A Self-Service Kiosk: Kill the Queue or Grow the Check

01Queue maths: how many kiosks you need

At the till an order takes 70–90 seconds on average: greeting, choosing, clarifying, paying. At a kiosk it is 100–130 seconds, because the guest chooses more slowly. A kiosk looks slower — until you notice it works in parallel: three kiosks serve three people at once.

Simple maths: 60 orders in the peak hour, one cashier handles 45–50 and the queue grows. Add two kiosks and capacity passes 100 an hour. The cashier then handles handover and awkward cases instead of the queue.

Rule of thumb: one kiosk per 40–50 peak-hour orders. Four in a 200-seat food court, one in a small kebab shop. Place it inside and ahead of the till, not by the door, so the queue doesn't block the entrance.

02How the kiosk works: no table to choose

laKiosk is a standalone self-service kiosk: an iPad and a stand. There is no table selection, because fast food doesn't assign tables. The guest first chooses the service type — "Dine in" or "Takeaway" — then the menu, the cart and payment.

The payment part matters: there is no card terminal inside the kiosk. A WLCM QR appears on screen and the guest pays from their own phone — Payme, Click, Paylov, Uzum or a card, all behind one QR. The receipt then prints at the till and the guest collects by number.

The upside of a terminal-free setup is cheaper hardware with nothing to break. The downside is that a guest paying cash still walks to the till. Cash is still a large share in Uzbekistan, so a kiosk does not fully replace the till.

03Why the check is bigger at a kiosk

A cashier gets tired, rushes, and with a long queue offers nothing extra. The kiosk behaves identically every time: "Choose a sauce", "Larger portion +8 000", "A drink with that?". It isn't psychology, it's repeatability.

The second reason is the absence of embarrassment. In front of a cashier a guest hesitates over a second portion of fries; on a screen nobody is watching. That is why desserts and add-ons sell better at kiosks.

There are conditions: good photos, well-configured modifiers and a short menu. Showing 90 dishes on a kiosk just lengthens the queue. For a fast-food kiosk, 25–35 items is about right.

• laKiosk: unlimited in the package, no separate monthly fee (the iPad and stand are yours)
• A short kiosk menu: 25–35 items, separated using per-channel visibility
• Payment: a WLCM QR covering Payme, Click, Paylov, Uzum and cards
• You still need a till for guests paying cash

04When you don't need a kiosk

In a sit-down restaurant a kiosk is out of place: the guest sits at a table and reads the menu there, so a QR or a tablet fits better. Kiosks belong to flow locations: food courts, kebab shops, a coffee window, a spot by a university.

The second case is low volume. At 60 orders a day there is no queue problem and the cashier copes fine. The money for an iPad and stand is better spent on QR stickers and menu photography.