Read the Boloco Restaurants case study here. An innovative restaurant concept incorporates kiosks into its efforts to connect with customers.
By Emily Wheeler, Contributing editor, KioskMarketplace.com

The players

NEXTEP SYSTEMS, based in Troy, Mich., is a provider of self-service solutions for restaurants, casinos, airports, sporting venues, grocery stores and other high-volume food-service and entertainment venues. NEXTEP’s core business revolves around self-service kiosks, online and smartphone ordering and digital menu boards. Boloco is a Boston-based group of 18 restaurants located throughout New England, serving traditional and globally inspired burritos, bowls, salads, smoothies and shakes. Every order is made to the specific wishes of each guest and includes the most delicious culinary traditions from all over the world. Boloco was the first chain of restaurants in the United States to be named 2 Star Certified Green Restaurants by the Green Restaurant Association. The most popular of its latest initiatives in sustainability are naturally raised meats, potato starch utensils and recyclable bowls.

The challenge

Boloco is a fast-growing chain of restaurants in New England, with locations opening in the Washington, D.C. area in 2012. The company is committed to providing an exceptional experience with high-quality food to its customers. Part of Boloco’s commitment to excellence involves offering a variety of options to its guests, whether through customizable meals or a variety of channels on which to connect with the company. As the restaurants grew more popular, Boloco wanted to keep lines moving and ordering efficient. “We wanted to offer a variety of channels for people to order, including mobile and Facebook,” said Jim Lux, vice president of IT for Boloco. “Kiosks were another way for us to increase speed of service, while still providing unparalleled culinary options to our guests.” At the same time, Boloco wanted to keep its emphasis on guest service, without having to exponentially increase staff.

“The goal wasn’t for kiosks to replace our team members,” Lux said. “But we wanted to use our people differently, and have them focus more on enhancing the customer experience, and not on simply taking orders.”

The solution

Boloco was introduced to NEXTEP at the 2009 National Restaurant Association show, and by 2010, the restaurant was beginning to install both kiosks and digital menu displays. “It took about eight weeks from the time the agreement was made to the time the installation was complete,” said Rick Wibel, sales manager for NEXTEP. “We assigned a project manager and Boloco had a project manager, and they really worked together to make sure everything went smoothly.” The kiosks emulate a traditional ordering pattern, making it easy for customers to use. A major part of Boloco’s menu is allowing guests to create their own burritos, or customize existing menu items (i.e., substituting meats, choosing different sauces, etc.). The kiosks needed to be able to offer all the various options to customers, and allow them to easily select what they wanted. The kiosks also are programmed to do any upselling, such as suggesting a drink or a side item. Once the order is placed, guests can pay at the kiosk via credit card or their registered Boloco card. The kiosk then transmits the order to the kitchen, and guests can pick up their order at the counter, bypassing any need to approach a register. Staff that normally would be at the register instead are free to help guests at the kiosk, if needed, or can focus on other customer service enhancements. The kiosks also accept loyalty cards, so customers can use their cards and the store can continue to gather valuable data about customer preferences.

The results

Boloco has installed 12 kiosks in four restaurants, with more expected as new restaurants open. The response to the kiosks has been positive. “The kiosks give us another touch point and a way to get more guests in the store,” Lux said. With more order points, Boloco can serve more guests. Still, it’s important to keep the lines moving. By freeing up staff from taking orders, and by increasing efficiency in the ordering process, not only can Boloco serve more guests, it can do so quickly.

The kiosks also can do suggestive upselling automatically, leading to increased ticket prices. Check averages in stores with the kiosks are up 16 percent. The technology also helps maintain Boloco’s atmosphere of an innovative concept on the cutting edge. While that can’t be measured in dollars and cents, it does help enhance the brand. Many of Boloco’s locations are near universities, and its customers skew to a younger demographic, who are accustomed to using technology to make their lives easier. “Our goal is to make it easy for our customers to use our brand on their terms,” Lux said. “Kiosks are another order point for our guests, and while they won’t ever 100 percent replace our cashiers, they are important to our growth in the future.” As for NEXTEP, Lux said Boloco plans to continue its partnership. “They’ve been a great partner,” he said. “We’re still learning how to best deploy kiosks, and
NEXTEP has been a great partner.”

Troy, Michigan, November 8, 2011

Starting with the Zoup! Somerset Collection location in Troy, MI, Zoup! is employing NEXTEP front of house solutions including Point-of-Sale , Dynamic Digital Menu Displays, Order Management System, and integrated Online Ordering . With the new solution, Zoup! will now individually label each soup, salad, and sandwich. Zoup! is also using NEXTEP’s back of house solution including inventory management and labor management. Zoup!’s “next step” will be a smartphone app for ordering from anywhere, followed by a pilot of NEXTEP’s Self Order Kiosks.

