Can Facial Recognition Apps Make Fast-Food Faster?
BurgerFi chain has installed touchscreens ordering stations with facial recognition technology to add speed to ordering.
Dec 12, 2018
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – If you’re in an extra big hurry for that burger, then stop by one of the 22 BurgerFi locations and use their touchscreen ordering kiosks with facial recognition technology. The application speeds up orders for customers who let the machine snap their photo to use on return visits, Sun-Sentinel reports.
“Who doesn’t love the convenience of walking into their favorite restaurant, where they’re recognized immediately and asked if they want the usual?” said Mariah Kulkin, a BurgerFi company marketing representative. The chain of 108 locations started installing the technology in 2016, and now has it in place at 22 units.
“You have to opt in,” said Lou Palermo, vice president of financial planning and operational support. “If you are a first-time user, it asks you to ‘please order.’ Afterward, it prompts, ‘Do you want to save for future use?’ Then it gives you the option to save by your phone number, your credit card information or facial recognition.”
When the customer returns, the program will ask if the customer would like to access a previous order via facial recognition. If the customer also stored a credit card, ordering and paying for the food could take as little as 10 seconds.
The company doesn’t store real photos of customers. “Instead we store their facial geometry for the purpose of looking up previous orders,” Palermo said.
Around 80% of BurgerFi customers who order at a kiosk permit their photo to be taken and credit card info to be stored. “We’ve done some informal surveys. They really get a kick out of technology. It’s non-invasive,” Palermo said.
BurgerFi tapped Xenial, a payment processing company, for its system, which is also in place at Malibu Poke, UFood Grill, and Wow Bao. NEC Retail Solutions developed a similar system for CaliBurger.
