Technology

The Chicken Shack leans into self-service during digital overhaul

This restaurant chain was able to deploy self-order kiosks in a timely manner thanks to the seamless integration with existing software, positioning the company for continued growth.

Provided

June 24, 2021

The Chicken Shack, a 16-year old brand based in Las Vegas, recognized that although service self-service technology wasn't a staple when it first opened in 2005, it was time to lean into the technology and began testing kiosks six months ago.

"The customers love the kiosks," Nicholas Vitt, marketing director at The Chicken Shack, said in an email interview. "They are easy to use, they are fast, and they allow customers to earn rewards which is something we have never offered before. Kids also love them, so it is common to see a mother or father getting convinced to use them by their children and end up realizing how incredible it is."

Multiple benefits

The kiosks have improved order accuracy, customer wait times and average check spend.

Where checks are averaging $20 dollars on the physical POS, they average $24 the kiosks. "This is significant because the kiosks use no labor, increase the amount of money being spent, and reward the customers by giving them a loyalty account when they spend that $24," Vitt said.

"They improve order accuracy because customers place their orders themselves which are directly sent to the kitchen displays which means there are no paper tickets, no handwriting that people can't read, and no confusion between the cashier and the customer," he said. "Customer wait times are improved because there are more places to order and those orders are getting worked on immediately after they are paid.

"The old way was having 10 people standing in a line to get to a cashier, but kiosks allow us to have more cashiers for a lot cheaper price point which allows order placement to be quicker. The orders being instantly sent to the kitchen instead of having handwritten tickets being exchanged also improves ticket times and order fulfillment."

The kiosks, which do not accept cash, offer customers an alternative to the cash registers.

"This allows for the cashier to have less of a line and focus his efforts elsewhere," Vitt said.

"Customers also love having the option to use the kiosk when the cashier is busy with a long line," he said. "We felt this gave us the best of both worlds as far as customer service and automation. Customers wouldn't have to choose to use the new system, but most of the time they are greeted by a person, then walk up to the machine and place their order."

In addition, "Franchisees would come see the concept and instantly fall in love with it," he said.

The right ecosystem

The Chicken Shack selected 32-inch, floor-standing kiosks from Frank Mayer and Associates equipped with Grubbrr kiosk software after evaluating different options.

"We did evaluate some alternatives, but when we compared the Grubbrr ecosystem to any other competitor, there really was no comparison at all," Vitt said. "Grubbrr's integration of large, eye catching kiosks, kitchen display systems, point-of-sale, online ordering and drive-thru line buster tables all in the same ecosystem is second to none."

The solution has also proven scalable, which is important for a chain with 22 stores across five states (California, Nevada, Colorado, Oregon and Washington).

"I only had to create one menu, and Grubbrr can clone that same menu for any new franchisee," Vitt said. "This means that most of the leg work has already been done, and Grubbrr's technology easily fits into new franchisees' stores without much necessary support or follow up. Everything is the same in every store."

Seamless software integration

The kiosk software integrates with the rest of the restaurant ecosystem, making it easy for the staff to track how many orders are coming in for the different order types — kiosk, online and POS.

"Grubbrr has integrated with all the legacy systems," said Jeremy Brooks, Grubbrr chief marketing officer, in the interview. "This eliminates complicated integrations and, in most cases, due to our existing integrations, we can have any business live using Grubbrr kiosks and an entire ecosystem within 24 hours upon delivery."

The kiosks allow the cashier to allocate his or her time as they see fit, which improves their efficiency.

"Two separate groups of customers can now order easily without taking any of the cashier's time away," Brooks said. "This allows the cashier to be more of an all-around helping hand instead of being forced to stay at the register all day."

As much as 30% of The Chicken Shack's orders are now digital between the kiosks and online ordering.

Next integration: order delivery

The Chicken Shack is looking forward to integrating delivery into its ecosystem.

"This will allow us to stop using printed tickets from our delivery tablets," Vitt said. "This will encompass every aspect of our business, and we are excited to be able to track and measure this all-encompassing data using the Grubbrr backend."

The coronavirus pandemic has accelerated self-service adoption, noted Asa Moran, Frank Mayer and Associates Inc.'s sales rep who focuses on QSRs, in an email interview.

"Since the inception of the pandemic, it's become clearer to businesses that they cannot be passive in implementing such solutions," Moran said.

The kiosks are also gaining favor in light of the restaurant labor shortage.

"Our one-dollar-per-hour 'digital employee' doesn't need training, isn't a liability, works 24/7 while increasing revenues and providing a better experience to every customer," Brooks said.

While customers are more concerned nowadays about safety and sanitation, solution providers have not noticed a significant uptick in requests for touchless ordering systems.

"The market clearly understands that surfaces can be cleaned easily and touchless has not really gained a ton of interest as a result," Moran said.

Brooks agreed.

"We have not had high volumes of inquiries for touchless self-order kiosks," Brooks said. "The inquiries we have had we have provided two options, disposable stylists and a screen monitoring video solutions that don't require the consumer to physically touch the screen."

"The solutions you will see in the field are going to be commercial grade intended for 24/7 operation," Moran said.