Kiosk Software

Businesses are always looking for creative ways to gain customer attention and anticipate their needs, without compromising their convenience. Kiosk software helps businesses perform these functions all at once. By offering customers a self-help tool, kiosks are able to creatively interact with customers and answer their needs.

Here are some benefits of kiosk software for businesses:

• Greater customer satisfaction: Enable customers to pay their bills and get product information without having to stand in long queues at supermarkets, hospitals, restaurants, airports, etc.
• Higher customer acquisitions: Gain new customers and offer product information by placing your kiosks at strategic places. You could run adverts in shopping malls, markets, airports, etc., to grab the eyeballs of new customers.

We created this guide to help you choose the right kiosk software for your business, so that you can reap the benefits discussed above. The guide covers critical information about kiosk software. Here's what we will discuss in detail:

What is kiosk software?
Common features of kiosk software
What type of buyer are you?
Benefits and Potential Issues
Market trends to understand

 

What is kiosk software?

Kiosk software is a customer service tool that runs on a standalone console or system, allowing users to access a handful of functions and applications. The software could be manned or automatic.

Businesses can manage and control their kiosk devices using the software's lockdown features. Only managers will have access to all the applications (including the locked features) through security passcodes.

Kiosk software helps businesses perform the following functions:

• Offering information to customers: Make information about your products, pricing, and features easily accessible to customers so that you can significantly improve their buying experience.
• Reducing the cost of hiring: Cut the cost of hiring human staff with the use of automated kiosks. This avoids having to wait for an executive as the information that customers need is readily available at their fingertips.
• Running experiments and surveys: Test ideas for new products at your kiosks. Collect all the information about customer needs and use it to validate your new products. You can also collect surveys from customers in different geographies for feedback on improving your existing products.

The kiosk interface of Hootboard (Source)

 

Common features of kiosk software

When you decide to buy kiosk software, the first step is to thoroughly understand its features. Here is a list of the common features offered by most vendors in this space:

Touch screen	Allows end users (i.e., customers) to retrieve information with a simple tap on the screen.
Remote access and monitoring	Offers businesses the ability to access their kiosks remotely, so that they can monitor the device's health and update the content the using digital signage functionality.
Secure browsing	Allows businesses to block access to various domains and individual pages. Provides a pop-up message to customers when access is denied.
Usage reporting	Lets businesses gather reports about usage history and searched URLs based on the date range and title tags.
Onsite printing	Prints tickets, receipts, and other information readily. The software retracts any unclaimed documents back into the printer.
Check-in and check-out management	Allows customers to enter their details while checking-in as well as for checking-out using digital signage.
Ticket/Order fulfillment	Provides end users end-to-end visibility of their orders, including the date of ordering, processing time, and date of shipping.
Billing	Lets customers make payments using their credit or debit cards.
User session management	Resets a browser every time a user leaves. It also clears the browser history, printer queue, and volume levels. It automatically logs off when a session ends or if there's been inactivity for a long time.
Digital signage	Allows businesses to run advertisements on graphic or multimedia screens. The run-time for the screens can be set and changed.
File download control	Restricts the download of unrecognized files for security reasons.
Video and audio calls	Allows trained experts to interact with customers via video and audio calls, so that they are able to close deals as well as address and solve customer concerns.
Record management	Keeps a record of customer-related information in a centralized database that can be accessed by businesses deploying the kiosks.

What type of buyer are you?

Now that you know the common features that kiosk software should offer, you should list down your business needs to identify the type of buyer you are. Different vendors offer different solutions targeted at different industries or business types.

Here are some details about the different types of buyers and their unique needs:

Private retail business owners: These buyers need kiosk software to offer customers certain facilities such as interactive product catalogs, product customizations, grocery self-service checkouts, and payment getaways.

Hospital owners: These buyers need kiosk software to ease the appointment scheduling process for their patients. They can also use kiosks to provide patients details about a specialty, the record history, and the availability of physicians.

Government bodies: Government bodies, such as airports, municipal offices, and train stations, deploy kiosks to offer various services that include ticketing, check-in and check-out, as well as bill payments via cards.

Restaurant owners: These buyers need kiosk software to let customers place orders with one tap on touch screens, check out promotions and discounts, pay bills, browse through the interactive menu, and more.

Benefits and potential issues

Kiosk software offers many benefits such as saving the customers' time and effort as well as improving the customer experience of and satisfaction with the overall brand. With digitalization, kiosk software also boosts the accuracy of orders and bills, while reducing the staff's workload with self-service for customers.

However, a major challenge is that kiosks need to be monitored and frequently serviced. If they aren't, or an issue goes unreported for days, the devices could malfunction. This would waste your staff's time and your customers won't be able to access your products or services.

Market trends to understand

Kiosk software is helping businesses improve and increase the number of customer interactions. There are a few interesting trends in the restaurant and retail industry, with regards to kiosks, which you should know. Here are the details of these top trends:

Restaurants to add more interactive kiosk: The number of interactive kiosks is expected to grow 7.2% by 2021. Numerous restaurants will adopt these kiosks to offer different payment modes and customize food orders. For instance, Subway updated its store design to include digital self-order kiosks, pick-up locations, and prep areas.

Clothing brands to adopt vending machine model: Vending machines reportedly bring in $7 billion worth of sales in the U.S. annually. Some clothing brands are now beginning to adopt vending machines to dispense last-minute items for unexpected travelers based on the weather.