Pro-Touch

Self-Service Kiosks Launched In McDonald?s UK

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The fast food industry is one of the quick service sectors to gain the most from deploying kiosk systems; to reduce waiting times and put the power in the consumer’s hands. Restaurant and take-away firms such as Subway, McDonald’s, Burger King and KFC would benefit immensely from installing touch screen units that would enable the customer to place and pay for their own order via the interface. Until now, kiosks haven’t really taken off in the UK as much as it has in America or other parts of Europe; that is in the fast food industry. A consumer could only order their chicken nuggets and happy meal deal from self-service kiosks in McDonald’s if they lived in France, where the concept was initially launched. However, now McDonald’s UK is embracing the technology. The fast food giant is employing 7,000 touch screen terminals and swipe cards across its European outlets. Steve Easterbrook, President of McDonald’s Europe, said the changes will make life easier for consumers as well as improves efficiency. He expects average transaction times for its two million daily customers will shorten three to four seconds. The technology aids to harness more information on customer’s ordering and dining habits as well as enable customers to pay simply by swiping a debit card; making the company the first fast food chain to introduce contactless payments. In 1200 of the UK locations, staff will also be hired to take additional orders from customers via handheld terminals.

Benefits of touch screen technology in fast-food restaurants include;

– Control of ordering process leads to better accuracy

– Single point of administration and reporting, hassle-free.

– Management costs are low, integration is easier than ever.

– New product placement exposes variety of menu and increases sales.