Order comfortably at Tank & Rast thanks to self-order terminals
Tank & Rast, the leading service provider along German highways, has worked with Reply to add a new, digital point of sale to the traditional ordering counters at around 80 service stations.
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#SelfOrderTerminals
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The challenge
Turning travelers into restaurant
visitors as they pass by.
The initial situation
Tank & Rast - the modern service provider on the highway
Whether fuel supply, fast charging infrastructure, an overnight stay in a hotel, a hot meal, store shopping or a visit to the sanitary facilities: Tank & Rast offers travelers a wide range of services at around 360 petrol stations, over 400 service stations including 50 hotels.
To attract even more people to the service station restaurants, a new digital touchpoint was needed for the gastronomy. This was to appeal to customers who had already made a stop at one of Tank & Rast's service stations. At the same time, the new point of sales should motivate customers who are already on site to place larger orders in the restaurant.
The solution
Attracting new customers with self-order terminals
Self-order terminals (SOTs), which display appealing images of available dishes, now arouse the interest and appetite of travelers even more. These make it possible to scroll through the menu in a relaxed manner, discover new dishes and make a decision without time pressure.
The customer can then take a seat at one of the tables in the dining room until their order number appears on the pick-up screen. And then it's simply a case of: enjoy! Thanks to the appealing SOTs, a petrol station customer, for example, becomes a restaurant visitor in passing. The opportunity to conveniently explore the offer also encourages existing customers to place more orders in the restaurant.
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How we achieved this
Together to the new product
When designing and integrating the innovative SOTs, Tank & Rast was able to rely on Reply's concentrated experience. A total of four Reply Group companies were involved in the project: from Salesforce and SAP experts from Arlanis Reply and Syskoplan Reply, to Microsoft Azure professionals from Cluster Reply, to business analysts and project management experts from Sprint Reply. They supported Tank & Rast in the following steps:
Elaboration of an
architecture
In close cooperation with the specialist departments of Tank & Rast, the experts from Reply developed a concrete architecture according to the customer's specifications. They made sure to use existing resources and components in order to implement the project quickly and efficiently.
Vendor selection and use of a minimal viable product (MVP)
In order to validate feasibility in the service station operations, three different software products for operating the SOTs were tested in productive use within six weeks. The focus was on the customer experience. A software product was selected based on the experience gained from the pilot. This was integrated into Tank & Rast's most important backend systems within three months.
Quality assurance
and commissioning
Reply was responsible for the end-2-end test management and test execution during the integration of the SOTs into the comprehensive IT landscape. The experts ensured holistic processes in SAP Retail and BI, Microsoft Azure, Salesforce, Oracle POS systems and the SOT software and, in the event of errors, coordinated and prioritized the resolution of the bugs in compliance with a strict project plan.
Further development and optimization
Reply developed the MVP into a profitable product through infrastructure adjustments, coordination of external service providers and intensive support.
The result
Seamless integration with numerous advantages
The integration of the SOTs designed by Reply allows Tank & Rast to offer a high-performance solution for its service station franchise partners. The SOTs were seamlessly embedded into the existing infrastructure. This means that financial accounting processes, the use of goods in SAP systems and the integration of cash registers remain virtually unchanged. The solution is now in use at around 80 locations across Germany and enables Tank & Rast's franchise partners to:
Higher
sales
in the long term thanks to new customer acquisition and higher average receipts
More satisfied
customers
thanks to short waiting times and easy handling of the SOTs
Less
manual effort
in ordering processes thanks to automated processes
Tank & Rast is the leading provider of catering, retail, hotel, fuel and fast-charging infrastructure on Germany's highways. Together with franchise partners, Tank & Rast operates around 360 filling stations and around 400 service stations (including approx. 50 hotels) and over 20 locations next to the highway in the German highway network. Around 500 million travelers visit Tank & Rast service stations every year, which stand for consistent customer orientation and high service quality.