosk] orders coming in.”
Gatas of FHG Enterprises said the vendors supporting the kiosk test at his company’s Sicklerville, N.J., Checkers are making requested changes because “they’d like to see these move into the Checkers system” of about 835 restaurants. To date, he said, his company has invested only labor and marketing money to create kiosk signage and stage “bounce back” promotions offering a discount for kiosk usage.
The development team recently was working on how the kiosk interface deals with options tied to combo meals, which generate about 60 percent of sales at Checkers units. Also development priorities, Gatas indicated, were the addition of a bar code reader and software so kiosk users can redeem coupons and back-end tools to let FHG employees centrally program into kiosks limited-time offers, as they now do with the POS system.
Kiosk orders account for about 9 percent of the total sales at FHG’s test restaurant, Gatas said. He added that while the average ticket for people not using the kiosk is $6.25 to $7, kiosk tickets are pushing $8 and $9—a development he attributes, in large part, to the consistent upselling messages programmed into the kiosks.
Approximately 20 percent of total sales at the FHG test unit come from the walk-up window in the vestibule areas of the company’s restaurants. Gatas acknowledged that during off-peak hours, when walk-up window cashiering duties are reassigned to multitasking workers, some users of that order channel might feel neglected if their presence is not registered as fast as they like.
In his mind, Gatas said, a kiosk for self-ordering might go a long way toward reducing the number of guests who walk away or don’t come back because of such an unintended slight.
Gatas said he embarked on a kiosk trial “to get my service in line,” and added, “I figured that if my service was in line, my sales would go up.”