(March 9, 2004) Having spread rapidly in the past year at airports, self-service transaction technology is starting to make inroads in the lodging and fast-food industries. McDonald's Corp., Oak Brook, Ill., has tested kiosks at a handful of its corporate-owned stores in Raleigh, N.C., and in Denver, and within the past few weeks has deployed six touch-screen devices at the front counter in the indoor playground area of a franchise store in St. Charles, Ill., near the corporate headquarters. In addition, some 50 stores owned by franchisees around the country have deployed about 100 kiosks. Recently, the company removed the Raleigh machines, explaining the test there had ended.

In St. Charles, the kiosks are capable of accepting both currency and credit and debit cards, but are currently enabled only to accept currency. A McDonald's spokesman says card acceptance at the machines is "something we're very interested in" but the chain's primary interest currently is in testing the machine's ability to free up restaurant personnel to interact with customers. After customers order food at the kiosks, crew members who would otherwise be at the counter deliver the meals, any change due, and paid receipts. McDonald's signed up with Concord EFS Inc., now part of First Data Corp., for credit and debit card processing in December 2002 and accepts cards in an estimated 3,000 of its 13,000 U.S. stores. The kiosks installed by the 50 franchised stores, which come from Framingham, Mass.-based Quick Kiosk LLC, accept credit and debit cards. Quick Kiosk is a unit of Kinetics Inc., Lake Mary, Fla., a maker of airport ticketing kiosks. Kinetics has also deployed lobby machines at Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. properties in Boston and New York that allow guests to check-in and –out of rooms as well as get boarding passes for upcoming flights (Digital Transactions News, Jan. 20).

In its latest deployment, McDonald's says it is hoping to test whether self-service machines can enhance customers' experience in the restaurant by allowing them to order meals at their own pace and have them delivered. Moms with kids, for example, can head straight for the play area in the St. Charles store, where there are two kiosks, and order and receive food without leaving the kids or interrupting their play. The machines display the full McDonald's menu, and wait time to use them has so far been minimal, the spokesman says. "It's as quick if not quicker than dealing with an individual (at the counter)," he says. "Customer feedback has been good." The devices feature voice and visual prompts, in both English and Spanish. The company says it's too early to say when it might roll out self-service technology. "It's a bit early to speculate what comes next," says the spokesman. "We expect to have this (St. Charles) test running for several months to come."