Shake Shack's leadership avoids making decisions in a vacuum by requiring every corporate employee to work in a restaurant for several days. This practice ensures strategic choices about technology are grounded in a deep, empathetic understanding of the frontline employee and customer experience.
Shake Shack found digital kiosks improved employee experience by removing the high-pressure, repetitive task of order-taking. This freed staff for more fulfilling hospitality interactions, like delivering food or offering recommendations, ultimately enhancing the guest experience.
Contrary to common goals, Shake Shack's kiosks did not reduce labor costs. Instead, the company reinvested potential savings into higher-touch hospitality, like table-side food delivery. This enhanced the customer experience, justifying the larger order sizes that digital channels encouraged.
Shake Shack intentionally adopted a 'fast-follower' approach to kiosks. This allowed them to learn from competitors' R&D and implementation mistakes (like obtrusive designs), ultimately deploying a more effective and less costly solution without the risks of being a technology pioneer.
Instead of using aggressive pop-ups, Shake Shack boosts order value by removing default selections on its kiosks. Forcing customers to make an active choice (e.g., single, double, or triple patty) bypasses inertia and leads them to upgrade their orders naturally, without feeling pressured.
Shake Shack concluded that large, imposing kiosks feel like they are replacing human staff, which undermines hospitality. Their design principle is to make kiosks visually unobtrusive tools that assist the experience, rather than dominate it and create a barrier between guests and staff.