How Interactive Kiosks are Enhancing In-Store Engagement and Sales

The retail industry in UAE is huge, there are thousands of local and international brands who have established businesses and retail store chains all around the country. This means a really tough competition, above all the customers in Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and all around the UAE are also very demanding. This means if a retail business wants to succeed and grow then they must have to ensure their customers are having an excellent experience at their stores. Retail businesses invest a huge chunk of their hard-earned profit into managing and enhancing customer experience. Most of it goes directly to the implementation of the technology and digital solutions. The self-service interactive kiosks are one of the most rapidly growing trend in the UAE. Businesses of all sizes and types are implementing digital interactive kiosks to enhance in-store engagement and sales. That is not all businesses and organizations from all industry sectors are implementing self-service interactive kiosks. In this blog we will discuss how retail businesses can leverage the potential of self-service interactive kiosks to elevate customer experience, enhance customer engagement and to boost their sales and profits.

How Interactive Kiosks are Enhancing In-Store Engagement and Sales
How Interactive Kiosks are Enhancing In-Store Engagement and Sales

What is an Interactive Kiosk?

An interactive kiosk is a secure touch screen based device which enable customers to perform tasks, avail services, access information and make a purchase without requiring any help from the staff. The interactive kiosks are used to deliver a seamless self-service experience which not only give your customers more freedom and control over their interaction but it also help businesses to improve their operational performance and human resource management. An interactive kiosk consists of a touch screen display, internal computer, a secure enclosure and a management software. Furthermore there are several features which are very common such as thermal printer and various other kinds of printer, Emirates ID scanner, Credit/Debit Card Scanner, RFID, Document Scanner and various other kind of scanners. Some interactive kiosks also have external keyboard and track pad. However, now a days mostly on-screen keyboard is enough with a properly optimized UI for touch screens. The interactive kiosks can be connected to network via LAN, WiFi or cellular network. Different features, design and type of the kiosk depends on business needs, businesses can also have a customized interactive kiosk for their unique needs.

See Also: Introduction to Digital Signage Kiosk and Smart Kiosk

What is an Interactive Kiosk?
What is an Interactive Kiosk?

How Businesses can Enhance in-Store Customer Engagement and Sales?

Businesses are now realizing that the customers are valuing experience a lot, thus the focus has shifted from selling only products to selling good experience along. This also means that the customer engagements are becoming more important and impactful, the more a customer is invested in emotionally and physically, the more chances are to convert them to a sale and begin a relationship with them which can be leveraged to attain loyalty and build a strong brand image over it. Before we discuss what factors help increasing customer engagements and improving their experience, it is also worth mentioning what factors are countering to it. For example, the biggest problem a customer faces in retail stores is difficulty in finding the right product and long waiting lines at the cash counters. These two are also main causes of the higher customer churn. The interactive kiosks not only help customers find the right product, but also provide full access to all available items. The self-checkout kiosks help customers purchase an item and quickly checkout without relying on conventional cash counters.

See Also: Payment Kiosk Machine & Self-Service Cash Acceptor Solutions

How Businesses can Enhance in-Store Customer Engagement and Sales?
How Businesses can Enhance in-Store Customer Engagement and Sales?

Where the interactive kiosks are facilitating customers they are also very helpful for businesses. The retail store can use these devices to run their promotions, adverts, marketing and the can easily implement upselling strategies which help them increasing the average sale volume. The retail stores can greatly improve customer experience which ultimately help them building a strong and loyal customer base upon which the businesses can grow and prosper. In this blog we will discuss the key features of interactive kiosks which help retail businesses to enhance in-store customer engagement and boost their sales:

Interactive Kiosk for Retail Business: Quick Service Delivery

In a traditional retail store, the customers usually have to wait for several minutes at cash counters to make the payments. In today’s fast-paced world where the time is one of the most precious commodity, making your customers to wait in long queues will deteriorate their experience. Moreover during the busy hours the long waiting lines are a common sighting at retail stores, during that time offering your customers an alternate checkout channel, much quicker than cash counter could greatly enhance customer experience. The self-checkout retail kiosks are equipped with necessary tools to let customers scan their items and make payments, completely independently. The interactive kiosks comes in multi-lingual user interfaces (UIs) which are very helpful in a multi-cultural society. Furthermore the on-screen instructions and information also make customer journey quicker and simpler. Customers can also access their reward accounts and redeem them if they wanted to. The interactive self-checkout kiosk for retail also enable customers to make payment with multiple payment methods such as some with cash and some with credit/debit card, they can scan discount vouchers and they can redeem their reward points if they want to. These features greatly increase customer happiness and satisfaction.

