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The 21st century is faster paced than ever. Everything and everyone are always in a rush and are moving so quick in what seems to be a hectic, chaotic lifestyle.
Time is money and when it comes to service, only the most efficient, convenient delivery is demanded.
This is why kiosks can speed up processes in the hotel and leisure industry; aiding travelling businessmen who have meetings to attend and appointments to be on time for.
To them time is of essence and is extremely important when it comes to their job; so touch screen technology which enables them to beat the queues and to check-in quickly is very valuable.
Nowadays, customer service does not depend upon a human greeting you at the front desk. People would rather use a machine; get their stuff and go; as opposed to waiting in line to be served.
A latest study has revealed that the best-in-class hospitality organisations are twice as likely to use self-service solutions.
The 2010 research, by the business research firm The Aberdeen Group, showed that the hotel industry is embracing kiosks to save money, offer better customer service; and because consumers are increasingly becoming more comfortable with the technology as if it was the norm.
Benefits of Touch screen kiosks being deployed in your leisure company are;
- Improve and speed up guest experience, which increases customer loyalty.
- A rise in customer loyalty in turn will increase revenues, ROI and reap in the profits.
- Shows the consumer you are keeping with the times, tech-savvy wise; developing your innovative brand image.
- Offers much more services for the customer; from mobile to internet.
- Reduces operational costs, as fewer staff needed to employ.
Self-service kiosks provide more than check-in facilities, consumers can also confirm reservations, select rooms, upgrade their existing rooms, as well as print maps out of the local areas including information of restaurants or tourist attractions.
Obviously, a person needs to be available to man the machine should it not work as well as giving that feeling of security, should help be needed.
To install a Touch screen kiosk in your hotel business, visit Protouch today.
We have already talked previously how our taxes are leading to improved technology, in particular with the presence of kiosks in the Health industry such as the NHS or doctor’s surgeries.
In that post, we discussed how a unit can benefit your business, to enhance the customer’s experience and improve overall satisfaction and management e.g. patient’s checking in for appointments or logging in for medical data.
But how can a Touch screen better your own employee’s health rather than the customer; and what are the advantages for you as the employer?
A company in Paris has implemented some kiosks that concentrate on managing employee wellbeing and health; checking their vital health signs, including body mass index, hydration level, blood pressure and body fat.
Capgemini, a consulting technology outsourcing and local professional services firm; issued out the units in France, as well as more than 35 countries.
The “Thrive initiative” is intended to increase focus on employee wellbeing in three phases over a six month period.
The first phase began three months ago in October 2010 with a staff campaign highlighting the importance of staying hydrated, with the workforce using the kiosks to receive their hydration statistics.
Phase two, which begins this January, will concentrate on body fat levels.
Phase three will centre on blood pressure and how its’ employees can reduce it or manage their levels.
The kiosks will be available throughout the campaign for staff to check their progress as well as an intranet site with the same information.
So far the campaign has seen about 2,500 tests completed in the Kiosks and about 50,000 hits on the intranet site.
But how can it benefit you the employer to know more about your employee’s health and how important is it?
- A healthier employee has more prolonged life vitality and therefore would work for you longer.
- A healthier employee is less likely to be taking working days off for being ill or sick.
- Whilst at work, a healthier staff member can concentrate fully and put more effort into their workload, leading to better results.
- Awareness of the working conditions possibly causing strain, stress and medical problems.
- Understanding their physical working limitations.
To install a Touch Screen kiosk in your business, visit Protouch today.
Businesses as well as retail, education and other industry sectors have been reaping the benefits of kiosks and touch screen technology for years.
Printing pictures from touch screen kiosks is nothing new but now social media is being used to target consumers, to follow the trends of a digital era.
Customers can print off photos directly from their Facebook account by using Socially Connected KODAK Picture Kiosks.
The kiosks have been deployed throughout Target stores alongside the new Kodak launched Social Photo Album Creator app for Facebook, the first Facebook application of its kind to come from a major imaging brand.
It gives users the ability to create a collaborative photo album with friends on Facebook.
FACEBOOK APPLICATION
Rolando Martinez, Eastman Kodak Company ‘s Retail Systems Solutions Americas business manager, said: “Today, pictures on Facebook are only fleeting glimpses of an event, but now with our new app consumers can tell their stories collaboratively, which leverages the real strength of Facebook.
