Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Fast food just got faster. A Taco Bell franchise in downtown Philadelphia uses touchscreen technology that lets customers place orders on their own with the touch of a finger. The result? The restaurant has eliminated long lines, even during the busy lunch-hour rush. Employees who used to take orders at a traditional cash register are now re-deployed in the food-preparation area, which has doubled in size.

“The touchscreens have transformed the way we serve our customers,” says Gary Griscom, a supervisor with A-Plus Food Corp., the Taco Bell franchisee that operates the facility. “It was overwhelming how quickly the touchscreens were accepted and embraced by both our employees and our customers. Ninety-nine percent of our business is now handled via the touchscreens.”

Customers enter orders through a touchscreen monitor mounted atop a counter in the restaurant. The system is equipped with speakers so the touchscreen can “talk” to customers. For instance, once a customer selects a meal, the system advises, “Press OK to enter your order, or press GO BACK to change your order.” As an order is entered, it appears instantly on a display monitor in the kitchen where employees assemble the meal.

“Initially, everyone wants to try using the touchscreen because it’s neat and it’s a novelty,” says Griscom. “After that first time, they just appreciate the efficiency. They walk up, punch in their order in seconds and a moment later they’re either sitting down eating or they’re on their way with a bagged meal in hand.”

Touchscreens Draw Customers

Griscom notes that the Taco Bell franchise is located in the same facility as a competing fast-food chain, creating competition between the two restaurants for hungry customers who have little time to waste.

“Our competition is literally five feet away from us inside the same ground-floor space,” he says. “Most of our customers are repeat business. They like the fast, efficient service.”

The Technology Behind the Solution

The Taco Bell touchscreen systems were installed by SoftSense (Atlanta, Ga.), a company that specializes in information systems for restaurant and retail operations. Part of SoftSense’s OrderPoint product line, the systems comprise a family of customer activated terminals (CATs).

All of SoftSense’s OrderPoint terminals incorporate touchscreens from Elo TouchSystems, the company that invented touch display technologies in the 1970s and has been a market leader for more than 20 years.

“The long-term dependability of the touchscreens is critical,” says Griscom. “Our customers expect fast service every time, without fail. We know we can deliver that, thanks in large part to the Elo touchscreens, which are durable and provide consistent, predictable performance.”

A Help to Employees

While customers benefit by getting faster service via the touchscreens, Taco Bell employees benefit by streamlining their operation and providing faster service with less drudgery. For instance, kitchen workers no longer have to decipher hand-written orders; they eliminate confusion and delays by referring solely to the monitor installed in the kitchen.

In the past, employees working the counter had to enter each meal item into a keypad to get a total. Now, the touchscreens print out an order number for each customer. Once the customer has their meal in hand and is ready to pay, the order number is entered at the cash register and the total appears instantly. There are no errors and the job is easier for the employee working at the register.

Because they are so intuitive and user-friendly, the touchscreens greatly reduce employee training time, Griscom says. In an industry marked by high employee turn-over, cutting training time is a significant benefit, especially for the restaurant’s managers who have no time to spare.

“The approach we’ve taken simply would not have worked with a traditional keyboard,” says Griscom. “The entire self-service concept depends on the user-friendliness of the touchscreens. The touch interface is the enabling technology that makes it all possible.”