“Zoup! selected NEXTEP because they offer a complete integrated solution,” said Zoup!’s founder and CEO Eric Ersher. “NEXTEP’s enterprise web management tools were also important, as our stores change soup offerings daily, and with NEXTEP we only have to make the change once, and that change is instantly made in our POS, menu boards, and online.”

NEXTEP founder and president Tommy Woycik added, “NEXTEP is proud to have been selected as Zoup!’s long-term technology partner. Zoup! has advanced technology requirements and we are pleased to provide the technology foundation to support their growth.”

Foundation5 is scalable and secure, having been approved by the Payment Card Industry (PCI) for deployment. Multiple payment options are supported, including cash, credit, gift cards, and soon mobile payment options. NEXTEP’s product suite can be managed from anywhere, using NEXTEP’s cloud-based command center , providing a single touch point for managing menu items, promotions, inventory, employees, and reporting.

About NEXTEP SYSTEMS
NEXTEP SYSTEMS , based in Troy, Michigan, is the leading provider of foodservice technology for restaurants, airports, casinos, convenience stores, grocery stores, educational facilities, and sporting venues. Founded in 2005, NEXTEP is the industry’s only turnkey provider of integrated solutions including Point of Sale, Self Order Kiosks, Online Ordering, Dynamic Digital Menu Displays™, touch screen drive thru solutions, smartphone ordering, iPad touch screen kiosks, and iPod employee ordering.

For more information, please contact
Tommy Woycik
President, NEXTEP SYSTEMS
866.654.8730

About Zoup! Fresh Soup Company
Zoup! Fresh Soup Company – the country’s leading Fast-Casual soup restaurant concept – is defining the category with its award-winning soups, salads and sandwiches, served in a casual, comfortable setting.  Each Zoup! location offers 12 hand-crafted soup varieties each day, from its collection of hundreds of proprietary recipes. Customers also can choose from an array of made-to-order GreenZ! Salads; grilled and rolled SandwichZ!; TryTwo! Combos; and a variety of baked desserts and beverages.

For more information, please contact
Eric Ersher
CEO, Zoup! Fresh Soup Company
(248) 663-1111

NEXTEP RELEASES FOUNDATION5 – COMPLETE FOODSERVICE TECHNOLOGY SOLUTION

Troy, Michigan, October 19, 2011 – NEXTEP SYSTEMS, the leading provider of customer self order technology, today announced general availability of the Foundation5 foodservice technology platform. Foundation5 provides foodservice operators with a single vendor solution for operating high volume restaurant concepts.

Historically, restaurants only required cash registers or their high tech equivalent, the Point of Sale (POS) system. Each year, more ordering is done “beyond the counter”, for example ordering a pizza from a website, ordering from a touch screen kiosk, or ordering at the drive thru. Yet, multiple vendors were needed to supply the various technologies, requiring restaurateurs to act as systems integrators, with inevitable finger pointing when systems failed to properly function.

Over the past six years, NEXTEP developed a reputation for the highest quality customer facing technology, including self order kiosks, online ordering, digital signage, and mobile applications. However, NEXTEP customers still required another vendor to provide POS terminals and back of house systems (e.g. labor management and inventory), increasing project risk and overall expense. The industry needed a single vendor with a proven track record to develop and support one complete integrated platform. In close cooperation with local restaurant operators, NEXTEP leapfrogged existing options with a total solution as easy to use as a self order kiosk, but with all of the power of an enterprise POS system.

Foundation5 is scalable and secure, having been approved by the Payment Card Industry (PCI) for deployment. Multiple payment options are supported, including cash, credit, gift cards, and soon mobile payment options. NEXTEP’s product suite can be managed from anywhere, using NEXTEP’s cloud-based command center, providing a single touch point for managing menu items, promotions, inventory, employees, and reporting.

About NEXTEP SYSTEMS

NEXTEP SYSTEMS, based in Troy, Michigan, is the leading provider of foodservice technology for restaurants, airports, casinos, convenience stores, grocery stores, educational facilities, and sporting venues. Founded in 2005, NEXTEP is the industry’s only turnkey provider of integrated solutions including Point of Sale, Self Order Kiosks, Online Ordering, Dynamic Digital Menu Displays™, touch screen drive thru solutions, smartphone ordering, iPad touch screen kiosks, and iPod employee ordering.

For more information, please contact

Tommy Woycik
President, NEXTEP SYSTEMS
866.654.8730