Businesses in Dubai and all around the UAE faces tough competition and skyrocketing customer demands. Furthermore since the past few years the businesses are transforming their basic business model from business oriented to customer oriented. This transition is very significant it is completely changing the markets. In the present day, the customer experience have become a crucial part of a business’s success strategy. Especially for service-based industry the customer experience is even more important. There are several studies conducted all around the world which suggest that the customers are willing to pay extra or high price if they are assured they will going to have a better and more satisfactory experience. For some industry sectors the customers place experience equal to the quality of the product/service. Which is why more and more businesses are investing heavily in customer satisfaction solutions. The customer experience can have huge impact on customer happiness and customer satisfaction.
The customer happiness and satisfaction is considered to be a key to long term sustainable success and growth. The satisfied customers tend to be more loyal and the customer loyalty is important for growth and profitability. Studies have shown that it is 5 to 25 times more expensive to acquire a new customer than to selling to an existing customer. Although this figure differs from industry to industry but still it can make a huge difference. Furthermore the happy and satisfied customers also spread positive words about the business which help attracting more customers. According to several studies a happy customer might tell 8 or 9 other people about the business and their satisfactory experience, and an unhappy customer might share their negative experience with 14 or 15 people. So the customer experience also have significant impact on brand image and perception in the market. In this blog we will discuss how self-service kiosk can improve your customer experience.
What is a Self-Service Kiosk?
A self-service kiosk is an interactive digital signage/touch screen computer or tablet which allow customers to access to the information or avail a service without needing any help from the staff or service agents. The self-service kiosk consists of two major components the software and the hardware. The hardware is usually a touch screen based on Windows OS, Android OS or any tablet such as Apple iPads. The software part is a bit complicated, it is not just a small app, but in fact it is a very smart application sometimes the interactive self-service kiosks are powered by AI (artificial intelligence) based smart algorithms and tools in order to deliver an excellent customer experience. The interactive self-service kiosk software is usually a server side application which can be hosted in online, cloud or even in local/in-premises data centers. The purpose of the self-service kiosk software is to let users interact with the system to acquire information or to avail a service via the self-service kiosk. This is done by digitalizing the services and information. The self-service kiosk software can also be integrated with other enterprise tools, databases and central information center.
How Self-Service Kiosk can Help Businesses in Improving Customer Experience?
There are several advantages of interactive self-service kiosk which can be very beneficial for the customers and businesses too. The businesses can easily scale or expand their operations in the unexplored or targeted territories with very less cost and efficiency while on the same time they don’t have to compromise on customer experience or service quality, in fact the interactive self-service kiosks tend to enhance customer experience and increase their satisfaction. When it comes to the customer experience there are several factors that can improve it. First of all we should think what problems a customer might be facing at your service centers? The first thing that came to mind is the long queues and waiting time. However, there are several more factors that can help improving customer experience such as offering them more freedom and control over their interaction, offering them personalized experience and providing them well-structured and organized information are some of the few features that are always admired by the customers. In this blog we will list the features of an interactive self-service kiosk that can help you enhance customer experience and increase their satisfaction.
Features of Interactive Self-Service Kiosk: 1. Less/No Wait Time
One of the major factor that hurt customer experience is the wait time. If the customers will have to wait for longer period of time, they will get stressed, frustrated and annoyed. This means that when the customers will reach to the service counter, they will be in hurry and frustrated, which reduce their tolerance and acceptability. When a customer arrive at a counter with stress on their head, it becomes much harder for the service agents to satisfy them. Which means that the customers are more likely to leave unhappy and unsatisfied. An interactive self-service kiosk can reduce the customer wait time and service delays. As there is no waiting involved the customers instantly get served. Furthermore the service deliver itself is much quicker and the customers can get more information instantly which also help improving their experience and eliminate the customer wait time from the process. The interactive self-service kiosks can operate 24/7 hence the service is available to the customers all the time, they can approach the kiosk whenever they want and they can get the service or information without any involvement of the staff which also improve customer experience and customer happiness.
Features of Interactive Self-Service Kiosk:2. More Freedom
Another thing that the customers admire the most is the freedom. When customers visit the service center they opt for the queues, then they reached to the counter, first they already waited and want to shorten their interaction as much as possible, second they know there are more customers behind them waiting in the queue. Under such scenarios most of the people feel shy or reluctant in asking too many questions, instead they tend to finish their business as quickly as they could. However, with the interactive self-service kiosk there is no such pressure on the customers. The customers feel absolutely free, as they are not worried about anyone waiting behind, they can explore the entire information center if they want, they can get information about the service they are opting for or they can also checkout other services, etc. This gives them more freedom. Furthermore the customer service centers have strict working hours, they usually don’t entertain you if you reached late. However, with the interactive self-service kiosk the customers can access to the services and information any time they want, 24/7. The freedom to access the services anytime can significantly enhance the customer experience.
