3 Impacts that Self Ordering Kiosks Have on F&B Businesses

Self ordering kiosks are increasingly popular among F&B businesses not only in Singapore but also around the world. Since self ordering kiosks gained popularity in Singapore’s F&B scene, customer experience has changed. In this article, we look at how self ordering kiosks bridged the gap between customers and F&B businesses, how F&B businesses have benefitted from adopting self ordering kiosks and discuss how self ordering kiosks affect employment in F&B businesses.

How have Self Ordering Kiosks bridged the gap between customers & F&B businesses

Singaporean consumers have gotten used to the convenience of ordering from a self ordering kiosk without having to speak to staff. So much so that whenever there is self ordering kiosk at an F&B outlet, most consumers will choose to place orders at the kiosks rather than through service staff.

In fact, a survey conducted by the National Restaurant Association and Technomic Inc. showed that consumers are becoming increasingly comfortable ordering through a self ordering kiosk as more customers now prefer to order from a kiosk versus a cashier if the lines were of equal length.

This is due to the fact that ordering from kiosks provides visual depictions of each of menu item helping them better understand what they are ordering. Moreover, a shift in consumer behaviour sees that consumers nowadays prefer not interacting with staff when placing an order.

Hence, self ordering kiosks are the perfect solution for bridging the gap between F&B businesses and customers to provide customers with a better understanding of the menu and a more comfortable ordering experience for customers.

How F&B businesses have benefitted from adopting self ordering kiosks

It is a popularly known fact that self ordering kiosks have helped F&B businesses reduce reliance on manpower to take orders, thus saving manpower costs, but there are other less commonly known benefits as well such as:

• Increasing average bill sizes through automating upselling and add-on suggestions. By automating add-on suggestions to upsell to your customers, bill sizes are not dependent on the service level of individual service staff, but rather, standardised through a self ordering kiosk that upsells to every customer. 
• A self ordering kiosk, especially a sleek one, can add to your F&B outlet’s decor, giving your customers a comfortable environment to dine in.
• Self ordering kiosks when not in use, can be used to display banners of your F&B business’s latest promotions and dishes to attract the attention of consumers passing by your outlet.

How self ordering kiosks affect F&B employment?

Many have raised concerns about self ordering kiosks replacing F&B service staff creating less job security at F&B outlets that decide to go digital. This is a legitimate concern among employees due to the fear of being replaced by the self ordering kiosks as there is no need for staff to take orders manually. 

However, existing staff do not need to be substituted for self ordering kiosks. Instead, they can be reassigned to meaningful roles such as helping out in back-of-house operations, interacting with customers through providing table service (for example McDonald’s table service), or interacting with customers to gather feedback and boost constructive customer interaction.

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