Name: Alan Work
Title: Chief executive officer
1. Please describe your company’s primary product or service.
Phoenix Kiosk Inc designs, produces and distributes enduring, approachable kiosk and digital signage software and hardware for public environments.
2. What makes your company unique?
We realized early on that our customers were drawn to the unique look of our hardware products and our ability to deliver a tailored software application in a cost-effective manner. The majority of our hardware business is for custom units – we rarely charge NREs or engineering fees to develop unique products, and we often sell these custom units in single or small-quantity volumes. Serving the unique needs of small and mid-sized companies comprises the vast majority of our business.
We also realized that once we delivered and installed a kiosk, our job wasn’t really over. So, we made a few important additions to our overall offering:
We launched www.kioskstuff.com to support the ongoing needs of a kiosk in the field – online fulfillment of consumable supplies like thermal paper and cleaners, along with some marketing materials like pre-printed graphics, floor signs, etc., to give the kiosk owner some additional materials to promote their kiosks.
To help with the ongoing software needs of a kiosk in the field, we invested in the infrastructure to host in-field applications, and support remote monitoring and transaction gateways, so our customers can rely on us to help them ‘go live and stay live’ in the field.
Finally, we forged relationships with in-field service providers for repair and maintenance of our products once they leave our facility. For our customers that do not have the technical resources to troubleshoot occasional performance issues or to set up new hardware, this has proven to be a valuable service.
3. What is your marketing philosophy for the self-service industry?
As we see it, our job is not to run the race. Our job is to sell the shoes to the runners, and to sell them great shoes at an amazing value. Our products are now used in such a wide variety of vertical markets and in such a wide variety of applications that what we focus on from a marketing perspective is making sure people find us when they go shopping for self-service hardware or software solutions.
4. What other business sectors do you operate in?
None – we’re a kiosk company and we’re focused on a highly flexible hardware platform and the ability to design custom-tailored software solutions that businesses can afford to deploy.
5. Give a brief history of the company.
Phoenix Kiosk was born from the belief that quality products and tireless service are more important than polished image and parroted promises. The four founders had nearly 20 years in the self-service industry when we started the company, along with close to 50 years of experience in hi-tech design, manufacturing and software development. We are strong believers in employee ownership – most of PK’s employees are owners – and in the idea that the best way to run a company is through a well-defined, well-documented process and a strong values-based culture that encourages creative problem-solving and customer advocacy.
6. Why did you join Self-Service & Kiosk Association?
For us it was never a question of ‘if’ we’d join SSKA, it was always a function of ‘when’. We wanted to have our full suite of hardware and service offerings launched, some quality software products ready to go, and a large enough installed base of units that we had achieved critical mass. Having achieved most of those goals, we decided it was time.
SSKA is the hub of our industry, and while we are a relative new-comer, we are fortunate to have some very experienced industry veterans among us, all of whom recognize the value of engaging with the industry collaboratively. Our participation in SSKA is the way to achieve that.
7. What do you like about our industry?
What are some of the challenges? For me, this industry is the perfect place to bring together two of my lifelong fascinations: Computer technology and industrial design. At Phoenix Kiosk we get the opportunity to indulge those fascinations with a group of intelligent, ethical, like-minded people who get real joy out of delighting customers, working together and creating true value and truly unique products.
The single biggest challenge we face in this industry is keeping current on all the technological advances that are relevant to us, and let’s face it, if you can plug it in, it probably is relevant to us in some way because sooner or later someone is going to want to incorporate it into a kiosk.
8. What does the future hold for your company’s success in the self-service industry?
The only thing I can say for certain is that the future does hold success for Phoenix Kiosk.
