Restaurants and Food Service
Use digital menu boards, kiosks and other connected devices to upsell customers, improve the dining experience,
and reduce waiting times in quick serve (QSR), fast casual, and other chain restaurants
With new dining categories like fast casual emerging to meet customers' demands
for great quality and fast service, many restaurant operators are looking for ways
to reduce waiting times, increase average ticket, and encourage customers to return
again and again. Electronic menu boards, touchscreen ordering kiosks, branded TV
networks and other connected devices can help you reach these goals. Here's how it works:
Electronic Menu Boards:
With digital menu boards, you can change your menu selection, featured items, and even pricing
throughout the day to better match what guests are looking for. You can also make quick changes to
electronic menus to take advantage of weather conditions (e.g. featuring iced coffee on an unusually warm day) or help
promote local or national events (such as congratulating the home team on a win and offering a discount
to people who present game tickets). Although dynamic LCD and plasma menu boards can replace the entire menu area,
some restaurant chains prefer to just swap out one or two panels, using the digital areas
to showcase their specials, and leaving the traditional menus to show the full product selection with pricing.
Smartphones and Tablets:
Customers can use their handheld devices to view an interactive menu and see videos of featured menu items while
waiting in line or after being seated.
Private TV Networks:
In an effort to improve the dining experience, even the largest fast food QSRs are remodeling their
venues with improved seating, better lighting, and even flat-screen TVs. While providing television displays
is arguably a smart idea for getting customers to stay longer, these screens can be taken one step further
by turning them into a private TV network. In other words, you can use a digital signage player to take greater
control of what patrons see in your dining area. Typically, you would place customized messages next to the
live TV signal or even replace the TV commercials with your own messages. These ads reinforce your branding
and stimulate sales of additional items like coffee and desserts.
Self-Service Food Ordering Kiosks:
With customers becoming quite accustomed to using touchscreen kiosks in airports and other venues,
quick service, fast casual and even traditional dining restaurants are experimenting with touchscreen
ordering for food and beverages. Customers use these self-service terminals to place their order
and pay for it with cash, debit, credit, or gift cards, and then proceed to the pick-up or dining area to receive
their food. Since the ordering kiosks consistently present up-sells and cross-sells and let customers
visually confirm their order before placing it, both average ticket and order accuracy often increase
when the terminals are used. Typically, the interactive kiosks are used to supplement (rather than
replace) the counter employees, as some staff members are then re-assigned to help customers learn to
use the kiosks. Modified kiosks can also be placed in drive-through lanes, virtually eliminating
errors that arise from traditional microphone and speaker systems.
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