Portillo's restaurants throughout Chicagoland are famous for their hot dogs and Italian beef sandwiches. Gino's East in downtown Chicago is renown for its deep-dish pizza. These two entirely different restaurants now share one thing in common though. Customers to either restaurant can use interactive, self-service kiosks to order and ship their delights to anywhere in the US. These kiosks are proof, and let's be "frank," that kiosks can even move hot dogs.

Last month Insight 360 Degrees, a Chicago-based Web site and business software provider, launched its inaugural installation of these public use, touchscreen kiosks into some of Chicago's most famous restaurants. At the kiosks, customers can order and have shipped the restaurants' nostalgic, signature mail order foods to lucky recipients across America. These customers are now able to conveniently solve gift needs simply by walking up to one of the user-friendly kiosks and selecting the food items to be sent.

Dave Milazzo, vice president of marketing and sales for Insight 360 Degrees, says the foundation for this initiative was based on what he calls the obvious. "Stand-alone public-use kiosks are becoming more and more prevalent throughout the United States, with high-profile companies using different applications in several different industries to provide what is a relatively new customer service tool," said Milazzo.

Insight 360 Degrees spent over twelve months developing their touchscreen mail-order kiosk system, including much of that time spent on creating and perfecting the kiosks' user-friendly features. "One of the main goals was to allow kiosk customers, with little or no computer experience, to feel totally comfortable while shopping," noted Milazzo.

The user interface of the kiosk system features colorful graphics, large buttons and a smooth-flowing ordering process. The result: A customer can complete a transaction in the average of only four minutes. In addition, along with experiencing ease in use, Milazzo says kiosk shoppers "end up having a lot of fun, too."

A key element is the kiosks' address directory, which locates any listed U.S. address using just a last name and city, then imports the chosen recipient's name, full address and phone number directly into the Ship To information field. A special calendar function allows users to choose any exact delivery date, and have gifts delivered on any future date of their choice. The system was designed to make it convenient for customers to send a last-minute care package to their college student, or a gift to a relative, friend or client to celebrate a birthday, anniversary or other special occasion. Users can even include a personalized message by using the touchscreen keyboard, featuring oversized keys to make typing, or the popular hunt-and-peck method, as easy as possible.

Another attribute is a unique Review page that allows editing of any portion of an order, then instantly brings the user back to the Place Order page. Orders are completed by the secure swiping of a major credit card. All gift package prices include FedEx delivery charges. A printed receipt detailing the complete transaction, including order confirmation number, is dispensed at the time of sale. The receipt also includes a toll-free customer service number to contact, in case the sender needs to make any changes to the order.

Kiosks in Portillo's restaurants are marketing their Chicago-Style Hot Dog and Italian Beef Sandwich Deluxe Packs for prices ranging from $44.95 to $58.95. Both types of packs include all the necessary Chicago-style condiments needed to duplicate what would be available at their Chicagoland locations. The food items arrive frozen or in a chilled state provided by cold packs and insulated shipping cartons and come complete with easy preparation instructions.

Gino's East downtown flagship restaurant has taken the kiosks even further. They have two kiosks placed side-by-side in anticipation of the demand the kiosks will create, due to the current popularity of shipping their famous deep-dish pizzas around the country. "We always have long lines waiting and something that people can use to send a gift is great, especially for impulse buys," stated Ivan Himmel, president of Bravo Restaurants, Inc., owner of Gino's East restaurants.

Insight 360 Degrees has its sights set on launching similar programs into additional restaurant venues throughout 2004.

Research www.portillos.com www.ginoseast.com www.insight360.com 

Originally published in the May/Jun 2004 issue of Kiosk magazine.