Case Study
EBT
Overview
Design seamless EBT payment flows for both Taco Bell and KFC, accounting for differing technical implementations:
Taco Bell: EBT payments processed through an external device.
KFC: EBT payments processed natively within the POS system.
Impact: Enabled compliant EBT payment acceptance at participating locations, ensuring frictionless experiences for both customers and team members across two major QSR brands.
The Challenge
With the introduction of the Restaurant Meals Program (RMP), Taco Bell and KFC needed to support EBT payments at qualifying locations to better serve SNAP-eligible customers who rely on EBT for meals.
The payment process varied by brand:
Taco Bell required EBT transactions to occur through a separate external device, adding manual steps for both cashiers and customers.
KFC offered an existing but outdated and inconsistently used EBT flow directly within the POS, which required significant improvement for reliability and compliance.
The design goal was to create user-friendly EBT flows that accounted for:
Operational differences between the two brands.
Tax exemptions associated with EBT purchases.
Clear accountability mechanisms for cashiers handling external payments.
Seamless end-of-day reporting and reconciliation for franchise operators.
Taco Bell's use case includes an external non integrated payment device.
KFC's EBT process includes integration within the POS
Research and Discovery
Conducted competitive analysis of how other QSRs and retail businesses handle EBT payment acceptance, focusing on both external and integrated processes.
Partnered with Payments, Operations, and Franchise Support teams to document current-state workflows for EBT at both Taco Bell and KFC.
Identified pain points for team members managing external payments (manual reconciliation, tax handling, and transaction validation) and for customers navigating an unfamiliar payment process.
Mapped out the end-to-end service blueprint for both brands, capturing all touchpoints across cashier interaction, customer prompts, and payment reconciliation
Experience Strategy
Applied a dual-track approach, designing for:
Taco Bell’s external device flow, with clear handoff points between cashier and customer, including payment confirmation steps.
KFC’s integrated POS flow, ensuring the EBT tender type could be selected directly, triggering tax-exempt logic and automated payment validation.
Emphasized error prevention and recovery in both flows, ensuring cashiers had clear visual and textual prompts to catch mismatches (e.g., EBT Cash vs. SNAP).
Designed for compliance and auditability, ensuring every EBT transaction could be accurately tracked and reconciled at the end of day.
Design Solutions
Delivered wireframes, prototypes, and high-fidelity designs for both brands, ensuring:
Clear, actionable prompts for cashiers to identify EBT customers early in the order process.
Distinct flows for EBT SNAP vs. EBT Cash, with supporting logic to ensure correct tax handling.
Visual indicators within the POS to confirm successful external payments at Taco Bell.
Integrated payment confirmation screens for KFC, eliminating manual reconciliation steps.
Error states and recovery pathways, ensuring cashiers could confidently handle payment failures or mismatched payment types.
Created annotated design documentation for handoff to engineering, ensuring all business rules, tax logic, and reporting requirements were fully covered.
Outcome
Successfully deployed Taco Bell’s external EBT payment flow, enabling hundreds of participating locations to accept EBT for the first time.
Redesigned and re-launched KFC’s integrated EBT payment flow, increasing adoption across franchise locations by delivering a more intuitive and reliable process.
Reduced cashier error rates by introducing clear on-screen prompts and real-time payment validation feedback, improving cashier confidence in handling EBT transactions.
Ensured tax compliance by automatically flagging eligible items and applying appropriate tax exemptions within the POS.
Enhanced end-of-day reporting accuracy, streamlining reconciliation for both external and integrated payment methods.
Takeaways
Designing for multi-brand experiences requires a deep understanding of brand-specific operational constraints, especially when technology stacks differ.
Service design thinking is essential when payment processes span customer actions, cashier workflows, and backend reconciliation processes.
Designing for compliance and auditability can be just as important as designing for usability — particularly when working in highly regulated industries like payments and government programs.
Human error prevention through progressive disclosure and confirmation steps can dramatically improve the reliability of manual processes, especially in high-volume QSR environments.