Why restaurants are choosing custom self-ordering kiosks in 2024

Hi, guys! This is the dev.family team again. We believe that almost all of us have used the self-service kiosks at fast food restaurants such as McDonald's and KFC at least once while travelling. As a guest, you can benefit from many advantages offered by this solution: language switching, photo and description of the dish, quick purchase serving, etc. But as a business owner, you can get even more. Today we’ll discuss:

• What type of business needs self-service kiosks and what kind of tasks they solve?
• What are the benefits of custom kiosk software development and how much does it cost?
• How to integrate self-service kiosks into your business ecosystem to improve overall business process efficiency?

Self-order kiosks are suitable for offline businesses that want to set up a self-service process for customers in their restaurant, shop or petrol station. There is no need for any special skills to operate the device. There is no need for staff to set up the kiosk each time they want to take an order. Simply switch it on at the start of the working day and the system works automatically. All incoming payments and other data will be displayed in your POS system and the processing speed of each order will be increased by 40%.

In foodtech, self-service kiosks are most commonly used by:

• Restaurants with over 1000 seats;
• Chain restaurants with more than 500 employees;
• Shopping and entertainment centres with high footfall.

But, in fact, you can integrate this solution into any business process where you need to reach out to a wider audience, without having to increase the size of your staff. For example, kiosks can be used in the following areas:

• Petrol stations – they will replace cashiers and take orders for coffee and hot dogs for customers to pick up in the service area;
• Food festivals and amusement parks – visitors will be able to place their orders without having to queue and will arrive at the pick-up points at the specified times;
• Tourist сentres – guests can book excursions or pre-order dinner at a restaurant.

Why do you need self-service kiosks for your restaurant?

Just imagine such changes: you don't have a need to look for new employees and try to solve your turnover problem by hiring more students. Guests no longer have to queue at the cash desk to get their dinner, because they now have a choice. They can come to the kiosk, place their order in a few simple steps and pick it up quickly in the delivery area. Or guests can do it with the help of a cashier who can guide them to the right dish. What about kitchen staff? They will know how many orders they are currently working on and which ones have priority.

And don't forget the fact that loyalty programmes, additional sales and data collection will work for both formats. But we'll talk about that later. With kiosks in your store, you get rid of the chaos. Instead, you get peace of mind, customer confidence and increased profits.

Well, if we haven't convinced you yet, statistics will. And numbers, as we all know, don't lie:

On the outside, the kiosk looks like an ordinary touchscreen with a case to protect it from damage. What is much more interesting and expensive is what is hidden inside. We are talking about the software that contains the logic behind the operation of the entire kiosk.

As foodtech developers, we'll focus on the technical background and present you with two options for integrating kiosks into your business – using a packaged solution or developing your own.

To make the right choice, you need to answer: «What is your priority?»

Packaged solutions are for businesses that need kiosks as a quick fix. They work like an anesthetic – they help you get rid of queues and free up your staff, but they do not get deep into the logic of your business processes. The basic functionality of a packaged kiosk consists of:

The basic functionality of a packaged kiosk consists of:

• Categorised product or service menu;
• Contactless and cash payment acceptance;
• Issue checks with order number.

Packaged solutions for self-service kiosk integration are available from many providers, where you can purchase either the full software or a temporary license to use it. It's a very comfortable choice. However, this format is only suitable for companies that want to work on the flow and don't plan to grow in the next few years. Unfortunately, this is common to all SaaS products – they can be a great solution in the moment, but due to infrequent updates they quickly become outdated, both morally and technically.

Changing the functionality of the packaged solution is problematic. You'll be very lucky, if the provider agrees to add a new feature, but only at very high cost, as it would require them to rebuild the architecture of the entire project. Designing the menu itself to make the restaurant brand more recognisable isn't going to work either. You will only be able to use standard interface elements and only change the colour and other basic components if you are working on a packaged solution.

We see how fast the foodtech industry is growing. Therefore, only the fastest and most competitive solutions will win the race. That's why restaurants are increasingly turning to developing customized self-serve kiosks that give businesses more options:

Any task or business process can be part of the logic of your self-service kiosk. That is why dev.family managers clarify all details and peculiarities of your restaurant's operation when dealing with such requests, and offer solutions that can be scaled in the future.

Cost of a customized self-service kiosk. Many restaurants start with basic functionality and add new features and options over time. Software development, UI/UX design and QA will cost from $15,000 and the launch will take from one month. The process becomes more complex and time-consuming as you add more features. A customized solution allows you to test more hypotheses about guest service quality and tailor the kiosk operation to your business needs.

One solution for all points of sale. The cost of development does not depend on the number of screens on which the programme will run. You can increase sales by investing only in the screens themselves. And any changes to functionality are automatically reflected across all kiosks at once.

What technologies do we use. To be honest, kiosks work well with all of the available front-end and back-end libraries and frameworks. Some developers opt for the conservatism of HTML and CSS. But we at dev.family use Node.Js for the software itself, create the interface in React and package them into a desktop application using Electron.js. The result is an efficient programme with clear logic and high speed to operate, allowing managers to follow and display any changes made in real time. For example, if the kitchen is out of tomatoes, all dishes containing that ingredient are automatically removed from the kiosks' menu.

This approach gives us the freedom to work in depth with all the functionality of the kiosks, from the characteristics of the computer to the ability to connect other devices and systems to it.

Self-service kiosks will not be effective if you use them as a separate point of sale. They should be part of your business infrastructure.

There are different levels of kiosk integration. The most seamless option is to connect it to your restaurant's POS system. It allows you to synchronise almost all processes, from accepting payment and displaying it on the kiosk menu, to transferring the order details directly to the kitchen.

In this way, you can synchronise almost all the processes involved in order management, from accepting payment and displaying it on the kiosk menu to transferring the quantity and composition of dishes directly to the kitchen.

Give your guests more choice and convenience with multiple payment options: kiosks support ApplePay and GooglePay payments, QR code scanning for e-wallet use, and even biometric integration for Face ID payments.

• Integrate a photo or video camera into the case – visitors will take selfies with digital food samples or branded masks, creating UGC content and increasing your restaurant's visibility;
• Add wi-fi hotspots – guests will connect to your network and provide you with more data for in-depth marketing analysis;
• Install a barcode scanner – the kiosk transmits information about the customer's order to the loyalty programme and activates bonuses and promotions by scanning codes on flyers;
• Use AI speech technology with voice assistant functionality – the number of mistakes made when ordering will be reduced, and the menu of a restaurant or a shop will be made more accessible to people with disabilities;
• Place Bluetooth beacons – the kiosk will be able to connect to nearby devices, send special offers to potential customers and receive order details from existing visitors.

This type of integration is only available for the development of a custom self-service kiosk.

Our answer might be: if you don't try, you don't know. But you can also use Unit Economics to help you make this decision:

Below you'll find answers to some of the most frequently asked questions we receive from clients looking to develop customised Self-Service Kiosks:

Q: How can a kiosk be designed?
A: In any way you want. The design, styling and navigation of the user interface will follow the latest UI/UX trends without any restrictions.

Q: Can a self-service kiosk operate offline?
A: The kiosk can run autonomously without an Internet connection. However, it does need to be connected to your local network when taking orders so that information about the order arrives in your system in time.

Q: If the internet goes down, how will the kiosk data be updated?
A: In this case, we suggest a solution where the data exchange takes place either via the local network or at the moment of reconnection..

Q: How often do I need to update the software that runs the kiosk?
A: It depends on your goals. If you are completely satisfied with the data transmission speed and functionality of your kiosk, you may not need to upgrade. However, time passes and we recommend that you upgrade the system every few years.