The 7 Benefits of a Self-ordering Kiosk for your Restaurant you Might Not Know About

Most see self-ordering kiosks in QSRs and other fast-casual dining spots as a way of reducing lines. And, while that's undeniable, the benefits of a self-ordering kiosk for your restaurant go much deeper. 

Tight labor markets and rising overheads have seen kiosks emerge as a scalable, long-term, data-driven solution that fulfils orders and allows customers greater customization options.

As guest expectations evolve, kiosks can provide the autonomy and speed diners want without sacrificing food quality or brand consistency. These digital solutions are dynamic sales, marketing, and operations platforms. 

Integrated within kiosks are customizations and insights that provide an entirely on-brand experience while quietly gathering data on consumer trends and buying behaviors.

We’ll uncover some of the lesser-known benefits of self-ordering kiosks for your restaurant, ones that offer just as much of an impact as their ordering functions do and prove they offer a true 360° transformation across operations, marketing, and customer experience.

Discover how self-ordering kiosks are transforming the guest journey and driving measurable impact where it matters most.

1. Increase service capacity without increasing headcount

A core component of self-ordering kiosks is their ability to handle more orders without the need to hire additional staff.

In an industry where staff turnover can be high, hardware can protect sales margins during peak periods. The staff who are employed can now be reallocated to other areas of the business, in places where they can make a greater impact, including food prep or assisting customers during the early rollout phase of the kiosks. 

Adjusting staff roles in this way reduces pressure on front-of-house staff to merely process orders and instead allows them to spend time with customers, improving the overall guest experience.

In QSRs and fast-casual restaurants, the priority is to move customers from purchase through to collection as quickly and efficiently as possible without sacrificing quality or brand image. 

Kiosks enable better ‘flow-through’ thanks to their small footprint and ability for several people to order at once, reducing bottlenecks at traditional registers, and increasing the number of covers a restaurant caters for.

Brands with multiple sites across America may have to deal with staff who offer a less consistent service than others. Self-service kiosks eliminate this costly headache by providing a consistent customer journey each time. 

Integrated restaurant hardware and software further contributes to that consistent customer journey. 

Multilingual models and accessibility features encourage people with disabilities or who speak a different language to enjoy the customer experience just as much as everyone else. 

2. Improve average order value through intelligent upselling

Throughout the customer’s interaction with self-ordering kiosks, upselling prompts can easily be displayed and turned into a new, reliable revenue stream. 

These prompts act as helpful suggestions, rather than off-putting sales-driven messaging, for customers who may not have thought to include a certain item in their order.

Instead of staff hurriedly explaining offers during busy periods, kiosks can show eye-catching visual prompts of food upgrades, drink combos, and offers, all of which can be altered in minutes depending on the time of day.

Kiosks and digital signage boards encourage visitors to spend 20-30% more on average, according to The Retail Times, showcasing their ability to increase the value from each sale. 

Beyond their ability to sell more to customers, data from these upselling interactions increases over time and gives restaurants deep insights into guest behavior and product demand, allowing them to create even more optimized campaigns the next time around.

3. Unlock data-driven insights to optimize operations

Every time a person interacts with a kiosk, they leave a wealth of valuable behavioral data behind. As more and more people use them, restaurants start to see patterns and trends emerge. From what they selected to how long it took them to select it, operators can gain vital insights into what’s selling, when, and in what combinations.

Restaurants that offer a range of food items can see which items are underperforming without having to guess or rely on instinct. Instead, data can be easily presented, and quick adjustments can be made based on objectives.

For example, let's say a particular seasonal milkshake is not selling well despite being advertised for weeks. A tweak in the content describing the offer or moving the item to a more prominent point in the journey can have an immediate impact.

Where kiosks are placed is just as important as the journey they offer customers, too. By reading into the data around dwell time and customer flow, restaurants can better optimize the layout of these modular systems to reduce congestion in front-of-house areas.

Burger King North America offers a strong example of how kiosk placement affects performance. The kiosks were initially installed directly in front of the tills to make use of the existing customer flow. This setup delivered high utilization, but it had little impact on ticket value. Analysis showed that customers felt rushed when others were waiting behind them, which meant they often skipped optional upgrades.  

To address this, the kiosks were moved to countertop positions in the lobby, away from the queues. This change created a more relaxed ordering experience. Although utilization dropped slightly, the average order value increased. The overall outcome was a positive shift, driven by insights from customer behavior data. 

While busy making sales, these systems can become live testing platforms for new menus and layouts to figure out what the optimal customer journey flow is. This is supported by real-time analytics support that actively promotes agile decision making, be it promotions, pricing, or planning.

