How Digital Kiosks Are Saving Understaffed Restaurants

More restaurants are turning to digital kiosks to overcome their staffing shortages. The demand for digital kiosks have been booming since the labor shortage. Since record numbers of people are quitting their jobs in search of better salaries, benefits, and working circumstances. Restaurants have been particularly affected, and it's hitting their ROI. Restaurants have been boosting wages to entice more staff, cutting their hours, and closing their dining rooms — all of which are costing them a ton of money. Restaurant owners say workers are overworked and service is getting slower. So really there's only one answer to the labor shortage, and that's digital kiosks. Digital kiosks are large touch-screen devices where guests can order and pay without needing assistance from workers. Digital kiosks have two key advantages for short-staffed restaurants: they guarantee restaurants are able to take orders and open their doors, and they're cheaper than hiring cashiers as wages rise in the trade. Patrons place bigger orders at digital kiosks What we have seen is that customers tend to spend between 12% and 22% more when ordering at digital kiosks. This is mostly due to personalization. Digital kiosks are able to mention add-ons to customers based on what they're ordering, like adding avocado to a burger or ordering a soda too. Patrons can also scan their loyalty cards to access personalized recommendations or see their latest and favorite orders. Digital display kiosks can also promote menu items based on the time of day, the season, and the weather, too. So listing ice cream higher up on the menu on sunny days makes perfect sense. We are seeing that diners are more likely to place larger orders and add more replacements when they order digitally because they can hide their awkwardness from servers. Kiosks also show images of the items as patrons scroll through the menus, which makes them more likely to order them.