The basic idea of the kiosk is to allow a customer to basically see the menu usually and order whatever they wanted. The machine prints out a receipt and a server brings customers their food. So in essence the customer becomes an employee inputting what they want into a computer. People can customize their items with the options on the screen. One thing I have also noticed is that fast food kiosks have is pictures of all the items on the menu. Usually when you go to a fast food restaurant you can only see pictures of certain items. I would think this would lead to higher sales since people are better able to see an item.
Younger people would be more inclined to use this service. In fact according to the Restaurant Industry Forecast in 2007 said that 71% of people between the ages of 18-24 would rather used kiosks than cashiers. In a survey done by EMN8 (a company that sells kiosks to fast food businesses) 84% of people who used the kiosks said they would return to the same fast food place which was higher than the percentage of people who would return that used a cashier. No doubt kiosks would make it easy for fast food places to balance their registers at the end of every night. Also fewer servers might be needed since a computer can be run 24/7 and never get tired. Not only would self service increase sales but also increase profitability because fewer workers would be needed. I doubt that self service kiosks would put all fast food servers out of business because someone would always have to deliver the food.
Self service kiosks would take people time to get use to. Over time customers would get better at being able to order food which would save even more time and allow more customers to get their food. For some odd reason I get the impression people would rather type what they want into a computer than telling someone. Even though it is subconscious some people may not want to be judged when ordering with a human cashier. Also with so many people texting things these days instead of calling people I wonder if people would feel more comfortable with this technology then others. Maybe fast food places could set up an ordering system so if someone was driving around town they could order from a smart phone, pay for the food over the phone, and pick up their food. Although, drive through is pretty quick already.
The future will tell us if this technology heats up or fads like so many other technologies. We live in a world filled with ideas. The question is can the ideas be executed in a way that creates value and makes everyone better off.
No comments:
Post a Comment