Whatever your business, you're almost certainly familiar with the benefits of self-service kiosks. Conducting transactions via an automated platform cuts staffing costs, boosts efficiency and creates added convenience for your customers. Thanks to these advantages, self-service payment systems are becoming marketplace staples.
Perhaps you've considered kiosks for your company. You've investigated costs and calculated the potential ROI. But have you developed a kiosk customer strategy?
Consumer acceptance of any automated payment platform is critical to your program's success and profitability. Before designing your kiosk, you must understand what the consumer will minimally accept and how he or she will respond to new options. For which types of transactions will customers use kiosks? Will customers demand person-to-person transactions in some cases? What do customers anticipate regarding forms of payment accepted? The forms of change offered? Before you build, develop a plan to manage and meet customer expectations.
If you build it, will they come? And will they stay?
There are plenty of cases in which customers prefer automated transactions at the point of sale. Personally, I prefer to use an automated platform at quick-service restaurants rather than interact with a cashier — I think my order is processed faster and more accurately when I input the data myself. On the other hand, I rarely use ATMs because I prefer to deal with a teller who knows me and understands the transactions I want to complete. I'm especially uncomfortable using ATMs for complex transactions, such as paying my mortgage.
I also have preferences about forms of payment at a kiosk. While I often choose the convenience of a credit card, in some cases I pay by check. In other circumstances, I prefer the anonymity of cash. And when I use cash, I want my change in cash, too — not as a credit on my next bill or purchase.
Consider your customer base and current POS model. Will a new kiosk meet current expectations? And if it doesn't, will customers leave?
Your kiosk strategy
When crafting a kiosk strategy, first choose between partial or total automation. Partial automation is ideal if a significant segment of customers will not accept automation of all transactions, or if you don't want to offer a full range of payment options at the kiosk. You could, for instance, automate only credit card transactions, accepting other forms of payment via cashiers. This solution allows for simpler kiosks, but does not completely eliminate staffing costs.
A total-automation solution, on the other hand, may create greater efficiency for customers and a greater ROI for you as wait times are reduced and staffing costs disappear. Total automation, however, requires a more complex platform if you intend to accept multiple forms of payment.
This brings us to your next decision: selecting accepted forms of payment and methods for providing change. Consider the types of payment and change to which your customers are accustomed. Offering fewer options may cut your costs, but how will customers react? Will the consumer accept a diminished set of offerings in an automated platform or will the reduced flexibility generate resentment?
Keeping options open
An ideal successful kiosk will process every type of transaction available through a company's current point of sale model. Consumers expect consistent payment and change options, regardless of transaction medium.
Should you limit types of payment accepted at a kiosk, consider implementing a consumer education program prior to launch. At a minimum, provide clear signage regarding payment and change issuance. If a customer waits in line to pay by credit card only to discover at the last minute that the kiosk is cash-only, frustration will result.
You also should consider cost-effective, customer-satisfying kiosk upgrades. In the United States, the credit-card-only platform is straightforward and fairly common and could be offered, for example, as part of a high-speed experience at a retail location. But for a reasonable cost, you could add a Triple-DES PIN pad, enabling PIN-debit transactions as well.
Show them the money
If, in a traditional transaction, I pay for a $12.75 purchase with a $20 bill, I expect the cashier to provide $7.25 change — in cash. Customers will expect automated platforms to provide change in cash, too.
If your kiosk doesn't include a change dispenser, this should be disclosed prior to payment. You should carefully consider customer reaction. Some bill-payment kiosks, for example, credit overpayment to the next month's bill, but customers generally respond negatively. For a compromise solution, place a "bill breaker" adjacent to your kiosk. Consumers can pay using the smallest possible denominations, limiting their exposure to $0.99 at the most.
Customer reaction determines success
In short, consumer acceptance will define the success of kiosk deployment. If the automated platform does not handle my preferred form of payment or does not provide change in the form I expect, I may not use it. If I'm forced to use it, through the elimination of other options, I may resent it. Neither are desirable results.
Automating a point of sale requires careful study of consumer expectations. When planning your deployment strategy, your ROI model must take into account the level of automation that can be achieved with the component mix selected for the platform. The key question, in essence: Is a simpler platform, with a limited set of payment and change options for highly targeted consumers, more beneficial than a complex platform with many payment and change options that targets a larger set of consumers?
The answers depend on your line of business, your location, your current POS model and other factors specific to your situation. The good news is that answers can be found through careful research — and that you don't have to find them on your own. Work with your management team and kiosk designer, an expert in the field who can point you to products and components suited to your needs. With collective input and careful consideration of customer expectations, you can build kiosks that will serve your customers and your company well.
