Kiosk staff help: where guests get stuck and who helps

Guests get stuck at kiosks in a few known places: paying with cash or a card the kiosk will not take, modifiers the screen does not offer, items that need an ID check, and access needs the screen cannot meet. Before launch, decide who walks over for each, what they can do on the kiosk, and where the guest goes instead.

This guide is about the people. It covers the sticking points the POS makers document, how staff get into a guest's order, and a floor plan of who helps at slow and busy hours. For choosing a kiosk, see our kiosk buyer's guide.

Where do guests get stuck?

Sticking point	What the POS documents	Who helps	What they need
Paying cash	Toast: the guest picks Pay with cash, prints a receipt with a QR code and takes it to a cashier, who scans it to pull up the check	Cashier	A printer at the kiosk and a scanner or camera at the register
Other payment types	Toast: the kiosk takes credit, debit and gift cards; for any other type, such as a keyed card, the guest prints the receipt and pays a cashier	Cashier	A sign at the kiosk saying where to pay
Internet outage	Square: the Square Kiosk app does not support offline payments	Shift lead	A rule for when to switch kiosk guests to the register
Modifiers the kiosk cannot take	Toast: pre-modifiers are not supported on the kiosk	Kiosk host or cashier	A list of requests to send to the register
Age-restricted items	Square: the kiosk does not support age verification for alcohol or other age-restricted items	Cashier	Those items hidden from the kiosk and sold at the counter
Guests who are blind or have low vision	Toast: the STORM keypad with the JAWS screen reader; wired headphones start it, and Bluetooth headphones do not work	Anyone on shift	To know where the keypad is and that plugging in headphones starts speech
A frozen or signed-out kiosk	Square: hold two fingers on the screen to open Settings, and troubleshoot outside busy hours if you can	Shift lead	The passcode and a spare register

Sources: Toast's kiosk ordering and payment guide, Kiosk Mode overview and STORM setup guide; Square's kiosk setup guide, kiosk menu guide and kiosk troubleshooting guide.

Two more sticking points come from your own menu. A guest who cannot tell what "BYO BWL" means will wave someone over, so clean up names first with our kiosk menu design guide. And a guest reading in another language may stop at any prompt that is still in English.

How do staff get into a guest's order?

Staff need a way to help without closing the kiosk or starting over. Each system handles this differently:

• Toast kiosk server: Toast's kiosk setup guide has you assign every kiosk check to one user. It suggests a user named "Kiosk Server" with a passcode shared with staff, so anyone on shift can punch in and help with a kiosk order.
• Toast manager passcode: leaving Kiosk Mode needs a manager or admin passcode with the void permission. Decide who holds it on every shift.
• Square Guided Access: Square suggests the iPad's Guided Access setting so guests cannot leave the kiosk app. The passcode you set is the one staff need to get out.
• Maple: every screen on Maple's voice ordering kiosk has a staff-help button, and the restaurant can turn Maple off on any kiosk with one tap. It is in early access with a small number of restaurants.

Test each path before opening day: start an order, call for help, and time how long it takes a crew member to arrive and finish it.

Who helps, and where do they stand?

Think of the front of house as four zones: the door and line, the kiosks, the register and the pickup counter. The table is our suggestion for a counter-service restaurant with two to four kiosks. Adjust it to your room.

Zone	Slow hour	Busy hour	First two weeks after launch
Door and line	Nobody; signs point to kiosks and the register	Kiosk host greets and splits the line	Kiosk host all open hours
Kiosks	Cashier watches from the register	Kiosk host stands beside the kiosks, one step back	Kiosk host shows first-time guests the first screen, then steps back
Register	Cashier takes orders, cash and ID checks	Cashier takes cash, ID checks and guests who prefer a person	Cashier, plus a trainer on the first days
Pickup counter	Cashier or cook calls names	Expo calls names and answers "where's my order?"	Expo, with a list of kiosk orders so far
Shift lead	Holds passcodes; restarts devices	Holds passcodes; decides when to move guests to the register	Holds passcodes; logs every help call

In June 2017, McDonald's told CNBC that kiosks gave it a chance to move back-of-house staff into guest-facing roles such as concierges and table service. The kiosk host above is a small-restaurant version of that role. Our McDonald's kiosk review has the rest of the timeline.

Toast prints the word Kiosk on kitchen tickets for kiosk orders, which helps expo tell those guests apart at pickup.

What should every crew member know?

1. Where cash guests pay, and how to pull up their receipt at the register.
2. Which items are hidden from the kiosk and why, such as alcohol.
3. Requests the kiosk cannot take, and how to add them at the register.
4. How to start the accessible mode, and how to read the menu and cart aloud when a guest asks.
5. How to call for a manager, and who holds the passcodes on this shift.
6. When to stop sending guests to a kiosk: a payment error, no internet, a frozen screen.
7. How to let a guest enter a PIN or card without watching.

Our kiosk accessibility guide covers what the ADA and federal agencies say about guests who cannot use a touchscreen. Our kiosk payments guide covers cash and offline card rules on each POS.

How do you know the help plan works?

Keep a tally at the register for the first two weeks. Each time someone helps at a kiosk, mark the reason.

Reason	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun
Payment or cash
Could not find an item
Modifier or special request
ID check
Access need
Language
Device problem

The biggest row tells you what to fix first. Many "could not find" marks point to menu names or categories. Many modifier marks point to missing options. Many device marks are a call to your vendor. Once a row stops growing, move the kiosk host back to the register during slow hours.

Published by Maple, which sells an early-access voice ordering kiosk. This AI-assisted guide combines Toast's and Square's kiosk help pages, McDonald's June 2017 statement to CNBC and Maple's published kiosk scope with an original staffing table, training list and tally sheet. The staffing table is our suggestion. It does not report a Maple test or any result from a restaurant.