“The new platform aligns with how consumers share photos socially and takes photo sharing from ‘my photos’ to ‘Our photos.’ The new app is perfect for shared life events such as weddings, parties or reunions.”
HOW IT WORKS
The consumer creates an album from their current Facebook photos, invites friends and family to collaborate and add their pictures to the album and can then visit a Kodak picture kiosk to connect and print from their Facebook account at the Kiosk.
So what is next for kiosks
; printing from micro-blogging site Twitter or printing pictures from social media site MySpace?
Self Service Kiosks are a fantastic advancement of technology and have made everyday activities a whole lot easier and simpler to do.
The advantages of kiosks to a customer include consistent, valuable service 24 hours a day and this benefit can be particularly vital in non-staff attended outdoor environments such as car parks which are typically self-service.
Outdoor kiosks require a different approach to indoor kiosks and need to be designed specifically for outdoor deployment in public areas. Overall an outdoor kiosk needs to be suitable for operation in any urban setting and should therefore be fully weather proof, highly robust, readable and sturdy.
Here are some key points that you need to know to ensure your outdoor kiosk is a success.
Display Screen
The screen must be designed for high glare settings and be anti-vandal. This requires a high- luminance, transflective LCD and an ambient light sensor that automatically increases and decreases brightness when necessary, to make it easy to read in the dark or when the sun is shining. The screen should also use toughened glass and a protection bezel and needs to be suitable for use with gloved hands.
Material
An outdoor kiosk needs to be made from a powerful material such as special anodized aluminium and special powder paint for outdoor use. It requires internal heating / ventilation system to keep the PC at optimum running temperature and a water proof shell. The kiosk and its accessories are stabilised and secured through bolts set into a purpose-set concrete base and a sophisticated locking mechanism.
Applications
Outdoor kiosks can be used for any application and are most commonly found as: Payment kiosks in car parks, Information and help kiosks in towns, Way finding kiosks is tourist and business areas and Ticketing kiosks in transport stations.
There are multiple benefits to these Touch screen self-service kiosks being installed in your business. Visit www.protouch.co.uk today to find out more.
Olympian 40" Kiosk
Going to university is a fantastic opportunity to get ahead in life by getting a degree as well as learning life and social skills from living away from home.
Up until the recent student fees fiasco, in which students have been protesting across the UK in accordance with the government’s plans to raise the yearly tuition fee to £9,000; more and more students were leaving college and opting to go to university.
It can be a daunting task moving to another town and starting a new chapter in your life, so tools that can ease the transition for example by helping you when you get lost around campus can be really beneficial for new students; especially to keep them motivated to stay on the course and not go back home.
For university staff, it can often be hard at times to keep such a large body of students informed of campus news, university events and course schedules.
An interactive digital signage can help make this less of a challenge by;
- Distributing the latest information to students through the replacement of bulletin boards
- Substitute paper signs, being more economically friendly and cost saving
- Provide a smarter more advanced way to communicate, reflecting society’s expectations
- Send out emergency knowledge quickly and efficiently
- Feed information and world-wide news sources to departments
- Aid the student’s media clubs through interaction and distribution
- And create interactivity with way-finding maps
The Saint Louis University (SLU) in Montreal, America, has recently installed a digital signage platform to not only keep the students up-to-date on everything that is going on but also campaign awareness and issue emergency alert systems in the event of incidents or last minute notifications.
The solution enables issues and campaigns to be aired; reaching a mass wider audience and increasing its possible impact; for example the university’s “We are ALL Billikens” campaign, shedding light on the importance of hazing prevention.
The digital signage network, which is the first of its kind at the university, has multiple screens located in different buildings across campus as well as the halls of residence.
All notices now go into the system, streamlining the operations; making it easier for staff to manage the content via a simple navigation web control screen.
Craig Williams, SLU’s Manager of Multimedia Services, said: “As a communications vehicle, it has cleared up the clutter in the hallways and allowed us to take down all the paper signs for a significant cost savings over time.”