Features of Interactive Self-Service Kiosk:3. Personalized Experience
With the rise of technology and too much use of digital media have drastically changed the customer behavior and several market trends. This lead to a highly personalized digital experience which can also be a great competitive advantage. The customers love personalized experience, and when a business start offering a personalized experience the customers feel more appreciated, connected and valued by the business. When the customers realize that the business is offering them a personalized experience they tend to become more loyal and attached to the brand. The interactive self-service kiosk comes with a smart software which can be integrated to other enterprise systems, databases and central information center which enables it to check for the past interactions of the customers, their purchase patterns and much more. This allow the interactive self-service kiosk to provide the most relevant information, promotions, and other content on the kiosk, which is aligned with customer’s preferences and their needs. The interactive self-kiosk can also integrate with other communication channels such as website, customer portals, mobile apps, and it can utilize the information from these channels to personalize the customer experience which add value to customer experience and increase their loyalty.
Features of Interactive Self-Service Kiosk:4. Intuitive UIs
Another great feature of the interactive self-service kiosk is that it offers intuitive UIs (user interfaces). The touch screen make interaction simpler and quicker. The UIs are designed to perform certain actions, hence the navigation is very simple and easy-to-understand. As there are multiple user groups in the targeted audience based on their demographic, education level or understanding of the digital systems, hence the UI is designed by targeting the lowest user group with minimum technology understanding which makes it super user-friendly for the entire audience. Above all the UIs of an interactive self-service kiosk offer multi-lingual support. As in Dubai and all around the UAE there is a huge expat population, so the UIs are designed in multiple languages which further make the interaction easier for a common user. The users can select their preferred language at the beginning and then the system will automatically push the content in that language, all the on-screen instructions, buttons, functions and the entire UI is translated in the selected language which can help enhancing the customer experience and it also improve their level of satisfaction.
Features of Interactive Self-Service Kiosk:5. Multiple Hardware Accessories
Apart from the software features the interactive self-service kiosk also offers a multitude of hardware features, peripherals and accessories which can be very helpful in improving customer experience. Different businesses offer different services, different services require different service delivery processes, in some cases the customer might have to provide some documents, in some cases they must have to provide their ID card or Passport, etc. There are multi-counter or stepped services as well, which require the customers to visit multiple counters to get a full service and some services also involve payments, etc. The interactive self-service kiosk offer a variety of hardware features such as document scanning and printing, Emirates ID card scanning, Passport Scanner, Barcode/QR Code Reader, cash acceptor, online payment, payment POS (credit/debit card payment), other digital payment, RFID scanners, facial recognition cameras, IRIS scanners, and much more. All these hardware accessories help customer provide all information, payment, documents at a single counter, which is kiosk and minimize their efforts which significantly simplify the customer journey and improve their experience.
Features of Interactive Self-Service Kiosk: 6. Gather Business Intelligence Data
The present day businesses are heavily data driven, the information technology and data is the backbone of the modern business models. The business intelligence data is basically the insight to internal processes, customers, external processes, market trends, and much more. The interactive self-service kiosk is a powerful digital tool which can gather a wealth of business intelligence data and insight. For example, the self-service kiosk can record the system usage details such as how many people are using it, what is the usage frequency and what are busy hours, etc. It can also collect the demographic data of the users along with their behavior and system usage insights. The interactive self-service kiosk also provide the details of the users who quit halfway and it also identify the steps where they left the process which help management to identify the problems in the process and make improvements. Furthermore the system can also collect the information about the services that are most used, it can capture the information that are most accessed and so on. All such details and many other like that provide management a complete understanding of customer interaction at the kiosk and help them further improve it to align it with the customers’ needs to enhance customer experience.
Conclusion
The businesses in Dubai and all around the UAE are well-aware of the rising customer demands and rapidly changing market trends. On top of that the UAE is a very competitive market which further make require businesses to perform well and establish a unique brand identity in order to attract more customers. It is 5 to 25 times more expensive to acquire a new customer comparing to selling to an existing customer which makes customer retention crucial for any business’s success and long term sustainable growth. The customer retention is purely based on the customer satisfaction, only happy and satisfied customers will do more business with the brand. The customer satisfaction heavily relies on the experience the customer have with your products and services. Especially for the service based industry the customer happiness depends on the experience they got at the service centers. Businesses invest heavily in customer satisfaction solutions. The interactive self-service kiosk is a modern solution for present day problems. The interactive self-service kiosks help customers acquire information and avail services at their own without requiring any help or assistance from the staff.
The interactive self-service kiosks are available 24/7 and they provide customers more freedom than the traditional in-person interaction which greatly helps improving the customer experience and raise their happiness level. In this blog we have discussed the key features of an interactive self-service kiosk which will help you enhancing customer experience and raising their happiness. If you want to learn more about the subject of if you want our help to design and implement a bespoke interactive self-service kiosk solution for your business, please feel free to contact us through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.
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