Innovative Order Takers
When a major wholesale retailer’s food court had wait times longer than they—or their customers—wanted, we helped speed things up.
Having too many customers is a good problem to have. But when a national wholesale retailer couldn’t serve hungry people fast enough, they called on us.
It wasn’t only happening at one location. It was happening all over the U.S. Wait times were becoming longer, and as employees rushed to fulfill orders, the risk of food contamination became riskier.
Because the HAT Design Works team believes solving a problem starts by understanding it, we visited multiple store locations and observed the problem firsthand. Sure enough, people were getting in line faster than people were getting out.
After seeing this complex challenge, we provided a simple solution. The retailer would deploy pole-mounted, self-service kiosks (at least one being ADA-compliant) and maximize space by mounting two screens back-to-back on each pole. The idea was that by adding more ordering kiosks, lines would get shorter and members get their food faster. This process would also eliminate the possibility of cross contamination. Sure enough, it worked.
In the pilot program, the self-service kiosks were a huge hit. And today there are about 1,500 mounts across 800 stores nationwide. In fact, the program has been so successful, some stores have already transitioned to 100% self-service kiosk— and food sales continue to grow.