Piloting a Seamless Contactless Food Service

Wingstop, known for its delicious and freshly cooked upon order chicken wings, are looking to pilot a unique in-store experience to try and decongest long queues in a bid to improve customer experience. They were looking to experiment with an automated and self-serve store pick-up experience that allows customers to pay via a kiosk then pick their food up in heated lockers. Monstarlab took on the challenge. Pushing forward with an end-to-end engagement, the combined team of mobile and backend developers worked in key phases that were kickstarted by a 2-week prototype development sprint to validate the feasibility of the technology. This was followed closely by the user experience and user interfaces design which ran in parallel with the backend development and integrations. Close collaboration between Wingstop allowed Monstarlab to fully understand their vision and make the pilot come to life.

The Challenge: Integration of Physical & Digital Elements

Wingstop was looking to implement a unique pick-up experience that has three essential elements, the kiosk, the POS and the heated lockers. They envision an automated self-serve pick-up experience that will speed up the process and improve customer experience. The biggest challenge was in integrating the main elements of the process. It was essential to test for the feasibility of the idea, hence a 2-week prototype development sprint was undertaken. This was critical in ensuring that the idea is indeed workable and the technology can be created. User experience design followed in parallel with the back end design after the idea was validated. Identifying integration points between the mobile tablet kiosk, the point of sale system, and the physical lockers proved to be challenging. The collective efforts and problem-solving skills of our mobile, back-end, and front-end engineers paved the way for the full development of this unique blended experience execution.

The Pilot

This unique experience allows customers to order ahead via digital and pick up their orders in-store. There is no need to line up to settle payment as a dedicated self-serve kiosk that is integrated into the POS system can accept payments. Upon completion, the customer can get their order inside a designated heated locker. No long lines, easy payment, and hot food right off the locker.

Self-Service Kiosk

The self-service kiosk is a tablet with an intuitive user interface that accepts payments exclusively from order ahead transactions.

POS & Payment Integration

Payments made via the kiosk syncs in real-time with the POS system eliminating the need for a separate payment system just for this service.

Integration with Apex Lockers

After payment, the system will provide the customer with a unique code to access the right locker containing the ordered items. The lockers are special lockers that keep food heated and fresh.