According to a recent study, restaurant customers who order from self-service kiosks often feel rushed when there's a line forming behind them, leading to hurried decisions and a tendency to stick to familiar menu items rather than trying something new. This revelation highlights a significant drawback of the self-service system that many eateries have recently adopted.

Single Line Approach Could Alleviate Customer Pressure

Our findings indicate that businesses can reduce the pressure felt by customers and enhance their overall satisfaction by revamping their ordering system. One effective solution is to have a single line of waiting customers lead to multiple kiosks, rather than each kiosk having its own dedicated line. This approach ensures that customers feel less responsible for holding up the line, thereby providing them with a more relaxed ordering experience.

Experts in Food and Beverage Marketing Weigh In

As experts in food and beverage marketing with a focus on self-service technology, we have observed a rising trend among restaurants to implement automated processes. This trend aims to streamline ordering and address staffing shortages, ultimately placing more control in the hands of customers. However, an unintended consequence of this shift is the added pressure customers feel to expedite their orders, resulting in less thoughtful choices and lower spending.

Three Experiments Highlight Customer Behavior

To delve deeper into this issue, we conducted three experiments involving hundreds of participants. These experiments required participants to imagine waiting in line at a restaurant in different scenarios. The results confirmed that the presence of a queue led most people to feel pressured to order quickly. This pressure resulted in hastier decisions and reduced overall spending.

Mitigating the Pressure: Two Effective Solutions

The experiments revealed two potential strategies for mitigating this pressure. Firstly, creating a single line that serves multiple kiosks can distribute the waiting time more evenly and reduce individual stress. Secondly, displaying a pop-up message on the kiosk interface, assuring customers that the business takes full responsibility for any service delays, can also alleviate the perceived need to rush.

Implications for Effective Self-Service Design

Our research highlights the social dynamics at play in self-service ordering systems and offers valuable insights for designing a more effective and customer-friendly process. It alerts restaurant owners to the potential unintended consequences associated with the transition to automated technology and underscores the importance of thoughtful system redesigns to enhance customer experience and satisfaction.

The findings of this study suggest that while self-service kiosks can address certain operational challenges, they must be implemented in a way that considers the psychological and social dynamics of the customer experience. By doing so, restaurants can better navigate the complexities of automated ordering systems and ultimately drive more thoughtful purchases and higher customer satisfaction.