Grubhub has revealed a new kiosk model that supports the full range of customer order types in high-volume environments. The updated kiosk ordering platform offers campuses an all-in-one, self-ordering experience that enables a dining location to streamline the ordering process for customers, reduce overhead costs and repurpose employees to other workflows.

“With many of our campus partners finding success with Grubhub mobile ordering – oftentimes exceeding the expected volume of walk-up orders – we realized the pain that operating two separate systems can create for the team working behind the counter,” says Lyle Margerum, director of technical operations at Grubhub. “We wanted to create a modern and unified product set that blends all the service types into a single system.”

Elo Touch hardware now powers the updated kiosks, including Android tablets, which were previously not supported, as well as counter, floor and point of sales (POS) mounts. Additionally, all payment processing and card readers are powered by FreedomPay.

The kiosk product line was developed specifically for higher education and other closed ecosystems like healthcare, stadiums and hotels that have notoriously high order volumes and demand stability. “The new kiosk model has been developed with the guidance of our partners and iterated upon based on the feedback we get directly from those who have them deployed at their campuses,” says Margerum.

Consolidated workflow

One of the largest benefits from a dining operator standpoint is the consolidation of various orders into one workflow.

“A single stream of order fulfillment and menu management across walk-up, mobile order ahead and delivery services allows for the best operator experience, which translates to an improved experience for the students,” says Margerum.

It was vital to our operations that the Grubhub kiosk take all forms of tender, including meal equivalency/exchange across all credential types on physical cards or digital wallets

In terms of deploying the kiosk, setup for the campus or dining operator is very straightforward, needing just a 120-volt outlet and an internet connection.

“The technical requirements are super simple. Power and basic outbound internet for each device, no inbound firewall rules, server hosting or any other complexities typically seen with POS systems,” explains Margerum. “The devices are also being shipped in new packaging that truly makes these kiosks plug-and-play.”

Campus card payments

The Grubhub kiosk supports the full range of payment options, including campus cards, credit cards, debit cards and mobile credentials, all powered by FreedomPay.

“It was vital to our operations that the Grubhub kiosk take all forms of tender, including meal equivalency/exchange across all credential types on physical cards or digital wallets,” says Margerum. “For credit cards, the P2PE Ingenico reader accepts tap, dip or swipe payment options. Campus cards are taken either on a simple magstripe reader or contactless radio frequency identification readers that work with each campus card provider and credential type.”

In terms of security, the kiosk chassis features a robust and secure frame with custom tamper-proof screws. Kiosk payments, meanwhile, are fully compliant with payment card industry regulations and feature point-to-point encryption.

“The kiosk solution is fully managed by Grubhub, devices are deployed with our mobile device management software to ensure the latest software is applied along with any security updates,” says Margerum. “One of the largest enhancements from our previous kiosk version is the ability to add a P2PE credit card terminal to the unit, which allows us to remove any possibility of credit card leakage and takes the network out of scope where these will be deployed.”

Fully integrated solution

The kiosk platform is also fully integrated with the Grubhub app and all back-of-house systems to streamline order management.

“Having a true omni-channel solution for all order types – mobile pickup, delivery, POS, kiosks, lockers – makes for a simpler solution for the operator to manage, which in turn translates to a better experience for the user,” explains Margerum. “From the operator side, they have one menu to manage and a single queue that all orders go through before being distributed to the back-of-house printer, kitchen display system and tablet hardware.”

Having a single queue provides full visibility into the volume of orders being received and how fast they are being processed through the kitchen. This becomes increasingly important in the mobile ordering realm, as transparency regarding order status becomes a vital part of the customer experience.

“These are all data points that feed back into the estimated time of arrival algorithm to present accurate wait times so customers have the right expectation on their order status,” explains Margerum. “We offer custom reporting options and automated delivery to make sure sales and operational data can be piped back into an existing data warehouse, in addition to a variety of inventory management tools, including ERP systems and more.”

For more on the Grubhub kiosk ordering platform, visit onsite.grubhub.com.