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peripherals providers to bring such solutions to market. In developing the platform, JustLegal overcame several
From Elo's countertop system that flips from staff- to cus- issues lawyers face online, one being prequalification of
tomer-facing to reduce wait times, to its 70-inch touch- clients at the point of acquisition. "We created a stronger
screen, new use cases are taking shape. contact form and a customizable intake form, said Francis
"Frank" Burns, Vice President of Marketing for JustLegal.
Southern California-based chain Burger Boss installed He noted that in legal services, everything must be secure
wall-mounted Elo self-order kiosks inside restaurants that and compliant. In addition to the calendar availability fea-
allow customers to build a burger on screen by tapping ture, the platform offers video chat.
visuals of individual ingredients, make payment and then
watch the burger being prepared in an open-style kitchen. Burns said JustLegal has seen a threefold conversion in-
According to Burger Boss, not only has this reduced line crease. "In other words, if 10 people were coming to your
time at counters, but it has also created a novel experience site and one was to become your client, we would expect
for most first-time customers. that to turn into three if they were able to book right
away," he said. Given the immediacy and convenience, cli-
Because customers often arrive in groups and not ev- ents book an appointment, thus ending their search. The
eryone has an app or desire to order ahead, self-service scheduling app is mobile optimized and clients can pay
screens on-premise can deliver the same digital experi- legal fees online through its integration with LawPay, he
ence for order entry. "For restaurants, order accuracy, added.
basket size, a lot of those different analytical pieces are
enhanced and increased because of that digital ordering Market size up
process," said Luke Wilwerding, Director of Retail Solu- Industry observers will closely monitor Amazon.com Inc.
tions at Elo. A specially designed Elo touchscreen bracket, once the planned $13.7 billion purchase of Whole Foods
when attached to specific payment terminals, can power Market Inc. is completed. "If Amazon can eliminate the
payments, he added. checkout and at the same time improve the shopping
experience because they know who the customer is and
Larger screens allow self-service to be part of an interac- what their preferences are – and streamline that process
tive journey. "When you think about digital menus, for – Whole Foods will be the next wave in super marketing,"
example, not the overhead menus, but if you're in Las Ve- Crone said.
gas or areas where you might have an inside restaurant
or you're walking by, you can now browse through that Digital touch-point innovations are expected to spread
menu through a digital touch interface," he said. The qual- into every retail segment. "We do look at loyalty, brand
ity of the food and surroundings can be conveyed on- experiences – all different ways of connecting the shopper
screen, which invites customers in. to both the brand as well as to that ecommerce digital
experience that carries with them after they leave the
Home furnishings stores also have an opportunity to pro- store," Wilwerding said.
vide on-site screens that allow customers to review design
ensembles in mockup settings before committing to pur- Whether to rely on third parties to perform much of the
chase. Trained sales personnel can up-sell to make home groundwork for order ahead and delivery/pickup is an
décor additions more balanced or complete. The same individual choice. "For the independent restaurant that
technology can be applied in other high-ticket venues doesn't have the resources and the national footprint, the
where path to purchase requires more time. aggregators like UberEATS, RushOrder and Grubhub are
Professional services doing it for them, and obviously they have to give them
a cut," Pucci said, noting that aggregators can also attract
For reservation-dependent industries such as airlines, new customers and potentially increase same-store sales.
and travel and hospitality businesses, online self-service
has replaced labor-intensive, semi-automated systems. However, branding affords greater control and allocation
Similarly, in professional services, where booking bill- of resources to attract new customers. "If you can get 1,000
able hours is core, online platforms are beginning to make to 2,000 of your best customers to download your own app
inroads. The salon and spa industry, considered an early and do order ahead, then you're communicating directly
adopter, has accelerated sales for Harbortouch, MindBody, with those customers and you're not sharing that data
Square, Vend and other vendors catering to this vertical. with anybody else," Crone said.

More recently, developers have branched into other pro- Ultimately, ISOs may want to reevaluate the business
fessional service segments, such as medical and legal of- they're in. "Are they in the payments business or are they
fices, to help fill unbillable hours and better manage client in the order completion business?" Crone said. "If they're
schedules. Austin, Texas-based JustLegal created a plat- in the order completion business, they had better figure
form that connects clients with lawyers online through a out how to get into order ahead, because waiting for the
licensed scheduling service and directory. customer to be physically at the point-of-sale is only going
to be a declining business."

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