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Taco Bell claims Elevate Awards for interactive kiosks

Taco Bell claimed an Elevate Award from the ICX Association for its self-order kiosks by Elo , which helped deliver superior customer experience. Other companies claimed prizes in categories ranging from digital signage to hospitality.

June 13, 2019 by Elliot Maras — Editor, Kiosk Marketplace & Vending Times

ognized creative and innovative technology deployments that elevate the customer experience. Christopher Hall, ICXA managing director, made the presentations on the first day of theICX Summit at the Omni Frisco in Dallas.

Taco Bell's kiosks by Elo won the Best Retaurant ICX, while Bell Canada Smart City Kiosks by Bell Canada, Civiq Smartscapes and Reality Interactive won Best Kiosk ICX.

The Best Retaurant ICX award category recognized restaurant-specific achievement in using interactive technologies to create a transcendent brand experience. Taco Bell has accomplished this through the use of a custom application managed in-house and deployed on Elo's 22-inch large-format displays powered by EloView, according to the release. Using EloView, Taco Bell is able to manage kiosks at thousands of locations across the country from one central location to enable a consistent customer experience. 

"Taco Bell strives to stay relevant with customers' ever-changing preferences and we are honored that the ICX Association recognizes our efforts," Rafik Hanna, senior director, IT, Taco Bell, said in a press release. "By partnering with Elo, we have succeeded in delivering a frictionless experience to our customers while streamlining our operations. We have unlocked the ability for our fans to make their menu items more cheesy, beefy, crunchy and more, all with the tap of a finger."

The Taco Bell kiosk program deployment began in Q4 of 2018, with self-service kiosks now in more than 4,000 locations in the U.S., according to the release. Taco Bell is on track to complete its national rollout in 2019, bringing the self-service kiosks to nearly 7,000 locations across the U.S. 

"Whether it's increasing engagement at one of the nation's top QSRs or making cities smarter, kiosk technology is helping to create amazing interactive experiences for customers and citizens everywhere," said Hall. "We're beyond thrilled to recognize these amazing deployments."

Other awards winners included:

• Best Digital Signage ICX: PanoScape at Tulane University, by DesignCentrix and Tulane University;
• Best Mobile ICX: The My Phillips App, by P97 Networks and Phillips 66;
• Best Retail ICX: The Nu Skin Flagship Store Experience, by Nu Skin and Shikatani Lacroix Design;
• Best Hospitality ICX: The Ocean Guest Experience Platform, by Carnival Corp.
• Best Omnichannel ICX: The Tuff Shed Configurator, by Tuff Shed and KBMax; and
• Best Emerging Technology in ICX: The Analytics Learning Platform Pro, by NEC Display Solutions.

Also this year, the Association renamed its ICXA Influencer of the Year award after longtime digital signage and place-based media analyst, consultant and advocate Lye Bunn, who passed away last fall. The Lyle Bunn Influencer of the Year Award went to Carnival Corp. for its work reinventing the hospitality experience on its cruise ships. Combining IoT, digital signage, wearable technologies and more, the brand's Ocean Guest Experience Platform puts the customer at the center of an array of experiential possibilities. Kyle Prestenback, vice president for Experience and Innovation Design at Carnival, accepted the award and told attendees about the brand's efforts to reimagine the guest experience.

Before handing out the Lyle Bunn Award, Hall told the audience about Bunn's influence on the industry. Bunn was an important mentor for him as he got his footing in the digital signage and customer experience fields, Hall said.

"I'd planned to one day give this award to Lyle," he said. "It is much to my chagrin that I never got to do so."

This year's awards represented an ongoing trend that is seeing more and more brands from an increasing range of verticals submitting themselves for Elevate Awards, Hall said.

"This is just further evidence that the customer-facing technology end-users are buying into the idea that creating transcendent customer experiences is key to their future success," he said. "And we're thrilled to recognize the excellent work they're doing in the field."

Photo courtesy of Elo.
 

About Elliot Maras

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Elliot Maras is the editor of Kiosk Marketplace and Vending Times. He brings three decades covering unattended retail and commercial foodservice.