Why are Self-Service Kiosk Solutions so beneficial?

Various types of interactive kiosks have been emerging all over the place lately, from the airport to the post office to restaurants.

Interactive Kiosks:

The core feature of such a solution is self-service, meaning that users get the necessary information, product or service whenever they want and independently of others.

Functions of Interactive Kiosks

People hate queuing, as it basically is a waste of time, but they are forced to stand in lines in various organizations quite often because of the necessity to perform certain activities. For this reason, self-service solutions have been introduced as great time-savers.

Touch-screen kiosks perform the following functions:

• Making payments (via card or cash)
• Providing help information
• Placing orders
• Buying retail goods
• Printing
• Wayfinding
• Advertising
• Providing internet access

Such machines are incredibly helpful for customers and beneficial for companies, especially when situated in high foot traffic locations such as shopping centers or airports.

Types of Interactive Kiosks

1. Self-Service Kiosks

Machines belonging to this category enable users to do tasks that are traditionally performed by staff workers.  They help users save time by skipping counters. 

2. Information Kiosks

The main mission of such machines is to give accurate and concise information regarding products and services. The most popular locations for placing information kiosks are:

• Shopping centers — to navigate visitors around the stores and promote goods
• Museums and exhibitions — to offer visitors to watch videos and presentations about exhibits
• Healthcare organizations — to provide information on services, prices, doctors’ schedules
• Government organizations — to provide information concerning laws, documents, incentives

3. Digital Signage

A digital advertising screen is another name for digital signage, and it’s all about the promotion of goods and services. The main purpose of such displays is to draw the attention of passersby.

Digital signage systems can be both passive, simply displaying ads, and interactive, allowing users to engage with them. There are advanced modules (including those based on artificial intelligence techniques) that can be integrated with digital screens, adding interesting features to them, for instance:

• The ability to share information from screen to mobile device
• Sharing the internet with users standing near the display, thus attracting larger audiences that can see the content
• Gathering statistical data, e.g. the gender and age of users that pass in front of the screen, the amount of time they look at the screen, the busiest time of the day. This data helps companies measure the effectiveness of advertising on digital screens.
• Delivering personalized content depending on the audience standing in front of the screen.

4. Wayfinding Kiosks

As the name suggests, such kiosks have to do with geo-location and aim at helping people navigate in the field, detect nearby objects and generate all possible routes from point A to point B. They emerged due to the rapid development of wireless networks, satellite infrastructure, the Internet of Things (IoT), and connected devices. Such a great ecosystem of technologies enables personalized navigation both outdoors along the roads and indoors within large buildings.

Wayfinding kiosks are integrated with various types of maps and, as a rule, based on 3D modeling.

5. Internet Kiosks

It’s obvious that these solutions are used for access to the internet. The service can be either free (in exchange for the customer’s mobile number or email that will be used for marketing purposes) or paid (cash or credit cards).

Digital Kiosk Benefits:

Self-service solutions are gaining momentum due to a range of advantages they offer for both users and vendors.

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