MANILA -- Touch-screen menu boards are being installed in several Jollibee restaurants as the Philippines’ largest fast food operator wants to keep millennials and Generation Z hooked on its fried chicken and sweet spaghetti, an official said.

The tap-to-order kiosks are targeted at young customers who want a different kind of engagement, said Joseph Tanbuntiong, Jollibee Foods Corp country business group head.

“It's really the experience of the customer. We want to make sure that we continue to evolve, be able to stay exciting, stay relevant to our customers,” Tanbuntiong told ABS-CBN News.

Customers can pay for their meals at the machine using their credit or debit cards, or settle the bill with cash at the counter. Rival McDonald's earlier introduced self-service kiosks in the Philippines,

Tanbuntiong said the touch screen menu boards would help make service faster.

“They are looking for that kind of engagement, that kind of experience so tayo we have to be very responsive to the needs and wants of customers,” he said.

A 2017 study showed that millennials - customers born between 1981 and 1996 - are more keen on spending on experience, regardless of their income.

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‘TABLE TRACKERS’

“Table trackers” - small devices given to customers in place of table numbers - are also being tested in some Chowking and Greenwich stores.

A table tracker will send signals to the kitchen - where a digital floor plan of the store is installed - to alert the server where a customer is seated, Tanbuntiong said.

“That cuts short ‘yung serving time so name-maintain natin ‘yung quality ng food natin,” he said. “We want to use it because ang number 1 important thing sa atin ay taste.”

JFC has yet to decide when these gadgets would be rolled-out in all branches as officials are still studying its effectiveness, he said.