Australia’s hospitality businesses have been feeling the pinch this year.

There is, what the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia calls, a cost of doing business crisis: high interest rates, insurance premium and rental hikes, payroll pressure, and more.

Consumers have also pulled back on discretionary spending as cost of living pressures bite.

Add to that staff shortages – Jobs and Skills Australia has projected that Australia will need an extra 21,400 hospitality workers, including waiters, baristas and bar attendants, from May 2023 to May 2028 – and our industry is facing a perfect storm.

Despite these headwinds, hospo operators have remained focused on providing remarkable experiences for their guests. That is what the entire industry is all about.

In addition to changing service times, adding retail items to their offering to create new revenue streams, or running marketing and promotional campaigns to bring in more customers, hospo operators are also turning to technology to take on some of the heavy lifting in their day-to-day. This, in turn, is helping them be more resourceful and freeing up their time to focus on their number one priority: looking after their guests. Here, we’ll talk about the latest innovation that has just become more accessible: self-serve kiosks.

What was previously a luxury item that only a few major enterprise fast food restaurants could afford, access to self-service kiosks has been democratised this year after the launch of an affordable, flexible and integrated solution for Australian hospitality: Square Kiosk.

Boost productivity

At a time when hospitality businesses are facing staffing challenges, Square Kiosk is bolstering productivity by reducing queues and releasing staff from the counter, freeing them to focus on other tasks. For guests, using Square Kiosk is a sleek and simple experience that lets them bypass queues and easily customise their orders.

According to research from Square earlier this year, most guests are supportive of restaurants and cafes using self-ordering technology to help during busy times, and Square Kiosk’s intuitive user interface and built-in payments allow them to place orders quickly and easily.

Guests can select exactly what they want, with customisation options being sent directly to the kitchen. Venues can also grow their sales by offering upgrades and add-ons on every order without any awkward interactions.

Improve customer experience with in-built data insights

By operating in tandem with their point of sale, Square Kiosk allows businesses to track sales data and instantly sync menu updates, ensuring that guests have real-time visibility into what’s currently available.

This means greater transparency and a better customer experience. Guests can also see the whole menu range on offer, including add-ons, and can navigate it in a visual and interactive way, which creates plenty of opportunity for increasing the value of each order.

For Lorenzo Fantarella and Isaac Varano, co-founders of Melbourne-based takeaway restaurant Pasta Prego, constantly evolving as a business and improving customer experience is their number one priority. Since they started using Square Kiosk, the pair have not only noticed improved customer satisfaction but also increased sales.

“Even though we have only recently implemented Square Kiosk, we’ve noticed a significant increase in consumer spend per transaction. Square Kiosk allows consumers to peruse our extensive menu with no time pressure, enabling them to select from our broad offering range. We have also noticed a reduction in wait times, helping the team to focus on delivering our product to customers. As with all Square products, implementation has been seamless as the Kiosk is linked to our point of sale.”

Innovating the right way

While the Australian hospitality sector has faced challenges of late, careful and considered adoption of technology is already helping many businesses operate more resourcefully. Whether it’s optimising staff productivity, improving guest experience or offering a countertop POS that would make the biggest restaurant chains in the world blush, innovations like Square Kiosk can help.

To find out more about Square Kiosk, visit squareup.com/au/en/hardware/kiosk