Fast Food Ordering Kiosks

Printer-friendly version

KFC has decided to completely customise its kiosks to offer its customers an original concept in fast food – ‘Speed Attitude.’ Developed with Acrelec, and situated at the entrance of the restaurant, the Speed Attitude kiosks allow customers to place their order in a few seconds by means of an intuitive and user-friendly touch screen interface, pay by bank card, and pick up their meal immediately at a dedicated counter. Following initial testing in a restaurant in Paris, KFC is planning to extend this technology to the majority of its establishments in France.
 
“Acrelec’s support, experience and responsiveness to this type of project have enabled us to move forward very quickly with complete confidence”, said Christophe Poirier, Marketing Director for KFC France. “By installing these kiosks, our objective was to provide faster service and to enhance circulation in the restaurant".
 
The aim of the project is to give customers control of the ordering process and then provide the fastest possible service. The customer chooses his or her meal on a touch screen and pays for it by bank card at the kiosk. The order is then immediately transmitted to the kitchen for preparation and is ready when the customer arrives at the dedicated collection counter. Employees only have to take care of assembly operations, thereby increasing speed of service and quality.
 
Pierre Delaunay, Marketing Manager for Acrelec: “Kiosks are perfectly suited to points of sale that have busy rush periods. They allow customers to order in a more relaxed manner and avoid waiting in queues. They also reduce the number of customers who walk away perceiving a restaurant to be too busy “
 
To ensure the project’s success, KFC’s operating procedures – preparation, service method, and organisation of teams behind the counter – had to be re-thought. Employees also received specific training because of the change in the organisation of cash register service and customer relations management.
 
For example, in one of the main KFCs in Paris, an order is placed in under three minutes, waiting areas are less crowded, there are more customers, and the employees are more available to focus on service. Welcome hosts have been dedicated to assist customers in learning about the new technology. A survey by KFC in collaboration with Market Audit showed that, among a sample of 500 clients, 75% of the people thought that this technology offered a real advantage to the consumer. According to one kiosk user: “You feel that the service is faster, you have more freedom in making your choice and you don’t feel like you are being judged. I chose a dessert because the picture really made me hungry!”
 
The kiosks now represent 35% of the transactions per hour at peak periods, and Speed Attitude orders account for between 12% and 20% of the restaurant’s daily sales.
 
Perfectly integrated into the KFC EPOS systems, the kiosk software is automatically updated from the restaurant’s database. For example, if a KFC product is out of stock, a simple EPOS system operation will make it possible to present this product as ‘unavailable’ on the kiosk in real time. A variety of different options can be programmed into the kiosk, such as the choice of language, the establishment of a loyalty programme thanks to an integrated scanner, or table service for families. The equipment is designed to stand up to the difficult conditions found in restaurants, such as heat, grease, impacts, etc.
 
KFC’s is expanding Acrelec’s kiosk solution to other restaurants in France, where it has 72 outlets and the deployment of kiosks will continue in all new restaurant openings. In the rest of Europe, the first Speed Attitude kiosks appeared in the United Kingdom in late 2008.
 
According to Céline Davidian, IT Director for KFC France: “two reasons explain our decision to develop our offer with Acrelec. Firstly, their technical and technological expertise has been recognised for many years. And also, their understanding of the operational needs of the quick-service industry has enabled Acrelec to shed new light and to work collaboratively.”In the first restaurant equipped in2007, it took less than two months to develop, install and run up the terminals. M. Davidian is very pleased with “a technically successful operation.”
 
Acrelec is the leader in its market, and currently installs and maintains a hardware pool of 3,000 restaurants in 28 countries throughout the world, for brands including McDonald’s, Quick, Subway, and, of course, KFC.