The COVID-19 pandemic has changed our lives in many different ways, one of them being the way we dine in at restaurants.
Restaurants and bars have begun passing out paper menus that can be thrown away after one use and making sure customers have limited contact with frequently used surfaces.
Self-serve soda machines, like the Coca Cola Freestyle, are a hotbed for germs and other things due to the number of people that will touch and use it every day in a restaurant. One way the beverage company is helping reduce contact with frequently touched surfaces is by launching their new 'touch-free' soda machines!
Thanks to new technology, customers will be able to dispense their drinks using their smartphone and never have to touch the Coca Cola Freestyle machine.
Instead of tapping the touch screen, customers will be able to hold their smartphone up to the display, then it’ll auto-scan a QR code and connect you to the machine. Once connected, a full menu of brands and flavors of drinks will appear on your phone screen and after making your selection, the drink will automatically dispense from the machine, no-touch required!
The soda company wanted to make it extremely easy for customers, which is why there is no app connected to the machine that needs to be downloaded in order to use it. The machine will connect to any smart device using the QR code making it very simple to pour a drink. There will be no confusion of having to download an app while you're holding your food and then figuring out how to connect it, your smartphone can do it all on its own.
The new technology will begin rolling out this month and by August 10,000 machines in locations such as Firehouse Subs, Wendy's, and Five Guys will feature the no-touch machines.
The goal is to have all 52,000 Coca-Cola Freestyle machines updated with this feature by the end of the year.