The unit allows world-wide content to be filtered to relevant courses; for example the U.S. News & World Report RSS feed in the Busch Student Center and the NASDAQ feed in the John Cook School of Business.
Furthermore, video coverage from SLU-TV, the university’s student-run television station, will be fed across the network.
It is hoped and expected that the university will add more touch screens
in the future.
To find out more information on how a kiosk can aid your school or university, visit www.protouch.co.uk.
17" Geode Interactive Digital Signage
Digital Signage in the transport industry is of no new relevance due to its presence in airports with self-service kiosks, digital signs in terminals and digital boards with arrival and departure information to keep travellers up-to-date.
But it is the manifestation in public transports that is leading the way; and the rest of the transportation industry that is catching up.
How is interactive/ touch screen digital signage used in taxis?
- Customers can play games to pass the time
- Credit-card payment
So what are the advantages of digital signage in taxis?
- Makes the experience easier and more interactive for customers
- For long journeys it defeats boredom
- It is more convenient for customers so they don’t have to carry cash around with them
- If you have run out of money you can still afford to get home
Because digital signage has become so versatile and affordable, it can be used in taxis as a credit card terminal with the screens used as interface software; increasing the number of credit card payments in a cab through the payment screens.
Back in 2007, cabbies in New York threatened a two-day strike when they were forced to accept credit card payment.
Digital Signage can really aid the taxi driver themselves too as well as the business with it being reported they make more money on tips when riders pay with a credit card than paying with cash.
Although different companies and different countries have their own version of taxi digital signage, all systems have various common factors, such as the average screen size being 10 inches.
It can be used to convey important information like news, weather and sports as well as provide entertainment; featuring interactive touch screens, audio and video.
The touch screen technology is really benefiting the transport industry in a number of ways, so why not jump on board the band wagon and install digital signage in your business with Protouch today.
According to a new online survey customers prefer depositing money into an ATM instead of handing the cash over to a bank clerk to deposit.
The majority of consumers would rather bank with a machine rather than a human, with the majority of consumers indicating that they would prefer to conduct banking transactions at their ATM as opposed to traditional face-to-face interaction with the bank worker.
More than 74 per cent of participants agreed they hope one day their ATM will offer all of the functionality and services as their bank teller.
David Hadesty, VP of Product Management for Wincor Nixdorf’s U.S. Banking Division, said automation is no longer a “nice to have” – it is a necessity.
“With results of this survey showing consumers crave more features and functionality at their ATM, the opportunity for banks is obvious – invest in more sophisticated ATM technology that is proven to dramatically reduce cash handling costs at the branch, while freeing up valuable associate time for more critical tasks.”
So it seems the nation today has more trust and likeability in a machine than man, which reflects the growing trend in technology and modern needs and desires.
Consumers prefer to interact and make deposits with a touch screen unit than a flesh-bodied person; what does that say about the 21st century generation?
The survey, by Wincor Nixdorf AG, involved 200 consumers aged 18 to 64, who visited an ATM more than three times a month.
It polled consumers on their knowledge, preferences and trends regarding using an ATM.
The future of ATMS and touch screen technology is an exciting and widely speculated concept but who really knows what it will hold. One thing is for sure though; the bank teller’s role is diminishing.
For more news and information on Touch screen, visit Protouch today at www.protouch.co.uk.
A good or bad Touch Screen User Interface can make or break a touch screen kiosk. It is the point of access that allows the interaction between humans and machines and is made up of an operating system and software.
Kiosk software has several roles, a) it locks down the application in order to protect the kiosk from wandering users, b) it can offer remote monitoring to manage multiple kiosks from another location and c) it is the source that guides a user through the kiosk application. The operating system is the tool that runs the kiosk.
It has been reported a successful self service kiosk will attract customers and keep them engaged through its simplicity, functionality and content. Therefore, it is vital that you ensure your User Interface has been developed to maximise usage, popularity, accessibility, interaction and improve customer satisfaction.
So what are the crucial points of a Touch Screen User Interface?
- Make the home page and navigation clean and simple to understand by reducing the number of elements
on the screen such as icons, buttons, photos, etc. Various demographics must be able to use the unit; the elderly, children, disabled etc, without assistance.
- Use a limited number of colours, font types and font sizes in order to keep the screen clean, while retaining brand awareness and consistency. This is important for marketing usage to grab attention and for readability.
