Fast food chains are getting you to order more food — and you probably don’t even realize it.
Major chains in the US are adding more digital order kiosks to their restaurants, and ultimately bringing in more money.
While kiosks might provide ease for the customer, they also tend to get customers to spend more than they would otherwise.
In fact, Shake Shack CEO Randy Garutti told investors in February that people who ordered at kiosks rather than at cashiers spent nearly 10% more on average, according to Business Insider.
Kiosks encourage the customer to add drinks or sides, implement customizations at a cost and switch to a larger meal portion. They also are capable of promoting menu items based on the time of day, season, and weather — such as iced drinks in the summer.
Digital order kiosks would “100% of the time try to upsell you to a larger item or ask you if you want to add on french fries or chips and guacamole,” while cashiers may not do so “because there’s a bunch of people trying to get through the line as quickly as possible,” Andy Barish, an analyst at Jefferies, told Business Insider.
Without the rush of getting people to quickly order, customers have the time to browse the menu and all their customization options. Some kiosks even allow you to scan your loyalty app for points, which allows the digital system to pull data and offer personalized recommendations.
Major fast food chains are planning major digital kiosk expansions thanks to the “tremendous results,” Josh Kobza, CEO of Burger King’s parent company Restaurant Brands International, told investors in November.
More than half of BK’s non-US locations already have kiosks implemented, and Kobza said the brand plans to keep installing them until the business is “100% digital.”
Shake Shack also has kiosks in “nearly all” of its US company-operated restaurants, and they make up “well over” half of the in-restaurant orders of those locations, CFO Katie Fogertey told investors in November.
Fogertey also told investors last August that the kiosks are Shake Shack’s “most profitable channel.”
Taco Bell, KFC and Pizza Hut — all under the Yum! Brands umbrella — are also putting a focus on digital order kiosks.
