Setting up a kiosk
Self-Service Kiosk is an add-on. If Kiosk isn't in your sidebar, it isn't on your plan — see What's included, and what's an add-on.
What this is for
An unattended screen where customers order for themselves. It takes the queue off your counter and lets your staff cook and serve instead of typing.
It suits counter service, quick service, food courts and anywhere a line forms. It doesn't suit table service, where the waiter is the interface.
Adding a kiosk
- Go to Settings › Kiosk.
- Select Add Kiosk.
- Fill in:
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| Kiosk Name | Where it is — "Entrance", "Left of counter", "Upstairs". |
| Kiosk Code | Generated for you. It's what identifies this device in the kiosk address. |
| Active | Whether it's in service. |
| Virtual Keyboard | On-screen keyboard. Turn it on for a touchscreen with no physical keyboard. |
| Customer Required Details | Which of name, email and phone the customer must enter. |
- Save, then open the kiosk address on the device.
With no kiosks yet, the screen prompts you to create your first one.
What to require from customers
Customer Required Details decides how much a customer has to type before they can order. Each field is friction, and friction at a kiosk costs orders.
| Field | Require it when |
|---|---|
| Name | You call orders out. Usually worth it. |
| Phone | You need to reach them about a problem. Often not worth it. |
| You genuinely send receipts by email. Rarely worth it. |
The honest default for most counter operations is name only. Someone standing in a queue with a tray is not going to type an email address, and asking makes them walk to the counter instead — which defeats the point.
The virtual keyboard
On for a touchscreen with no keyboard, which is nearly every kiosk. Off if you've attached a physical keyboard, which is unusual.
Get this wrong and a customer taps the name field and nothing happens. It's the most common first-day kiosk complaint.
Naming and codes
The Kiosk Code is auto-generated and appears in the kiosk's web address, so each device opens its own kiosk.
Name kiosks by location, not by number. When someone says "kiosk 2 is frozen", nobody knows where to walk. "Entrance" and "Upstairs" are directions.
Choosing a kiosk device
Any device with a modern browser runs it. What actually matters:
- A big screen. 15 inches and up. Menu photos are the sales pitch, and small text loses older customers immediately.
- A responsive touchscreen. A laggy panel makes people give up and queue.
- Portrait or landscape, consistently. Pick one and use it on every kiosk.
- Physically secured. A stand or wall mount, cables hidden.
- Mains power. Never batteries.
- Kiosk mode in the browser, so customers can't navigate away or reach settings.
- The screen never sleeps.
Placing it
- Before the queue, not beside the till. A kiosk next to a staffed counter gets ignored.
- Give it room. Someone using it is standing still while people walk past.
- Reachable from a wheelchair. Screen height is an accessibility decision, and in many places a legal one.
- Out of direct sunlight, or nobody can read it.
- Signage. "Order here" above it. People queue at counters out of habit.
Before you open
Order from it yourself, as a customer, without touching anything else:
- Does the welcome screen look right?
- Do all your items appear, with photos and prices?
- Do variations and modifiers work by touch?
- Does the keyboard appear when you tap a field?
- Does the order reach the kitchen?
- Does the confirmation show a number the customer can use?
Then have someone who's never seen it try. Watch, don't help. Whatever they hesitate on is what needs fixing.
Good to know
- Kiosks are per branch, and each device opens its own kiosk by code.
- The kiosk shows the branch's menu, with the same availability and item settings as your ordering site. See The customer ordering site.
- Setting a kiosk inactive takes it out of service without deleting it — right for a device being repaired.
- Kiosk orders arrive as ordinary orders and follow the same order journey.