Tiffin School, a modern state secondary school in Kingston-upon-Thames, is dedicated to providing a seamless and efficient dining experience for its nearly 1,500 students. Faced with growing student numbers and limited break times, the school needed a solution to reduce queues, speed up service, and create a more enjoyable lunchtime experience by choosing the innovative Self-Serve Kiosk.
Speed of service was our greatest challenge
Senior Finance Officer Tina Costello explained that Tiffin School needed a way to speed up their lunch service, deliver students’ meals faster and reduce crowding in the busy dining hall:
“The main thing was speed; that’s our big problem. We needed more tills for lunchtime crowds without needing more people on tills.”
To solve this, Tiffin School introduced Self-Serve Kiosks, offering a modern, self-service solution that complements their existing Fusion Cashless system.
Faster service, happy students
The additional point of sale has dramatically reduced queuing times, ensuring students have more time to enjoy their meals and socialise.
“It’s so much faster than paying at the till, and pupils love it. It’s just like checking out at the supermarket.”
How the Self-Serve Kiosk Works
The Self-Serve Kiosk gives students an easy and efficient way to purchase meals:
Tap or Scan: Students access their cashless accounts by tapping their ID cards or scanning their fingerprints.
Select Items: They scan pre-packaged items using the built-in barcode reader or choose from a touchscreen menu.
Checkout: The total is displayed on-screen, and students complete the purchase using their cashless account. Staff and older students can also pay using the integrated card reader for Chip & Pin or mobile payments.
Fully self-serve breakfasts speed up operations
As well as speeding up lunchtimes, Tiffin School now operates a self-serve-only breakfast using the kiosks.
“We’ve set the menu up in all different tabs: hot food, cold food, breakfast, and paninis. Pupils know exactly where all the tabs are – they’re really quick. They quickly find items and pay; it’s faster than a traditional till.”
Tina explains that this has freed up staff each morning to prepare food and set up the dining hall for busier service periods:
“The staff can fill shelves and get on with sandwich prep, as the self-service is open. Boys can wander in and buy something, or a teacher can buy their coffee at the Self-Serve Kiosk.”
Seamless Chip & Pin payments for staff
The integration of card readers with the kiosk system has simplified payments for staff and older students, offering secure and convenient options.
“It’s really popular with staff who can use their bank cards as Chip & Pin is now integrated with the Self-Serve Kiosk.”
Space-saving design increases efficiency
With its slim floor-standing, wall-mounted and countertop options, kiosks offer significant space savings compared to traditional tills. For Tiffin, the compact floor-standing kiosk maximises the use of space in their bustling dining hall, allowing more students to purchase meals at once. Tina said:
“We could easily replace one traditional PoS and put four kiosks to maximise that space. We’re very tight on space; that’s why they’re so good; they’re slim and sleek and fit in easily.”
Self-service technology is a natural fit for schools
With more than 350,000 self-ordering restaurant kiosks worldwide and young consumers favouring independent purchasing experiences, bringing self-service technology into school canteens was a natural progression.
Carl Lewis, CRB Cunninghams Release Manager, explained:
“We developed the Self-Serve Kiosk to help schools and colleges provide users with an easy, efficient way to purchase their meals. The kiosks are built into the Fusion Cashless system, so they work seamlessly alongside our traditional tills, offering a completely integrated cashless solution.”
The future of school catering with Self-Serve Kiosks
Since launching Self-Serve Kiosks, Tiffin’s students have enjoyed a modern, interactive purchasing experience, and staff have benefited from streamlined catering operations.
Looking ahead, Tiffin School continues to work closely with CRB Cunninghams on future Self-Serve Kiosk enhancements, including new pre-ordering functionality set to launch soon.
