Subway franchisee finds ROI in Nextep touchscreen drive-thru kiosks

Subway franchisee finds ROI in Nextep touchscreen drive-thru kiosks
Tags: Back Office, Credit/Cashless, Drive-thru, Sandwich, Software
March 30, 2010

A Subway franchisee has implemented touchscreen drive-thru kiosks from Nextep Systems at his restaurants in Loveland, Colo., and Cheyenne, Wyo. A 20-year veteran with 25 successful Subway franchises, Rob Woodward now has four restaurants using the touchscreen drive-thru kiosks.

"The only way to do drive-thru is with this kiosk," said Woodward in a news release. "Previously we had a dedicated employee asking and answering 50 questions about each sandwich. It was a slow, inaccurate and costly means of taking orders. Our customers love the new system."

The Nextep kiosks make drive-thru orders "faster, more accurate, and are more profitable" than traditional systems. And the kiosk's upsell technology has led to higher check averages, enabling the kiosk to deliver a return on investment in 24 weeks, Woodward said.

"Not only does the kiosk generate an additional 15 percent increase in sales, it also saves 40 employee hours per week, as it doesn't require someone dedicated to taking orders."

Woodward also sees the kiosks as a key component in the success of Subway's new breakfast menu and he will be installing Nextep Systems kiosks in additional locations.

Tommy Woycik, president of Nextep Systems, said he expects speed and customer satisfaction to increase with the implementation of Nextep's credit-card reader and barcode scanner. The system will enable customer payment at the kiosks as well "have the ability to identify a specific customer and display their previous order preferences."

Developed by Nextep Systems and MRI, the touchscreen kiosks operate on Nextep's software and feature a weatherproof 32-inch interactive display with an ambient light sensor and a Display Positioning System to adjust the ordering screen for varying vehicle heights.