4. Enhance customer experience for everyone

Kiosks open up customer experiences to new demographics and keep restaurants compliant with vital civil rights laws such as the Americans with Disabilities Act. 

For diners with allergies, specific preferences, social anxiety, or language barriers, these systems allow them to order at their own pace and tailor their order to suit them.

Customer control is put right in their hands with accessibility features, language options, and an intuitive UI. Kiosks use all these features to streamline purchasing items and reduce the top sources of guest frustration - long lines and clunky ordering procedures.

Kiosks offer an alternative to waiting in line to order, keeping customers moving and feeling engaged in the process rather than idly standing by. And as more consumers are choosing to dine in rather than opt for drive-thru or delivery, creating a seamless in-store experience has never been more important. Once an order is placed from a kiosk, customers receive an immediate confirmation and order number, giving them clear information about when to expect their order. 

Often, when given this information about wait times, customers are far more patient and willing to wait. The kiosks quickly become an extension of the brand and appeal to younger demographics by offering a familiar and preferred method of interaction.

Want to see how kiosks can transform your restaurant?

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5. Centralize control and scale easily across locations

Kiosks can be operated and updated from one central location, whether you have five or 500 outlets. Platforms such as Evoke Cloud allow operators to update menus and offer promotions, which are all brand safe, to multiple locations from one device.

No matter which franchised restaurant a customer walks into, they will experience a consistent brand experience and standardized interface, which reduces dwell time and speeds up orders.

This consistent brand experience is helped by the centralized nature of the self-service kiosks. By viewing everything from a central place operators can view diagnostics of individual units from one screen. 

Support requests can be sent by in-venue staff, and these minor fixes can be completed remotely, without having to call an engineer out and putting a kiosk out of action.

Cloud technology enables these minor fixes to happen and allows units to be integrated with existing EPOS, kitchen display screens, and loyalty platforms, creating one singular tech stack that prevents duplication of orders and the human error associated with manual entry.

As kiosks contribute positively to business growth, their usage can be scaled to meet rising demand and sales volumes. The unit’s minimal footprints and modular design mean they can be installed with little to no disruption to daily operations and can be rapidly integrated into the existing tech stack.

Evoke’s range of kiosks comes in various formats, with each one being suited to different spaces. 

Wall-mounted, freestanding, and dual-sided kiosks can maximise the existing restaurant space, helping to dictate customer flow during ordering. 

For franchises and companies which have opted for a growth model, kiosk deployment works with you thanks to its flexibility and efficiency.

6. Reduce the total cost of ownership over time

The far-reaching benefits of kiosks are proof of their ROI. Savings can be made through reduced hiring, and average order values increase thanks to on-brand prompts.

As customer adoption increases, the reduced wait times and faster table turnaround make kiosk investment an easy decision for restaurants.

Telemetry and kiosk health can be monitored by staff at any time of the day, with any small issues being detected before they escalate. Once spotted, remote support tools help to reduce the need for on-site visits to broken kiosks, and the modular hardware designs make part replacement faster and cheaper, keeping downtime to a minimum.

Speaking of reducing downtime, a kiosk screen can have new information added to it in minutes whereas traditional signage would need to be taken down and replaced, something that can take weeks. Costs associated with traditional signage  are removed immediately and replaced by an easy-to-update system.

7. Carry out digital transformation without large-scale disruption

Kiosks provide restaurants in a range of verticals the ability to meet customer expectations around a tech-centred experience without needing to completely renovate brick-and-mortar locations or overhaul existing operations..

Kiosks can help facilitate digital transformation for new venues looking to make an immediate impact and legacy restaurants wanting to improve existing processes.  Their levels of accessibility and multi-language models ensure all are welcome to dine with you. 

Evoke’s kiosks offer long-term platform flexibility across a range of EPOS and kitchen display screens and are compatible with Android, Windows, and other third-party systems. 

As more self-service kiosks appear in various industries, retail and hotels, for example, customers will gradually expect there to be a self-service portion of any business they visit, including restaurants. 

Add to that the flexible payment methods and consumer insights, and it's easy to see why kiosks are being used to cement restaurant growth.

Are self-ordering kiosks the missing piece in your restaurant?

As we’ve seen, the value of kiosks extends far beyond the ability to place an order. Their benefits spread far and wide, and, when installed by a partner that offers an end-to-end solution and thorough consultative services, they impact operations, marketing, tech, and profitability.

Evoke’s US team is ready to help you with the right support, planning, and integration. Our work in the US and internationally has shown that our kiosks deliver measurable ROI in months.

Whether you want to modernize your kiosk estate with new software or want a complete overhaul of your hardware, Evoke is ready to help you maximize the benefits of a self-ordering kiosk for your restaurant.

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