"It is fascinating, but it is too inconvenient to use. Telling the clerk my order directly seems the easiest."
On the 28th at 10 a.m., at a Starbucks in Myeongdong, Jung-gu, Seoul. A customer in his 50s, a person surnamed Kim, tapped the screen repeatedly in front of a kiosk installed in the center of the store. After more than five minutes of scrolling through the menu, Kim eventually sighed and headed to the counter. With no one waiting, payment took less than a minute. Kim said, "It is hard even to find the drink I want, and I do not see staff to help, so I end up ordering from a person."
Starbucks had not introduced kiosks, unlike other franchises, citing "customer delight" and "face-to-face communication" as brand principles. Then on the 13th it installed kiosks on a trial basis at 20 stores, including in Myeongdong, Gangnam and Jeju. A Starbucks official said the company considered a range of users, including people with disabilities, foreign tourists and customers who find face-to-face ordering difficult.
Users encountered on-site said they understood the consideration for vulnerable groups, but found the details, such as how to use it and its functions, somewhat lacking.
On the morning of the 27th, at a store in Gangnam-gu, Seoul. Two kiosks were positioned behind a display of in-house merchandise. Below the screen, installed at an adult man's waist height for wheelchair users, were separate arrow keys and a physical keypad. This was to accommodate those who could not reach the screen or customers with visual impairments.
The kiosk also had features for older adults or people with low vision, such as enlarging the text displayed on the screen and a "screen reader" that reads the screen content aloud. It supports English, Japanese and Chinese for foreign tourists.
But the ordering process left something to be desired. An older customer attempting to order with the bottom keypad said, "It is slow to respond each time I press, and navigating the menu is too cumbersome," and quickly gave up. The audio mode for people with visual impairments was also hard to hear because of surrounding noise.
When this reporter tried ordering an iced Americano with the keypad, the process was complicated and took a long time. Because the structure required pressing a button every time you moved one step up, down, left or right, getting through the order took quite a while.
Between noon and 1 p.m., a short line formed in front of the kiosk, but over the next hour only three people used it. Most customers who chose face-to-face ordering said, "Ordering directly is much faster." A person in his 70s surnamed Kim said, "Even after following others several times, it is still hard to find the menu," adding, "I would rather tell a staff member."
Restrictions on using e-gift cards were also an issue. The order amount had to be higher than the e-gift card amount to use it. A feature available with face-to-face orders—recharging the remaining amount to a Starbucks card when using 60% or more of an e-gift card—was not supported. On-site, complaints continued that "even with an e-gift card, you end up having to go to staff and pay again."
Foreign tourists also expressed disappointment. At the Myeongdong and Gangnam stores, kiosks are installed in the middle of the store. To ask for help, you have to go to the counter. Maya Nicole, 20, a traveler from Australia, said, "When payment is difficult in Korea, I often get help from staff," adding, "It was more inconvenient because there was no one nearby to ask."
Even if you set the language to Japanese or Chinese, the printed receipt showed only Korean and English. A Japanese tourist, Yosaka, 25, said, "I ordered in Japanese, but the receipt had only English, so I was worried whether the order went through correctly."
Starbucks is in the pilot stage with kiosks, but like other coffee brands, it is likely to expand to stores nationwide over time. A Starbucks official said, "It has been less than a month since kiosks were installed, and we are in the early introduction stage," adding, "Orders are always possible at the counter as well, and we plan to continue improving methods by collecting feedback on customer inconveniences, including e-gift card payments."