- Show content in stages by spreading it across screens and dividing it into steps. Displaying too much information in one space creates confusion and messiness whereas split up screens, topics and categories are easier to use and understand.
- The system and software need to ensure a successful integration between application, hardware and your back office system and arm you with a secure kiosk network delivering tailored content 24/7.
Ultimately, by paying attention to the specific needs of the customer and developing seamless interaction between hardware, software and user, you can safeguard your kiosk and develop a success application.
Check out the kiosk software on offer at Protouch today.
Recent research by the Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID) has revealed had the linesman who disallowed the infamous World Cup Frank Lampard goal been born deaf, he might have approved it.
This is due to the fact that adults that are deaf from birth react more quickly when seeing objects than hearing people.
The findings suggest that if the World Cup linesman Mauricio Espinosa had been born deaf, he might have had better vision and quicker reactions to spot that Frank Lampard’s goal against Germany should have counted.
Advanced technology can help improve these particular situations though, ensuring there is no confusion or unfairness when it comes to important decision-making in sport.
An innovation already in place in the industry is the digital signage monitor, which is used for broadcasting by ITV for its Uefa Champions League and Uefa Cup coverage.
Digital Signage can also be found in the BBC, Sky Italia, TV Globo, Hong Kong Cable, ITI Neovision, Al Jazeera, Sport TV and Digiturk networks as an added feature to their sports analysis systems.
But what are the benefits of digital signage in sport?
Thousands of people attend venues, stadiums and arenas every year to watch their favourite team, sportsperson or game play. These live events have become hugely popular with consumers due to the constant demand and need to watch something live as it unfolds.
These venues have to be able to not only seat a certain amount of spectators but also communicate targeted information to them. Digital signage is the solution that allows you to distribute this content in an easy, flexible form.
Content can be anything from emergency notifications, scores, audience sent in texts, visual playbacks as well as marketing messages.
And it has also been recognised that digital menu boards at concession stands can increase sales. It allows the food-and-beverage offers to be easily altered to suit the different kind of people by different events.
In July early this year, San Diego Sports Arena in America got a digital signage facelift and has advanced from its features such as an animated welcome message, animated sponsor messaging and a programmable messaging component so that personnel can modify the event calendar showing future events.
If you want to install digital signage and touch screen technology in your sports business, visit Protouch today.
From Left: Hayley Meenan-Wilkin, Head of Web Operations, Tesco.com Centre: Mike Woods, Sales Director, Protouch Right: Darrel Boxall, Managing Director, XN Leisure
We have won the Retail Systems Award for the third consecutive year.
We previously scooped awards in both 2008 and 2009 for best use of technology and EPoS innovation of the year, and this year we were awarded best use of technology in the hospitality and leisure sector.
Tom Quarry, Managing Director of Protouch is delighted by the achievement. He said: “We are very proud to have won a kiosk technology award three years in a row. This is fantastic recognition of our capability across the self service industry”.
We received the award in partnership with XN Leisure and Aberdeen Sports Village Leisure Centre for their ‘Virtual Receptionist’ kiosk solution during the awards ceremony held at Grosvenor House Hotel in London’s Park Lane on 28 October 2010.
“The award went to a project that is helping a company to control costs, increase profitability and efficiency while at the same time increasing the standard and quality of service,” announced the Retail Systems judges.
The 2010 judging panel included: Luke Phillips, Head of Information Systems, Kurt Geiger; Sharon Peters, Programme Manager at Retail Systems, Marks & Spencer; Hayley Meenan-Wilkin, Head of Web Operations, Tesco.com; and Scott Thompson, Editor for Retail Systems.
Now into its fifth year, the Awards look to recognise excellence and innovation in the field of information technology within the UK retail sector.
The ‘Virtual Receptionist’ automated the whole booking, ticketing and payment process for Aberdeen Sports Village and is now used by 80 per cent of its members.
It has leveraged Aberdeen Sports Village resources by turning receptionist staff into Customer Service Ambassadors and has greatly enhanced customer experience by increasing the speed of transactions and efficiency with which customers can now check in and make bookings.
For more information on our touch screen kiosks, visit us today.
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