Pro-Touch

Self Service Checkouts Set For Another Bumper Year

Love them or hate them, you'll be seeing even more self-service checkouts in 2010 after NCR, the American technology company behind 80% of the UK’s self-service checkouts, predicted a 50% increase in UK sales of the self-service scanning machines that have become a feature of stores nationwide

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Customers have been fairly torn on the issue; some get sick of the 'unexpected item in bagging area' message and prefer communicating with people, whereas a growing number are getting self-service-savvy, whizzing through the kiosk lanes and are waving goodbye to busy staffed checkouts. In total, 7,000 machines have been installed in supermarkets since their introduction in 2002, expected to more than double to 15,000 in the next three years, according to Retail Banking Knowledge.

According to Elton Birden, the managing director of NCR in Britain: “Self-service checkouts will revolutionise retail in the same way that self-service supermarkets did 60 years ago. It’s going to be a combination of existing customers rolling out and new users. It’s still a small percentage of the overall checkout.”

 

Top 5 Mistakes Of Kiosk Deployment

Many businesses see the potential of self service kiosks but fail to use them properly, resulting in a loss of money, time and worst still, a loss of customers.

We came across a fabulous case study by Self Service and Kiosk Association who have outlined the top 5 mistakes people make when they roll out their kiosks, as well as practical solutions to prevent these problems from occurring.

Failing to present a truly compelling offer to the customer

Many businesses rely too much on the idea that kiosks are cool and exciting and everyone wants to use one. In fact, this idea is totally wrong as it takes a lot for a shopper to change their regular habits and if a kiosk doesn't make it any easier then they won't be changing any time soon.

The best way to deal with this is to create a kiosk which will solve a common problem for a customer within your business.

A perfect example was Redbox who created a DVD rental kiosk and charged customers the same price as what they could get if they visited their local convenience store. It was only after a price drop to $1 per rental did Redbox start seeing the increase in profit.

Relying on intangibles for an attractive ROI

The Self Service and Kiosk Association said, “Many kiosk developers rely on 'soft benefits' or inconclusive math on the road to what they may think is an attractive ROI. For instance, deployers often think that if the kiosk project helps build the brand, extend the company's reach or improve the customer experience, it will translate to a bigger bottom line.

“While all of these items should definitely be priorities, funding can be difficult to secure if deployers don't provide strong data-driven evidence of these benefits.

“Deployers should spend at least as much time and energy on the front end of a kiosk rollout planning a path to increased ROI as they do planning the actual kiosk introduction.

“In other words, a deployer can spend months planning a great kiosk project and implement it flawlessly, but if he or she doesn't have data that unequivocally illustrates the advantages, the result will often be a project that loses its funding.”

Failing to diffrentiate between the pilot stage and the scaling stage

Despite these two stages being completely different, many companies fail to distinguish this and end up making a mess of the whole situation.

During the pilot stage, deployers must determine that there is a consumer interest to make the whole scaling stage worthwhile.

Deployers need to consider upfront and outgoing costs, staffing and operation of the kiosks else how can you determine whether the kiosk will be successful long term.

Failing to attempt that the first attempt will be flawed

Rolling out a kiosk for the first time will never be perfect and deployers need to carefully look at the flaws and ways to rectify them to make the kiosk run smoothly.

You may have done a bit of research before and used focus groups to iron out any problems at the beginning, but as you move along and more customers use the kiosk, problems can become more obvious and easily fixed if checked regularly.

Building the Taj Mahal and putting it next to the janitors closet

If you have developed the perfect kiosk and it's all ready to go, putting it in the corner of the store won't help matters.

A self service kiosk is there to enhance a customers experience in your store and if it is not in their view they won't go seeking it.

If you have limited space and the only space for it is in the corner, it might be a good idea to look at wall mounted kiosks.

Protouch have a wide range of wall mounted kiosks which perform the same functions as a standing kiosk, just saves you a bit of room.

For more information about kiosks visit Protouch today or view the full article at Self Service and Kiosk Association, today.