In our daily lives, it's easy to overlook how technology has changed our existence. From communication to transactions, technology is changing the way we live, consume, and interact with one another. Starting with pumping our own gas and booking our insurance or traveling without a third party to scanning our items at the grocery stores, self-service has brought a lot of independence, speed, and convenience.

Customers' choices and preferences for self-serve are being reflected by recent decisions of big names such as McDonald's, Starbucks, Amazon, and others that are also giving their market what they desire. Depending on the type of self-serve, it often goes far beyond just convenience; it also brings efficiency, saves costs, and usually brings more profits. In the 21st century, we do a lot of activities that used to be done with the help of someone else on our own, and self-serve beer tap system is one of them - think of it as the next step from self-serve soda at restaurants, now we have self-serve beverages and other drinks.


Self-Serve Beer Tap vs. Traditional Tap Rooms

Self-serve walls simplify the process of pouring beverages. What was once a 7-step process taking up to 15 minutes can now be done in less than 20 seconds.


In traditional taprooms/ restaurants

It’s been 15 minutes, but for your customer, it feels like an hour. For them, waiting may be awkward, and they may be wishing they could order straight away. This is the average customer experience in traditional taprooms. In detail, the guests in traditional settings usually:

1.  Wait their turn to talk to a bartender or waiter
2.  Place their order
3.  The server places an order in the POS
4.  The bartender gets a printout of the drink to make
5.  They make the drink
6.  Bartender places drink on the pick-up area with the receipt
7.  The server delivers the drink to the guest

After a long day of work, your customers might feel extra tired by the additional work of having to wait for their drink. It’s also worth noting that this process repeats itself every time a customer wants a new drink. This is where self-pour taprooms shine: the simplicity and convenience of the bar experience.


In self-pour taprooms/restaurants

In self-pour taprooms, you can let your customers enjoy their drinks in two easy steps. Make your customer feel right at home, just like getting another beer in the fridge. In this new setting, the guests:

1. Open a tab with a host (The server connects the tab to their RFID card)
2. With the RFID card connected to their credit card, they can instantly access beers, wines, cocktails, kombuchas, cold brews, or any other available types of beverage on self-pour taps in a given establishment

Due to this dramatically increased efficiency, self-serve beverage technology is rapidly changing the hospitality industry and becoming more visible everywhere around us. Restaurants, breweries, bars, arcades, and even cruise ships or military bases are now enjoying the benefits of self-serve beer systems. The self-pour tap allows guests to serve themselves drinks while getting charged by the ounce seamlessly. In turn, establishments make more money thanks to less wasted products and increased beverage sales.


How exactly does A self-service beer tap system work for the guests?

Customers can pour themselves as little or as much as they would like, paying with a card or wristband that uses RFID technology to run their tab. To avoid overconsumption, the system limits guests to accessing only 2 drinks at a time. For wine, a drink would be 5-7 ounces, and for beers, it is 10 – 16 oz. When the patrons reach the point of the legal limit, and they need to get their RFID card or wristband reauthorized, the staff can give their RFID card access to 2 more drinks.

Benefits of Self-Serve Beer Tap System for Businesses

• Significantly boosts beverage sales as the customers tend to drink more
• Decreases product waste (no spillage or drinks forgotten to ring into the tilt)
• Eliminates sampling for free (costly for businesses) as customers pay by the ounce for everything they sample
• Decreases staffing needs

In short, the self-serve technology system completely changes the economics of owning a restaurant, brewery, or bar. Customers wait less and buy more, every ounce is accounted for, and fewer staff are required. Ultimately, the self-pour system allows to increase serving capacity and increases the bar staff efficiency.


What to Expect with a Self-Serve Beer Tap System

Are you keeping up? Self-service technology is currently a giant in the hospitality industry. If you want to hop on the trend, here is what you should expect with your self-serve beer wall:

•     Increased Profits by 50%
•     Decreased Overhead by 20%
•     Reduced Waste to Less Than 1%

Besides benefits for the operators of the self-pour system, beverages on taps are more environmentally friendly. For example, one keg of self-pour wine equals about 120 wine glasses with each glass as fresh as the first. Overall kegged wine saves 20 bottles of wine – which equals 39 pounds of packaging – from the landfill.


Serving drinks other than beer is not a problem

Self-pour is not limited only to beer and wines. Among other commonly served drinks on self-pour taps are:

• Cocktails – the popular cocktails that your establishment serves on daily bases require a significant time investment by your employees; when the cocktails can be made and sold in batch, it is not only much more time-efficient but also more economical as less staff needs to cover the floor at the peak times
• Kombucha – this beverage started as a novelty but has quickly become a very popular drink
• Cold brew – unlike regular coffee, cold brew is more flavorful and less acidic
• Iced tea and other soft drinks – these beverages were the first ones to be self-served (gas stations, movie theaters)

Whether it is beers, wines, or cocktails that are your main bread and butter, if you are looking for innovative ways to increase your beverage sales, implementing self-pour technology could be just what you are looking for.

PourMyBeer is a market leader in self-serve dispense technology and combines Micro Matic engineered draft systems' expertise and quality to deliver an innovative, user-friendly self-serve beverage dispensing experience.


Let Your Customers Experience the Best Self-Serve Beer Tap System

PourMyBeer has engineered the most advanced and reliable software and hardware. Their system has room for up to four taps per screen and runs on hardware built to last. There’s no need for Wi-Fi and no need to worry about random operating system updates thanks to the proprietary Linux system. With an unparalleled support team on-call, it’s no wonder that PourMyBeer has installed over 4,672 taps for businesses across the globe, serving clients such as Buffalo Wild Wings, WeWork, Whole Foods, Ceasars Entertainment, U.S. Marine Corps, and many others.