Improving Restaurant Order Accuracy With Interactive Touchscreens

By Jason Ford, Head of Applications Engineering, MicroTouch

Order accuracy has a significant impact on a restaurant’s bottom line. When an order is incorrect, it creates waste, and in an era of rising food prices, it is a key performance indicator (KPI) worth watching closely. However, inaccurate orders can have an even more significant impact on a restaurant. Order mix-ups are among the top complaints among diners, and 67 percent of consumers say negative experiences are a reason to stop patronizing a business. Additionally, completing an order accurately the first time means less stress for the kitchen, which may be short-handed during the ongoing labor shortage.

Restaurant IT solutions providers have the opportunity to deliver value to their clients with solutions that increase order accuracy, in particular, by providing interactive menu boards, kiosks, and table displays.

Give Customers Control

Legacy restaurant ordering processes involve a customer telling a server or a counter worker what they want – and in an increasingly digital world are beginning to seem antiquated and inefficient. After taking the order, the employee writes it down, inputs it into the restaurant’s point of sale (POS) system or attempts to remember it while walking to a terminal in the dining room. This has always led to chances for errors in data entry, illegible handwriting, and faulty memories, leading to missing side dishes, the wrong modifications, or sometimes an incorrect order altogether.