Revised March 24, 2020: Now, with the COVID-19 virus spreading throughout the world, the need for social distancing is driving the take-up of contactless technologies throughout many industries.We have revised this article in light of current trends, adding in an extra advantage, obvious in the current climate, the need to reduce physical contact by social distancing.
Our general lack of time and advances in technology have resulted in increased demand for sophisticated automated devices such as interactive and self-service kiosks. Self-service kiosks are devices set up to allow customers to select and pay for products and services without the need for human interaction. They are highly customisable and can be used in endless situations such as for market research, checking-in for travel, and ordering food. They can be used in many different industries and are making a huge difference in locations with heavy footfall.
So what benefits can customers and hospitality businesses expect from installing interactive or self-service kiosks?
1. Go Contactless
'Contactless' is the word of the moment and the trend being driven hard by the World Health Organisation. Contactless transactions whether they are ordering, payments, or distribution through order-ahead services, are helping to protect people in these uncertain times. Self-serve kiosks enable customers to place their orders and pay without interacting with another person. Kiosk surfaces can easily be sanitised between orders providing a safe and convenient way to place orders and pay for goods and services.
2. Improve Your Customer Experience
For people who like to do things for themselves and have control over their buying experience, automated self-serve kiosks could be key to improving their experience with your business. Self-serve kiosks provide consistency throughout the transaction and a higher level of accuracy as the customer can review the order before confirming it. They can reduce the stress caused by delays and queues, and in some cases social interaction, and speed up processes that are necessary but not necessarily enjoyable. All contributing factors towards providing a better experience for your customers.
3. Speed Up Processes
In our time-poor culture, the quicker we can complete mundane tasks and processes, the quicker we move onto more enjoyable pursuits. A key benefit of self-service kiosks is that they can speed up routine processes, increase throughput and consequently decrease delays and queues. For your business, this means increasing the number of transactions processed and in turn, making more profit. Using product images is one way to do this. It takes less time to visually locate a product than it does to find a product through text.
4. Provide Better Quality Products
Businesses that utilise self-service kiosks to take care of transactions are able to free up their staff to focus on customer service and more complex activities such as producing higher quality products. High-quality coffee or food delivered in less time can increase customer satisfaction and generate repeat business.
5. Improve Profitability
It goes without saying that increased automation can lower operational costs and reduce overheads. Plus, as the staff is reallocated to more complex jobs and workloads are restructured, businesses become more efficient and in turn, make more profit.
6. Increase Average Spend Per Person
A popular function of self-service kiosks is that cross and up-sell opportunities are built into the transaction process. Whereas serving staff must be trained to do this and can easily forget to upsell in busy service situations, opportunities to provide information on special promotions and offers are built into the self-service process and are an effective way to increase spending and profitability.
7. Mobile Connectivity
In some situations, self-service kiosks can be interfaced with mobile technology allowing customers or staff to interact with the kiosk from another location, increasing productivity, efficiency, and profitability. For example, your self-service kiosk could be integrated with a mobile app to create a more fluid user experience or integrated with management tools for the operator.
8. Live Reporting
Having a continuous view of your business, accessible anywhere by any device, can provide minute-by-minute reporting and make for easier informed decision making. Increase profitability by either cutting costs or increasing sales based on information accessed through your live reporting tools connected to your self-service kiosks.
Lastly, we have to address the elephant in the room – that self-service kiosks reduce human interaction and depersonalise customer service. In some cases, this is true and self-service kiosks are not the perfect solution for every business. Yet for businesses that have repetitive transactional processes, like some hospitality businesses, installing self-serve kiosks could reduce delays, increase profitability, and produce superior quality products and experiences for your customers.
If you're seeking a high-quality, Australian-made and supported Point of Sale solution for your hospitality or retail business, look no further than Triniteq. Our innovative technologies are designed to simplify your operations, enhance your customer experience, and make you more money. Discover our range of products and services today.
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