Interactive Kiosk for Retail Business: Quick Service Delivery
Interactive Kiosk for Retail Business: Quick Service Delivery

Interactive Kiosk for Retail Business: Better In-Store Experience

The interactive kiosks have bright flashing display often running multimedia content on it which attracts customers and passerby. Businesses can provide access to important information via these self-service interactive kiosks. The customers have endless desires and choices, they tend to compare multiple products before making a purchase decision. That is because there are always multiple options available for the customers, which often make it difficult for them to make a decision. An interactive kiosk can provide customers access to different items along with their descriptions, features and all relevant information and also let them compare both in terms of price and features which help customers quickly take a decision. The interactive kiosks comes with a very powerful software tool which is integrated with other important systems and databases. This integration allow interactive kiosks to provide real-time data and updated information such as it will enable customers to see if the item is available or not, which variants and what stock is available, how much discount they can get, etc.  Such information can greatly enhance customer experience and increase in-store engagements.

Interactive Kiosk for Retail Business: Better In-Store Experience
Interactive Kiosk for Retail Business: Better In-Store Experience

Interactive Kiosk for Retail Business: Higher Customer Satisfaction

The customers who are using a retail self-checkout interactive kiosk are more likely to be happy and satisfied with their experience. As it is a quicker service channel and it provides easy access to information and content which help customers making their decision quickly. Furthermore these interactive kiosks comes with an intuitive multi-lingual user interface and several other software and hardware based features which are designed to enhance customer experience. A good customer experience means higher customer satisfaction. The customers can easily access to their inventory, compare multiple products and gain full control over their cart. They can add or remove an item whenever they want during the customer journey. It is worth mentioning that not all of your staff would have full knowledge of all of the products, however, the self-service interactive kiosk can provide full details about any product the customer is looking for. Furthermore the businesses can also personalized customer experience based on their demographic data, purchase pattern and much more. All these features are very helpful and add value to customer experience which translates in customer satisfaction.

Interactive Kiosk for Retail Business: Higher Customer Satisfaction
Interactive Kiosk for Retail Business: Higher Customer Satisfaction

Interactive Kiosk for Retail Business: Better Inventory Management

One of the biggest advantage of self-checkout interactive kiosks is that they can very capable tool of collecting analytical and statistical data which can drastically improve your management and decision making processes. The interactive kiosk software features smart algorithms which are very capable of collecting business intelligence data and converting it into actionable reports which reports can be integrated in decision making process to make informed decisions. Businesses can not only understand which products or which variants are more in demand, but they can also acquire a deeper understanding of individual customer behavior which can help them personalized customer experience while they are interacting at the kiosk or other channels. The system can automatically make suggestions for products, add-ons and promotions as per the customer liking and past purchase pattern which can greatly increase the chances of sale and also enhance customer experience and raise their satisfaction. The businesses intelligence data also help businesses to prepare their inventory as per the customer trends and also help them improve the accessibility and visibility of the products which also help increasing sales.

Interactive Kiosk for Retail Business: Better Inventory Management
Interactive Kiosk for Retail Business: Better Inventory Management

Interactive Kiosk for Retail Business: Boost Performance and Productivity

The self-checkout kiosk, information kiosk, interactive signage and any other interactive kiosks are designed to aid the staff. Most businesses often think that these devices could replace the staff, but that is not correct. The interactive kiosks are meant to enhance customer experience and boost staff efficiency. With the implementation of self-checkout counters, informational kiosks and interactive signage businesses can lift heavy workload from the staff which not only provide a quicker alternate channel but also help the staff to focus more their primary tasks which enable them to deliver excellent customer service and improved customer experience. The implementation of interactive kiosks at a retail business also help management optimizing the human resource and help them leveraging the full potential of their staff. The interactive kiosks keep customers engaged while providing them all the information they want, businesses can also put videos, photos, and multimedia content to provide more details. This let your staff free from most of customer enquiries and allow them to focus on more productive tasks. High performing staff and a productive operation is a key to long term success and higher profitability.

