Both retail shops and restaurants are going through something of a renaissance. Economic pressures, labor shortages, and shifting customer attitudes are altering the way people want to shop and dine. In light of this changing market, more businesses are embracing new ideas they might not have considered before, including self-service options.
If you’re on the fence about adding self-service tools to your own business, it’s good to understand the advantages of self-service technology. We’ll explore what self-service means for the food and retail space as well as the five major benefits of self-service.
Self-service is a type of technology that leads to an improved customer experience without human intervention.
For retail businesses, self-service can look like customers:
Paying for a purchase with a self-checkout lane
Checking in for a personal stylist or fitting appointment.
Applying coupons or discounts while checking out via a kiosk tablet
Checking a self-help portal or knowledge base from a company’s website
For restaurants, self-service setups often include adding a kiosk at the front of the restaurant where diners can order meals to-go. There’s no need to wait for a cashier: diners simply place their order, wait, and pick it up at the counter when it’s ready.
In practice, this means self-service can include kiosks, apps, or self-service portals. At its core, the purpose of self-service is to empower your customers and make employees’ jobs a little easier. There are so many benefits of self-service, but many businesses invest in them to save time, boost sales, and increase accuracy.
Self-service solutions are becoming more popular in the United States. The self-service kiosk market alone is projected to be worth $21.42 billion by 2027, which is nearly double its size from 2020. This increasing demand shows that businesses are seeing the value of self-service firsthand — and they want in.
If it’s time to streamline your retail shop or restaurant, switch to a self-service model to see these five benefits.
As of March 2022, there was a record high of over 11.5 million open jobs in the United States. With quit rates around 4.5%, hospitality and retail businesses are struggling to hire and retain enough employees to keep their doors open.
Fortunately, one of the biggest benefits of self-service is its ability to help brands navigate staffing problems. Self-service kiosks eliminate a lot of work for employees, which means businesses can often get by with a leaner staff.
Self-service checkouts work because they take transactional responsibilities, like checking out and answering questions, away from employees and automate them. This isn’t a replacement for employees, but it can eliminate nagging tasks that a machine can easily perform without hurting the customer or employee experience. This way, staff can focus on more value-added human interactions, like assisting customers in the dressing room or promptly refilling drinks.
Plus, operating with a leaner staff can also reduce your support costs, so self-service isa great way to solve staffing issues and save money.
Whether it’s a line to place a food order or a line to buy clothes, your customer base hates waiting. Although self-service can come with a learning curve, 49.4% of retail shoppers use options like kiosks because they think they’re faster. In fact, 30% of shoppers will always opt for kiosks when it’s time to pay or place an order.
Self-service options are ideal for crowded restaurants where it’s difficult to flag down a server or busy shops with one retail associate. Since shoppers and diners can handle a large part of the transaction without an employee’s help, your support team can focus on running orders or packaging goods to speed things up.
Sixty-five percent of diners are more willing to visit a restaurant with self-service kiosks, so offering self-ordering options can significantly increase traffic to your restaurant.
While customers love the convenience of self-service, it can also increase ticket sizes with automatic upsells and cross-sells. Restaurants report ticket sizes increasing as much as 20% for customers who order through a kiosk.
With the right POS software, like Square, you can consistently promote other products to every customer. Instead of training employees to upsell for you, the software takes care of everything automatically, every time.
For restaurants, that might mean cross-promoting beverages, desserts, or meal combos to increase ticket sizes. In retail, that might mean upselling shoppers on related accessories or value packs for their purchase. This is one of the many benefits of self-service for your bottom line, especially if you’re operating with a skeleton crew.
Mistakes happen, regardless of how well-trained your servers, associates, or cashiers are. This can result in the customer not receiving what they asked for, creating a poor experience — and increasing your costs.
If you want orders to go out correctly every time, embrace self-service tools. Self-service gives customers complete control over their orders and makes personalization possible. There’s no need to translate what they want to a cashier; customers plug their order directly into the POS. Since everything is in writing, it’s much more likely that shoppers and diners will get exactly what they asked for.
With a smaller margin for human error, self-service options improve the employee experience, too. Fewer customer complaints and corrections mean employees can focus on more value-added tasks without distraction.
Self-service options help you to digitize the customer experience. This allows employees to focus on value-added tasks while customers enjoy an omnichannel experience assisted by technology.
For retail, you can digitize the customer experience through an app or website with chatbots. If retail associates are busy (or shoppers don’t feel comfortable interacting with associates), they can get help in real-time from a chatbot while they’re in the store.
For restaurants, self-service systems can help you digitize your menu. This allows you to create a flexible, personalized ordering experience that empowers diners to order exactly what they want while freeing up your front-of-house staff.
Digitization also makes automation possible. You can say goodbye to punch cards and connect your shopper or diner loyalty program to your self-checkout system.
And if you link your customer relationship management (CRM) tool to your self-service systems, you can automatically market to customers via email, social media, and other platforms. This creates a truly omnichannel experience that continues the conversation with customers well after their in-store visit.
Technology is changing how stores and restaurants do business. Implementing a self-service strategy is one of the best ways to integrate hassle-free ordering options into your business. There are so many benefits of self-service, including:
Addressing labor shortages
Improving wait times
Increasing sales
Bolstering order accuracy
Digitizing the customer experience
Fortunately, it’s easy to implement self-service kiosks in your business. Tools like KioskBuddy minimize the growing pains and help businesses in food and retail make the most of self-ordering technology. Download KioskBuddy now to streamline your business with the power of self-service.