What Makes Self-Serve Ordering In Restaurants Convenient?
With the kickstart of the restaurant in 1765 by Mathurin Roze de Chantoiseau, the concept opened a whole new world of the food service industry.
Adopted from the French verb “restaurer” (to refresh oneself), restaurants are extremely popular among the public due to their unique menus and flavors offered. However, as time passed, the ideas of restaurants kept fluctuating to provide quality customer experience.
However, in the case of traditional restaurants, there are several loopholes. Long queues, long waiting periods, and miscommunications leave the customers unsatisfied.
You can avoid them with the integration of the self-service concept to streamline the productivity of your restaurant. Also, learn about How Restaurants Can Optimize Packaging for Food Delivery by reading this article.
Wondering how to do so? Stick till the end to figure out the answers. So, let’s get started!
Understanding the Concept of Self-Service Restaurants
Also known as a buffet, self-service restaurants come in numerous forms such as cafés, and kiosks. It is a technology-driven system in which the customers are supposed to:
- Order on their own
- Serve themselves
- Pay before dining
The concept of self-service restaurants is now a major concept that has been shaping the food service industry on a whole new level. Numerous technologies have been introduced to make it convenient for customers to choose their menu items.
One such technology is the kiosk, which consists of a touchscreen (mostly a tablet) that is equipped with a user-friendly interface. This guides them through picking from the menu options, pickup points, and payment options.
While ordering the meals, you can also see display prompts with the kinds of offers and promotions that you can avail of.
Thus, self-service restaurants have enhanced the convenience and efficiency of the ordering process. Overall, it has made it a more customer-centric establishment.
DID YOU KNOW?
The quick-service restaurants have had an average of 35% increase in their sales due to their quick and efficient services!
Benefits of Self-Service Restaurants
Although the traditional idea of a restaurant has been around for quite a while now, there’s been a gradual shift to the concept of self-service.
Opting for a self-service restaurant is a rather fun option to go for since it provides you with all the unique set of benefits that the traditional ones do not.
Learn about their out-of-the-box features, which make them user-friendly and customer-centric in nature. Some have been listed below for you:
Better Remote Management
With the help of the POS systems (point-of-sale) linked to self-service kiosks over the Internet is of major help. These are high-end technology portals that enable your restaurants to manage them efficiently regardless of their location and time.
This helps in the seamless management since the restaurant self-service kiosk does much more than just take orders. It also supports inventory management and price regulation.
With its help, you can also monitor the customer’s eating habits, patterns, and information through the loyalty schemes.
All this information can be of great help to the restaurant administration since it helps them in making business strategies according to the compiled data.
Better Order Accuracy
It has often been observed that the orders get mixed up due to the countless orders since the waiters tend to note them down manually. This could lead to errors and also consume a lot of time.
However, this doesn’t happen in the case of kiosks, as they present you with a visual menu that helps in avoiding miscommunication. It ensures that the consumers are understanding what they are ordering to prevent any sort of dissatisfaction later on.
Order accuracy is essential for every restaurant to run well in the market and also earn profits. It also helps in cutting down the wastage of the ingredients that were used to prepare the incorrect orders.
Apart from that, you also do not have to deal with upset customers or negative feedback. Thus, focusing on enhancing customer service is crucial for them to enjoy the overall experience.
Reduced Waiting Period
Now imagine yourself standing and waiting for your turn to order in a long queue. Sounds exhausting, doesn’t it?
According to a survey conducted by Tillster, 75% of customers prefer to order from a self-service kiosk over waiting in a queue of more than 5 people. And how about a line of about 10 people? Then a whopping 91% of them would prefer a kiosk than waiting!
This proves how efficient the self-ordering kiosks are since they reduce the waiting time of the customers and allow them to customize their orders according to their preferences.
All they have to do now is order without having to wait in a long line and pay, just a matter of a few taps. And there you go! You can pick up your order from the pickup counter.
DID YOU KNOW?
With the help of self-service restaurants, the total order time has been reduced by a whopping 40%!
Reduced Staffing Costs and Effective Management
Normally, hiring staff costs a large amount to have helping hands and productivity within the restaurant. If the business isn’t flourishing, then it’s a loss of investment due to low earnings and paying the staff.
With the introduction of self-service kiosks, you can address the issues related to productivity as well as the efficiency of the workers. So, they can now focus on preparing the orders and their goals to drive the sales and customer experience higher.
It also increases the hiring procedure, since not many staff members will be required on-site to do the manual work of taking orders. This saves on the overall labor costs and achieves the best results in financial terms!
Apart from that, you can also save on the costs of the employee recruitment process and keep the management of the workforce and financial resources at peak.
Wrapping Up
As the world advances, the food service industry has adopted and evolved for maximum efficiency.
Be it in the technological aspects or for achieving maximum customer satisfaction, the introduction of the concept of self-service has been a hit.
There are several advantages of having the self-serve policy as it saves on labor costs, reduces the waiting period, and also customizes your menu as per your convenience!
With the benefits of having self-service restaurants, you can have a flourishing restaurant and loyal customers due to the satisfactory services.
