If You Are Using an App or Kiosk to Order, You’re Likely Buying More
Are you seeing more and more self-service checkouts? From Wal-Mart to McDonald’s, self checking is growing at an accelerated rate. McDonald’s says they are giving customers more “control over their orders.”
You may think the shift is to reduce employees, but there is a more important reason. According to an article in the Harvard Business Review by Gretchen Gavett, companies are finding when customers use self-service apps and kiosks, they spend more money. Taco Bell says that their new digital app finds people are spending 20% more than orders taken by a human.
Some studies believe that the self-service option removes the social friction at the checkout—people not able to pronounce item names or if the person feels they appear unsophisticated in front of store clerks they will avoid the situation. There is also the problem of negative judgment on eating habits at restaurants that a kiosk eliminates. Not surprising, people who order from kiosks tend to order higher caloric options.
The best news for companies is that kiosks, unlike humans, never forget to up-sell. That is a huge advantage to the bottom line. The problem is that it becomes increasingly hard to establish relationships and show how your organization adds value.
It didn’t seem that hard for me to order at a kiosk at the McDonald’s in Galena, Illinois, but my connection with the organization was also reduced—yet my Egg McMuffin was just as tasty.
The other thing I noticed at my McDonald’s stop was how important video is now to the experience. The order wall was full of movement and video, the kiosk had video and there were TVs in the dining area. Video all around.
Mark Mathis
Mark wrote his first direct-mail fundraising letter in 1981 for the University of Iowa Center for Advancement. The effort raised a few million dollars in undiscovered wills and legacy gifts. From that day forward Mark discovered a love of the big idea that moves the needle. After 12 years at KWWL, Mark became a business owner as a co-founder of ME&V — rebranded as AMPERAGE in 2015. After 25 years of leading creative teams in video production, graphic design, PR, writing and web development, Mark transitioned out of ownership in 2021. Today he serves in an employee role as special projects consultant. He is creatively ambidextrous — son of an artist and engineer — and famous for distilling complex ideas down to a few words and a few visuals. Mark is a writer. When he found that many nonprofits struggled with complex branding puzzles, he wrote the book, “NonProfit-NonMarketing .” He also wrote a novel called “Reenactment.” Mark is an active blogger OneMinuteMarketer® with nearly 1,000 readers each week on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter. One of his most popular YouTube videos is on “How to Look Good on Zoom.” One of Mark’s fondest business memories was being named to INC 500 two times and attending the INC 500 conference with other winners. Mark is considered by some a Civil War expert (and that explains his novel). Mark also served as an adjunct professor in the business and in the communications departments at Wartburg College. Mark is a graduate of the University of Iowa and is currently vice president of the University of Iowa Journalism and Mass Communications Advisory Board. Mark is married to state Sen. Liz Mathis, and the two love to travel, even when it means being trapped by a volcano in the Czech Republic for three weeks.