Interactive Kiosk for Retail Business: Boost Performance and Productivity
Interactive Kiosk for Retail Business: Boost Performance and Productivity

Conclusion

Retail businesses in Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and everywhere in UAE knows very well that their customers often have multiple options and they can switch quickly. In fact on bad experience is enough to send your customer to a competitor. This demands highest level of service and high-performing operation. A good customer experience is a key to customer satisfaction, now a days customers tend to prefer businesses and brands who offer them better experience. The interactive kiosks are a great way to enhance in-store customer engagements. Businesses can utilize a variety of different interactive kiosks for different purposes. The information kiosks are usually placed in different sections and the customers can quickly access information about the products in that particular section, they can also explore other sections and get real-time inventory and stock updates, prices, promotions and much more right from the kiosk.

Businesses often put interactive self-checkout kiosks where the customer can scan their cart, make payments, and perform several other tasks and all that is completely self-service. This empowers customers, gives them more control and also help businesses improving human resource management. All these benefits of interactive kiosks can greatly enhance customer experience and boost sales. If you want to learn more about the subject or if you want our help to design a customized interactive kiosk for your business, please feel free to contact us through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.

8 Benefits of Using Digital Kiosks for Your Business

8 Benefits of Using Digital Kiosks for Your Business

The customer experience and digital kiosks are a great tool to enhance customer experience and attain their loyalty. The customer experience and customer loyalty is absolutely essential for the modern businesses. Businesses in Dubai and any other part of UAE are actively seeking ways to increase customer satisfaction, this is due to the rapidly changing market trends, demanding customer behavior, and tough competition. The UAE has strong presence of world’s top ranking brands, businesses and enterprises, the general public here is very knowledgeable, tech savvy and highly demanding which expedite the organic process of evolution in the markets. The digital kiosks are a great tool to handle the problems of rapid-pace markets such as in Dubai and all around the UAE. The digital kiosks are interactive devices which allow self-service operation and proven to be great at enhancing customer experience and raising their satisfaction. The customer satisfaction drives customer loyalty and the customer loyalty lay the foundation for a long term and consistent success.

8 Benefits of Using Digital Kiosks for Your Business

If you are living in Dubai or anywhere else in UAE you would have witnessed the rapid adaptation of interactive digital kiosks everywhere. The interactive digital kiosks can operates in a wide spectrum full filling the needs of almost every industry. In this blog we will list benefits of using digital kiosks and how businesses can leverage them to achieve their goals.

What is a Digital Kiosk Machine?

By definition a digital kiosk machine is an interactive computing device which allow customers to interact with it through touch screen or various other means to perform certain tasks without any help or assistance from the staff. In simple words it is a self-service solution which allow customers to avail services, make payments and do transactions which were traditionally done at a service center or in business premises with the aid of an employee. Hence the digital kiosks works as intermediary between customers and business which allow them access to the required information and to let them place order or avail service through a digital experience. There are non-interactive digital kiosks too which serve as a digital signage and play multimedia content or publish information and help businesses improving the communication. The digital experience is gaining huge attention form business all around the world. With the rise of smartphones, websites, social media, and easy access to the internet results in a completely different climate for businesses world. Same is applicable in UAE as well, businesses here too are investing huge chunks of their profits in digital experience, and the interactive digital kiosks are also part of digital transformation and digital experience.

What is a Digital Kiosk Machine?

Benefits of Using a Digital Kiosk

The digital interactive kiosks comes in many types, sizes and shapes with different application. Some are exclusively designed for a particular purpose or application, some are industry specific and some are generic. The digital kiosks are mostly interactive but some information kiosks are also non-interactive, such kiosks are more like a digital signage which plays multimedia content or publish information that can help your customers. Here are some key benefits of implementing a digital kiosk for your business:

1. Benefits of Using Digital Kiosk: Marketing and Advertising

The digital kiosks are a great tool to enhance your marketing, advertising and communication and help businesses increase their sales buy running enticing offers, discounts, information, promotions, adverts and multimedia content. The digital kiosks used for marketing and advertising are usually non-interactive as they only display content, and doesn’t require to take user inputs. Such kiosks can play content 24/7 and can be placed at location where you think your targeted audience will visit. Not only off-campus but such kiosks can also be used in-premises and help businesses increase their upsell and market new products, services and promotions. Furthermore the information kiosk can be implemented in all customer facing environments. The government offices, banks, healthcare, immigration and various other different organizations and businesses can use information kiosk to display useful information for the customers to avoid inconvenience and to improve their in-branch experience.

