Here's why self-service kiosks are becoming inevitable
Self-serve technology has been around for a while as vending machines and ATMs. Can you remember the last time you visited a bank to deposit cash or withdraw money? ATMs have significantly reduced the amount of time we spend visiting a bank, almost to none.
In recent years Self-service kiosks have become common at supermarket checkouts, hospitals, retail stores, fast food outlets, check-ins at airports, and many more locations. How are customers and businesses making use of kiosks in different sectors? Let's find out!
Healthcare
Self-service kiosks in hospitals allow for fast registration, saving waiting time for ill patients. Whether it's picking up queue numbers, making payments, or scheduling appointments, these self-service machines can handle them effortlessly, reducing the workload of the medical and reception staff. Most importantly under it helps reduce unnecessary interactions, thus preventing the spread of communicable diseases.
Food and Beverage
Fast food chains receive huge volumes of customers all year-round. Customers want to order and receive food as quickly as possible. Therefore, using self-service kiosks in fast-food chains significantly reduces queuing and ordering time, maximizing revenues, and gains customer satisfaction by fulfilling more orders in a shorter time. They help increase order accuracy by eliminating errors that occur due to mishearing. Self-service kiosks are also data sources that track customer preferences and purchase history. This information may be used to provide customized promotions to customers based on their buying habits. It also helps with inventory decisions by knowing when items are selling and not selling.
Leisure & Hospitality
Fast-paced environments like airports and hotels have numerous repetitive tasks that require less or no human interaction. Self-service kiosks in airports reduce queues and waiting time by enabling passengers to self-check-in. These kiosks provide customer satisfaction and reduce labor expenditures. In hotels, self-serve kiosks do more than reduce wait times; tablet kiosks facilitate accessibility for people with disabilities by being portable. Another big advantage of kiosks is that they can be configured to provide information in several languages for travelers and guests who cannot understand the verbal instructions.
Important considerations while implementing self-service kiosks
Self-service kiosks come in various shapes and display sizes, ranging from ruggedized tablets in securing enclosures to standalone structures with built-in panel PCs, card readers, and printers. As they are often used extensively, it is typical to have an IP65 rating to protect dust, splashes, drops, and damage. Kiosks that operate in challenging environments involving liquids, steam, temperature fluctuations, and food particles must be designed to resist this phenomenon. Kiosks are often used in public spaces by a large volume of people every day. For this reason, it is essential to use quality materials to create the kiosk. Kiosks can cost up to several thousand dollars depending on the complexity of tasks; when the cost is a concern, tablet-based kiosks tend to work out far more cost-effectively.
Self-service kiosk trends
Rugged Tablet kiosks are gaining popularity due to their mobility and robustness. Tablet kiosks are ideal for ergonomics and convenience and can be moved according to business needs. Sales personnel can be reassigned to the sales floor, helping customers locate an item using tablets quickly instead of standing behind the counter.
Learn more: Self-service Kiosks Solution