Is The Self-Serve Beer Tap System The Future For The Hospitality Industry?

In our daily lives, it's easy to overlook how technology has changed our existence. From communication to transactions, technology is changing the way we live, consume and interact with one another. Starting with pumping our own gas and booking our insurance or travel without a third party, to scanning our items at the grocery stores, self-service has brought a lot of independence, speed, and convenience to us.

Customer’s choices and preference for self-serve are being reflected by recent decisions of big names such as McDonald's, Starbucks, Amazon, and others that are also giving their market what they desire. Depending on the type of self-serve, it often goes far beyond just convenience, it also brings efficiency, saves costs and usually brings in more profits. In the 21st century, we do a lot of activities that used to be done with the help of someone else on our own and self-serve beer tap system is one of them - think of it as the next step from self-serve soda at restaurants, now we have self-serve beverages and other drinks.

Self-Serve Beer Tap vs Traditional Tap Rooms

Self-serve walls simplify the process of pouring beverages. What was once a 7-step process taking up to 15 minutes can now be done in less than 20 seconds.

In traditional taprooms/ restaurants

It’s been 15 minutes, but for your customer it feels like an hour. For them, waiting may be awkward and they may be wishing they could just order straight away. This is the average customer experience in traditional taprooms. In detail, the guests in traditional settings usually:

• Wait their turn to talk to a bartender or waiter

• Place their order

• The server places an order in POS

• The bartender gets a printout of the drink to make

• They make the drink

• Bartender places drink on the pick-up area with the receipt

• The server delivers the drink to the guest

After a long day of work, your customers might feel extra tired by the additional work of having to wait for their drink. It’s also worth noting that this process repeats itself every time a customer wants a new drink. This is where self-pour taprooms shine: the simplicity and convenience of the bar experience.

In self-pour taprooms/restaurants

In self-pour taprooms, you can let your customers enjoy their drinks in two easy steps. Making your customer feel right at home, just like getting another beer in the fridge. In this new setting, the guests:

• Open a tab with a host (The server connects the tab to their RFID card)

• With the RFID card connected to their credit card, they can instantly access beers, wines, cocktails, kombuchas, cold brews, or any other types of beverage that are available on self-pour taps in a given establishment.

Due to this dramatically increased efficiency, self-serve beverage technology is rapidly changing hospitality industry and becoming more visible everywhere around us. Restaurants, Breweries, Bars, Arcades and even Cruise ships or Military bases are now enjoying benefits of self-serve beer systems. The self-pour tap allows guests to seamlessly serve themselves drinks, while getting charged by the ounce. In turn, establishments make more money thanks to less wasted product and increased beverage sales.

Benefits of Self-Serve Beer Tap System for Businesses

• Significantly boosts beverage sales as the customers tend to drink more

• Decreases product waste (no spillage or drinks forgotten to be rang into the tilt)

• Eliminates sampling for free (costly for businesses) as customers pay by the ounce for everything they sample

• Decreases staffing needs

In short, the self-serve technology system completely changes the economics of owning a restaurant, brewery or bar. Customers wait less and buy more, every ounce is accounted for, and less staff are required. Ultimately, the self-pour system allows to increase serving capacity and increases the bar staff efficiency.

What to Expect with a Self-Serve Beer Tap System

Are you keeping up? Self-service technology is currently a giant in the hospitality industry. If you want to hop on the trend, here is what you should expect with your self-serve beer wall:

• Increased Profits by 50%

• Decreased Overhead by 20%

• Reduced Waste to Less Than 1%

Besides benefits for the operators of the self-pour system, beverages on taps are more environmentally friendly. For example, one keg of self-pour wine equals about 120 wine glasses with each glass as fresh as the first. Overall kegged wine saves 20 bottles of wine – which equals 39 pounds of packaging – from the landfill.