160527 Cedar Point Round-Up Self Service Kiosk (1)

This week Cedar Point installed some new self-service kiosks at a couple food stands around the park.

The idea is for the guest to order and pay for their food from the machine, and then approach the counter for their meal.

So how do the self service kiosks work?

After approaching the machine, it will ask you if you have one of the dining plans or if you want to order off the standard menu.

160527 Cedar Point Round-Up Self Service Kiosk (2)

We chose the meal plan menu, which brought up a secondary screen with the available options. In this case at the Round-Up, we had the choice of the Cheeseburger or Chicken Fingers.

160527 Cedar Point Round-Up Self Service Kiosk (3)

This is where it gets good! After choosing the burger, we then had the options to customize the meal exactly how we would like. The burger comes standard with everything on it, but if you chose not to want tomatoes and pickles, you simply selected that option.

160527 Cedar Point Round-Up Self Service Kiosk (4)

Next you get to select your side option, in this case, it was a choice between fries, a side salad, or fruit cup.

160527 Cedar Point Round-Up Self Service Kiosk (5)

On the final screen is where the guest can scan their dining plan wristband or season pass.

160527 Cedar Point Round-Up Self Service Kiosk (6)

There is always controversy about what causes a backup on busy days for food service. Are they understaffed? Does it take too long to prepare the food? Or does the ordering and payment process take too long?

The new self service kiosks are an attempt to see if the customer can speed up the process on their own, making the staff available work more efficiently to get orders to the guest.

With a threat of higher minimum wages on the horizon, it is also an attempt to get the technology in place ahead of time to reduce staffing overhead.

160524 Cedar Point Self-Service Kiosks ©Brad Kilgore (2)

In addition to faster ordering and reduced staffing, the machines also typically result in the customer ordering 15% more than when ordering from an individual.

Some potential benefits for the consumer, should they be implemented into the Cedar Point self-service kiosks, are saved orders making it easier to reorder in the future. In addition, there is a potential for orders to be accepted via the mobile app.

What do you think of the idea of self-service kiosks?

160524 Cedar Point Self-Service Kiosks ©Brad Kilgore (3)

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