Marketing and Advertising

2. Benefits of Using Digital Kiosk: Improve Business Efficiency

The digital kiosks are interactive computer units that can run 24/7 without any break or disruption which means that a business can offer access to its services and information for 24/7. This enhanced accessibility help businesses improve their efficiency, as they do not need to deploy additional staff and their services are always accessible to their customers, even on weekends and holidays the customers can access to services and information they want. Furthermore the customers who want to avail service through a digital kiosk can easily and quickly access the service without the need of waiting for long time in the queues. It is also very convenient for the customers to approach an interactive self-service digital kiosk at any time of their convenience without worrying about the working hours of the customer service center. Businesses with efficient processes tend to have better customer engagement which help attaining higher customer loyalty. The customer loyalty is absolutely essential for long term growth and success.

Improve Business Efficiency

3. Benefits of Using Digital Kiosk: Minimize Operational Cost

The interactive self-service digital kiosk are a great companion for customer service centers and customer facing environments. Whether it is a self-service checkout kiosk for retail business, food ordering kiosk for restaurants, self-service payment kiosks for services, vending machines, HR kiosks, ATMs/ITMs for banks, self-registration kiosk, or any other self-service kiosk it help reducing the need of human resource and offer excellent customer experience to customers. Obviously a digital interactive self-service kiosk cannot always fully replace the service agents or human staff, but most of the time they can offer a great quicker channel to avail service. That is the reason most of the businesses in Dubai and everywhere in UAE likes to have a hybrid environment where both the interactive self-service digital kiosks and customer service agents work side-by-side. This also help businesses effectively manage their human resource and allow them to increase the capacity of servicing more customers without increasing the staff. Which is a great way to optimize and minimize the operational cost of the service center.

Minimize Operational Cost

4. Benefits of Using Digital Kiosk: Increase Employee Satisfaction

Most of the businesses in Dubai and all around the UAE prefer to have a hybrid setup where both the interactive self-service digital kiosk and the customer service agents work side-by-side. Furthermore businesses can also deploy queue management system kiosks to streamline their customer flow which also help minimizing the staff efforts and maximize the branch efficiency. The interactive self-service digital kiosk help businesses balance the workload of the staff. In Dubai and all around the UAE the general public is very familiar to the interactive self-service kiosk, so most of the people tend to go to a self-service counter when the facility is offered. This reduce the workload of the staff and it also minimize their efforts. The digitalization of the services also tend to improve staff efficiency by reducing their workload and aiding them in several service delivery steps. During the peak hours most of the customers prefer to use an interactive self-service digital kiosk instead of waiting in long queues to get to the service agent. Which also help minimizing the workload of the staff. When the employee work under a balanced workload their efficiency improves, their workload reduced and their satisfaction increases which raise their work quality.

Increase Employee Satisfaction

5. Benefits of Using Digital Kiosk: Real-time Updates and Up-to-date Information

Whether it is interactive digital kiosk or a simple digital signage kiosk, these kiosks comes with a software tool which enable businesses to update information and content on them in real-time. The kiosk system software is a centralized application, which means that it would be hosted on a server which could be online, or connected to a local network and all the kiosks connected to the network will work as a client to that server. This allow the management to update the content and information instantly on all kiosks without any delay. Hence the news, updates and even marketing content can be updated in real-time. Furthermore the digital kiosk management system also allow management to personalized the content on the kiosks by publishing different content on each kiosk, for example, 1 kiosk is in the reception area and 3 are in the customer service center, the management would be able to push different content on the kiosk located in the reception area and different content on the kiosks located in the customer service center, in fact the management can push totally different content on each individual kiosk using the kiosk management software. All the updates are published in real-time and instantly available for the customers.

Real-time Updates and Up-to-date Information

6. Benefits of Using Digital Kiosk: Offer Customer Freedom and Security

Another great benefit of interactive self-service digital kiosk is that it offers freedom and security to your customers. Studies have revealed that when customers are dealing with customer service agent in a traditional customer service center environment there are several factors that are impacting their experience. For example, think from a customer’s prospective, if you are a customer who have waited in a waiting area or a queue for around 20 minutes and reached to a service counter, how would you behave? Obviously everyone in such situation would want to complete the process and leave as quickly as possible. This deprive customers from a happy experience, the customers who would reach to a service counter after a long wait time would want to complete the process as quickly as possible, this could hinder your efforts of upselling, the customers might wanted to ask a few questions but as they know there are customers waiting behind they might hesitate in spending too much time occupying the service counter and a lot many such issues will arise for your team. But with an interactive self-service digital kiosk the customers doesn’t have to worry about anything, they can navigate through the information center to acquire knowledge, they can spend more time on selecting services or making a decision and as there is no staff present they will get a more private experience which raise customer satisfaction.

