Case Study Student Union Saarland Interview
With around 180 employees, Studentenwerk Saarland is a German student union dedicated to supporting students through a variety of services, including operating a total of six canteens and nine cafeterias to cater for the university’s 30,000 students. The canteen on the Saarbrücken campus is one of the central facilities and serves around one million meals a year. Despite the high number of daily guests the Studentenwerk Saarland manages to guarantee a high level of service for students. Marius Müller, canteen manager at the Saarbrücken campus, and Monika Nalbach, cashier at the Saarbrücken campus, describe the positive changes brought about by the introduction of the AI-based solution from VisioLab.
With the VisioLab solution, students can place their tray under the iPad camera, all items will be recognises automatically and it calculates the price directly. The payment process is quick and easy. This eliminates the need to manually scan or enter items, which speeds up the entire process considerably. This has several advantages: Increased efficiency: “We can operate twice as many checkouts with the same number of staff” resulting in a significant increase in efficiency, emphasizes Marius Müller. This optimisation makes it possible to increase throughput at peak times. Leading to better planning and utilisation of staff resources. Bottlenecks can also be avoided and overall service quality improved. Time savings: “The advantages of VisioLab are clearly the time savings,” says Marius Müller. This means shorter waiting times and faster service for students. The more efficient serving increased satisfaction among both guests and staff. In addition, staff can focus more of their attention on other tasks, which contributes to better overall organization. Positive feedback: The reactions from users have been very positive. “People are really excited, it’s something new, it’s cool. The response has been very, very good,” reports Monika Nalbach, cashier and AI Operator at the canteen. One student explains enthusiastically: “You don’t have to enter anything, you put the tray under the camera, press pay, tap card, done. It’s quick.” Another student adds: “I think what I like most about self-checkout systems is that I can save time and then sit in the sun for longer instead of having to stand at the checkout for a long time.”
The time saved and the positive reactions from students show that innovative solutions such as VisioLab’s self-checkout systems can offer considerable added value. “I can well imagine that if a lot of people use the canteen at the same time, it will be a great relief,” explains the student. The introduction of the VisioLab solution at the Studentenwerk Saarland has shown that technological innovations can bring significant improvements in efficiency and satisfaction for both staff and users.
In the first quarter following our product launch, we observed some remarkable outcomes that truly highlighted the effectiveness of our new positioning strategy. An impressive 96% of our revenue can be attributed directly to this fresh approach, showcasing how well it resonated with our target audience. Additionally, we managed to reduce onboarding time by a significant 41%, allowing new team members to become productive much faster than before. Employee confidence in our messaging soared to an astounding 92% in internal surveys, indicating that our communication efforts were not only clear but also inspiring.
However, perhaps the most profound change was more subtle yet equally impactful: our entire team began to communicate in a unified manner. From the newest junior hires to our CEO, everyone found themselves equipped with the right vocabulary to articulate what we were building and, crucially, why it was important. This newfound clarity fostered a sense of shared purpose and collaboration that had been lacking before, ultimately strengthening our organizational culture and driving us towards greater success.
