Self serve kiosks are rapidly popping up in brick and mortar shops and can be a great asset in your cafe. A kiosk provides customer engagement and autonomy in making purchasing decisions. Since kiosks can be leveraged for a variety of purposes, having clear goals in mind is necessary to deliver the best possible experience for your customers. Here are three tips to help make the most out of your cafe’s self serve kiosk—enabling you to engage more customers and create more orders.
Appeal to the senses by utilizing your kiosk to create a visually engaging experience. The extra effort you invest to create a display that not only presents the necessary information, but does so in an enticing way, will draw customers attention and keep it. The human brain thrives on visual processing—90% of what is absorbed is visual information.
By including photos of your food and drink items, you can play into your customer’s visual processing and improve their ordering process. Studies show that 26% of customers prefer images of food and drink items as a reference point while in the decision making process. Even if you only choose to have a photo shoot with a few of your best sandwiches and juices, your customer can better understand your offerings.
Location, Location, Location
While a self serve kiosk can really boost the speed of service, it can also backfire if you’re not consciously thinking about its location in your cafe. You want your customers to be able to swoop in, grab what they need, and continue on their way, right? One mistake many cafes make providing convenience for some is doing so at the cost of others.
Regardless of who’s using it, you’ll need to ensure that all customers—and employees—benefit from your cafe’s self serve kiosk. Ideally, the kiosk is clearly identifiable from the entrance so that potential customers can identify their options—skip the line and help themselves or wait for service? The traffic inside your cafe should flow in harmony. Don’t make your customers that used the kiosk have to fight the tide of your counter service customers in order to get their items.
Stock Up
Your cafe’s self serve kiosk allows customers who are tight on time to skip the line and pick up their favorite items. You want them to know that they can rely on you for that perfectly prepared salad or a freshly squeezed orange juice at any time of the day. When you set up your kiosk and a la carte items, it’s important to make sure everything the kiosk offers is available.
Have employees keep an eye on the kiosk and stock levels throughout the day and make sure that any out of stocks are communicated clearly to reduce confusion. Consumers are embracing self serve technology now more than ever and you want to make sure you have the supply to meet that demand.
Kiosks drive new business and keep your busiest customers coming back for more. If you are thoughtful with your setup and customize the kiosk to meet the needs of your cafe you will have great success. Stay ahead of the curve by combining quality and convenience with a self serve kiosk.
Contributed by Lucy Gamble, Marketing Operations Analyst
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