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Interactive technology is fast becoming an essential commodity and popular trend in all industry sectors due to the need to provide easily accessible information and services in a compact form.
Touch screen technology has beem embraced by business owners and government officials and used for automated back office and staff facing systems.
Now that self-service is also so integral within business, touch screens have evolved and more and more sectors, from retail to transport, are seeing the value of providing the customers with self service touch screen kiosks.
You can install virtually any application into an industry and there are many factors and considerations to cover. You need to bear in mind who will be using it and what height it should be i.e. can it be accessed by a wheelchair user? What is its purpose; are you displaying information for advertising and marketing or is it simply for human resources?
But, out of all the factors and considerations there are a few that all units share…
The common Factors:
- Screen size – 15-19” for privacy – no one wants their information presented to passers-by.
- Attractor screen – to attract the user and promote the service clearly and concisely.
- Journey – the process the user has to go through to complete their desired outcome should be seamless and intuitive.
- On screen design – simple design with buttons large enough to touch
- Branding / messaging – outside messaging make the customer aware of the kiosk.
The common Considerations:
- DDA compliance – height of screen and accessories, on screen colour options, location – the idea is that all users can use the kiosk
- Additional panels for screen and sound privacy – depending on the function of the kiosk the user may require a high or low level of privacy.
- Accessories – what items will aid the user? Keyboard? Phone? Microphone?
- Touch screen technology – depending on where and how the touch screen will be used, it will require a different type of screen technology such as Surface Acoustic Wave, which provides great screen clarity or Resistive which can be operated by a number of touch methods such as a finger or stylus.
Interactive Touch Screen Payment System for Kiddicare
Touch screen self-service kiosks can have an immensely positive impact on your business and bring many benefits to both your employees and customers.
But how do you know when your environment needs a kiosk?
We’ve put together some situations that you can to look out for…
- Staffs are stretched to their maximum and too busy to answer all of your customers’ needs which decrease customer satisfaction. Touch screen kiosks can assist your customers so your staff can concentrate on other tasks.
- Customers can’t find what they’re looking for, but are avoiding asking or waiting for staff assistance and simply leaving. Introducing automated processes through self service kiosks you can keep customers in your environment for longer.
- You operate in antisocial hours. Having a self-service kiosk reduces the need for man power during this time and in turn lowers the need for anti-social wages and security welfare for your staff.
- You need to save on staff and build costs, but can’t cut service levels. Kiosks can offer cost and service efficiency where employees and build installations can’t. They can be faster, cheaper, space saving and more reliable.
- Your environment is missing valuable products and services, but you don’t have much space to dedicate to a new build. Kiosks can operate in minimal areas, even on a wall and showcase multiple items.
We have helped a wide range of businesses across a plethora of industry sectors introduce self-service kiosks and touch screen technology into their business that is tailored to their needs and customer requirements.
For more information on touch screen kiosk visit Protouch today, the leading distributor and manufacturer of touch screen equipment across Europe.
Industry research by Kiosk Marketplace has produced a key White Paper on how businesses can get the most out of their kiosks, looking at touch screen technology from the customer’s perspective.
Here in part one, we’ll look at five of their key ideas that have emanated directly from consumer feedback.
1) Location, location, location
To succeed, kiosks must be placed in a prime location so they can easily be discovered by customers. Unfortunately most kiosks have a significant footprint, and floorspace is hard to find in prime locations.
Consider a kiosk that is small enough to be mounted directly to a shelf or end cap without significantly displacing merchandise.
2) First impressions
Bad first impressions often are made with initial kiosk screens that:
- Are complex with many choices, leading the customer to think “I don’t have time to learn.”
- Play a full-screen video, causing a customer to feel “It’s just trying to sell me something.”
- Display the message ‘Touch to Begin,’ which leads to the question “Begin what? I don’t have the time to find out.”
The initial screen must be simple yet dynamic, but not so dynamic as to be annoying. Avoid full-screen videos and take
a cue from digital signage applications, which continuously rotate through a small number of simple screens. Provide a small
number of buttons that have an obvious result, e.g., a “see more” button underneath the image of the sale item.
3) Work or play 
A typical kiosk looks like a computer, which people associate with work and can imply a frustrating, complex and time-consuming experience — the last associations needed to get a customer engaged. Unless there is a pressing need that the kiosk fills (such as an ATM machine), a computer-like terminal results in the customer walking in the opposite direction.
Careful design can give a kiosk toy-like qualities, such as the use of bright colours and non-standard shapes, making the kiosk more engaging and encouraging its use.
4) Your number is up
No one likes to wait while someone else uses the kiosk. Conversely, no one wants to have someone waiting behind them. It’s also frustrating to have to walk some distance to use the kiosk. Unfortunately, due to cost, many installations only have a single kiosk.
The solution is to have multiple, lower-cost kiosks distributed throughout the store.
5) Patience. What patience?
Waiting for a page to refresh can be frustrating. Often it is not the length of the wait that matters; it is the unpredictability that people find frustrating. Many in-store kiosk implementations are remotely connected to the company’s website. While this is a necessity for services such as loyalty and remote fulfillment, it leads to unnecessary delays while browsing products.
Eventually, after being asked to endure this painful experience, the customer leaves and never comes back. All browsing delays should be limited to less than 0.5 second; this is best achieved by having all the content reside locally in the store.
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