From global franchises like McDonald’s and Burger King to smaller family-owned establishments, countless fast food restaurants now allow customers to place orders using a touchscreen interface. It’s become an increasingly popular trend that’s sweeping throughout the fast food industry. In fact, you’ve probably seen — or even used — one of the touchscreen panels before, especially if you’re a frequent eater of fast food. So, what are fast food restaurants so easier to use touchscreen panels in their business?
Fewer Cashiers Needed
With a touchscreen ordering panel, fast fast restaurants need fewer employees to handle transactions at the cash registers. One of the biggest expenses associated with this type of business is payroll. Fast food restaurants must pay for cooks, cashiers, managers and other personnel. By investing in touchscreen ordering panels, however, restaurants can operate with fewer cashiers on their payroll, thereby allowing them to reduce their operational expenses and, subsequently, increase their profits. This is just one of many benefits of using touchscreen ordering panels in fast food restaurants.
Bigger Orders
Will touchscreen panels result in bigger orders for fast food restaurants? Quite possibly. According to a study conducted by 2017, shoppers spent more money when purchasing products using a touchscreen device than a desktop computer. Although this study didn’t specifically involve fast food customers, it still attests to the sales-triggering power of touchscreen interfaces. Whether or not fast food restaurants will experience the same results remains to be seen. However, other studies have shown that customers buy more products and spend more money when ordering on touchscreen interfaces.
Fewer Errors
It’s also worth nothing that fewer errors will occur when using touchscreen panels to accept orders than human cashiers. Human cashiers aren’t expected to go away anytime soon. They offer an invaluable element of personal customer service that’s not found in touchscreen or other self-ordering interfaces. Nonetheless, there’s a greater risk of error when a human cashier accepts a customer’s order. The cashier may misunderstand the customer, or the cashier may enter the wrong food or beverage. Either way, this results in the customer receiving the wrong order, thus forcing the restaurant to correct his or her order.
Increased Customer Satisfaction
Finally, touchscreen ordering panels can have a positive impact on customer satisfaction in the fast food industry. Numerous studies have shown that touchscreen interfaces improve user satisfaction — and touchscreen ordering panels are no exception. For these reasons and others, countless fast food restaurants are now using touchscreen panels to accept customers’ orders.
