Are Voice-Enabled Kiosks the Next Big Thing for Hotels and Restaurants?

Since cities around the world started grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic, growing concerns for health and safety and the public’s heightened vigilance for hand sanitizing have fueled consumer demand for touchless experiences in even more restaurants and hotels.

If you’re a hotelier or quick service restaurant owner and you haven’t yet adopted a voice-first strategy, here are 5 top reasons you should consider adding voice-enabled kiosks or menu boards to all your properties and locations:

Benefits of voice-enabled kiosks for restaurants

1. Customers want faster service

Fast, accurate, and convenient are words that describe the kinds of experiences today’s travelers and quick service restaurant customers are seeking. They also describe the benefits of voice-enabled kiosks and self-service digital menu boards for hotels and QSRs. 

Eliminate long lines at the front desk and food service cash register by giving guests a self-service option that mirrors the experience of talking to a human. Adding a voice interface reduces the inconvenience of waiting in line to check-in or order food while lowering the barriers to using a device with limited menu options that requires multiple types and swipes.  

While it may seem that adding a touchless, self-service option to your check-in and ordering process reduces customer service, the opposite is actually true. In fact, guests are beginning to expect and even demand the convenience of self-service as a way to save time and streamline their experiences. 

According to a report by Tillster, if line lengths were equal, 30% of customers would still prefer to order from a self- service kiosk. With a line longer than four people, the number rises to a majority. In addition, a whopping 67% of customers plan to place an order with a self-service kiosk in 2020.

Since the study by Tillster in 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic has created hyper-sensitivity to touching surfaces in public. The integration of a custom, branded voice user interface into kiosks fulfills consumer demands for both convenience and safety. 

2. Voice menus are easier to navigate

The greatest motivators driving the demand for self-service are convenience and speed. However, when the self-service experience is difficult to navigate or when customers aren’t sure how to find what they want within a complicated menu tree, the experience quickly becomes obstructive. Take the friction out of self-service by allowing guests to ask for things the same way they would ask an employee in a full-service environment—with natural voice queries. 

Advanced natural language understanding technology and high-quality text-to-speech functionality provide an interface that closely resembles interactions with a human agent. Voice user interfaces eliminate the need for a complex menu tree and allow customers to speak naturally to ask questions—just as they would when talking to another person. 

Easier than touching, typing, and swiping through long menus, voice assistants deliver the ability to understand complex orders, and the capacity to process modifications and follow-up with the customer to confirm and clarify requests. These voice technologies are also able to respond to an order that cannot be fulfilled due to unavailability.

For fast casual and quick service restaurants, the adoption of voice-enabled kiosks may become the differentiator between those that bounce back from the current crisis and those that continue to lag behind. While 65% of customers said they would visit a restaurant more often if self-service kiosks were offered, those same guests will return after the pandemic demanding the convenience of a self-service kiosk and the safety of touchless experiences.

3. Improved health and safety increases return visits

As Metro discovered in 2018, touchscreens are often a source of dangerous bacteria. In the past, guests using touchscreens—unaware that those communal surfaces posed a health danger—moved from food ordering to food pickup without washing their hands. These “unsuspecting” patrons were exposing themselves unwittingly to diseases as serious as staph infections. 

Just two years later, those same guests are fully aware of the dangers of shared surfaces and will be reluctant to visit hotels and restaurants where touch screens are used predominantly for check-in, check-out, and food ordering—unless those experiences are hands-free.

Adding a voice-enabled kiosk is a demonstrable way to prove your concern for the health and well-being of your customers and employees by reducing physical contact. Putting a voice-first strategy in place will earn your brand the reputation of caring for both customers and employees, and help you gain an advantage in an increasingly competitive market.

4. Customers tend to order more via self-service kiosks

According to a recent study by PYMNTS, customers spend 30% more when ordering through a self-service kiosk. Whether people are ordering more because they have more time to consider additional options, or whether they’re just more comfortable placing a larger order via a device over a human is still unclear. What we know is that installing voice-enabled kiosks gives guests the freedom to order what they want and consider additional items, while allowing for multiple orders from several customers simultaneously.