Let’s advance self-ordering kiosks

In a recent article, health-food retailer Oliver’s Real Food decided to continue the technology trend and implement new self-ordering and payment kiosks in-store.

This isn’t new; Kmart, Coles and McDonalds (amongst others) have all had these for a while. What makes Olivers’ interesting is the collection of data. While they don’t give much away, they describe an “OliVerse” technology engine which works to create a greater customer experience. What caught my attention though was the mention of customer recommendations based on dietary needs (i.e. Vegetarian, gluten free, etc.).

This really got me thinking, so I did some asking around. If we stick to takeaway food companies (excluding Coles, Woolies, etc.), no one had mentioned that places like McDonalds had any options that suggested recommendations to go with what they’d already selected on their self-serve kiosks. No “you might also like” or “frequently bought together”.

Why don’t companies do this? Further, facial recognition is no longer technology of the future, and businesses are always collecting data on customers unknowingly. What if we took it further and used facial recognition to create our own “account” of sorts used for making ordering at self-serve kiosks quicker, more tailored to our needs, and potentially even pay using our faces?

I think this is something that companies could definitely tap into… let me know if you have any other suggestions to further enhance the customer experience at self-ordering kiosks.

Figure 1: My idea of what this technology could look like