Offer Customer Freedom and Security

7. Benefits of Using Digital Kiosk: Low Maintenance High ROI

The digital kiosks comes in two major classes, one is interactive and the other is non-interactive or a digital signage is usually. Apart from these classes there are also two more sub-classes based on the deployment, the indoor kiosks and the outdoor kiosks. The indoor kiosks are the most common one but these days the outdoor digital kiosks are also gaining huge popularity among businesses all across the UAE. The indoor kiosks can be made smaller and sleek while the outdoor kiosks are usually bulky as they must have weather protection and additional cooling solution in order to work properly in the harsh and hot environment. The outdoor kiosks also need brighter displays and the certain hardware features that ensures a smooth operation outdoor. When it comes to the deployment cost, it is also not that much, even if you are deploying a very sophisticated kiosk with multiple software and hardware features, the price is still quite reasonable. This is due to the large-scale adaptation of digital kiosks on a global scale which significantly lower the price of the technology. As for the maintenance is concerns, it is a fully automated machine and the parts used to build it are widely available, therefore the maintenance cost is very low. The digital kiosks on an average requires very less servicing and can operate for years. The less deployment cost, low maintenance cost and longer lifecycle ensures high ROI.

Low Maintenance High ROI

8. Benefits of Using Digital Kiosk: Collect Valuable Business Intelligence Data

The digital kiosks are great at collecting valuable business intelligence data. The business intelligence data is the statistical and analytical data which is used to understand the kiosk usage and customer behavior. For example, businesses can monitor all activities on their digital kiosks, such as who is using it, what services customers are using, at which step of customer journey the customers are backing out, what information customers are seeking the most, and so on. Such data will help them to understand the customer behavior and help them personalize customer experience and communication. This data help businesses in improving their processes, customer journey and customer experience. The business intelligence data is also used to generate customized reports which can be utilized decision making process. Businesses can also easily identify the flaws in their processes, service delivery mechanisms, and the areas of improvement which help them achieve higher customer satisfaction. Furthermore businesses can also collect customer feedback data, in fact the interactive digital kiosks are considered to be one of the most effective channel to collect customer feedback data. The business intelligence data is a great source of knowledge and insight. It helps businesses align their processes, strategies and communication with customer’s needs, interests, demands and market trends.

Collect Valuable Business Intelligence Data

Conclusion

Businesses all around the world are using digital kiosks to improve their sales, communication and to enhance customer experience. Here in Dubai and all around the UAE the digital kiosks have gained huge momentum since past decade. Both the interactive and non-interactive kiosks are rapidly gaining popularity. However, the interactive self-service digital kiosks are much more popular and offers unmatched features. Businesses of all types and sizes can leverage the benefits of digital signage and digital kiosk to achieve higher customer satisfaction. The customer satisfaction is essential for growth and stability of any business. Satisfied customers tend to be more loyal and customer loyalty is a key to long term success and sustainable growth. The digital kiosks comes in different types and sizes, every business should choose wisely to leverage the full benefits of the digital kiosk. The digital kiosks whether interactive or non-interactive are easy to deploy, have low deployment cost and require very less maintenance with exceptionally longer lifecycle. On top of that the digital kiosks can easily be upgraded and repurposed. All these features make them very cost-effective solution. In this blog we have listed top 8 benefits of using digital kiosks for your business. If you want to learn more about the subject or if you want us to help you design and deploy a bespoke digital kiosk solution for your business, please feel free to contact us through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.

Check out this: How to improve customer flow management?

DP World Acquires RSI Concepts Queue Management System

RSI Concepts, a Dubai based Queue Management System service provider, is happy and excited to announce that the company has successfully designed and developed a fully customized RSI Queuing System for its esteemed client – DP World. It is a leading Dubai based marine terminal operator and it was in need of a queue management system to manage its customers in an effective and efficient way. When our RSI Queuing System development team was briefed about the requirements of the DP World, they swung into action. We had an extensive interaction with DP World to understand what they actually want us to deliver and then we sketched out a blueprint of the queuing system to be developed. Once it got approved, our team of active queue management systems team started working on it. Continue reading “DP World Acquires RSI Concepts Queue Management System”