People Counting System to Optimize Mall Operations

Posted on November 15, 2022 by admin

People Counting System to Optimize Mall Operations

Shopping malls and retail businesses always have to monitor the footfall and count of people visiting them. As many people will visit a shopping mall as much business it will get at the end of the day. Here in Dubai and all around the UAE the retail industry is very competitive, people have a lot of choice to choose from. There are several shopping malls within a closer proximity, which also make customer more demanding and picky. That is why it becomes extremely important for malls to take all steps to satisfied its customers and ensure they have an excellent experience.

In order to achieve that the mall management need to optimize the mall operation. The mall operation is relatively complex from several other facility management. There is a lot of resources involved both human resource and the financial expense. The shopping mall have to carefully utilize all resources to maximize the efficiency in mall operations. The people counting system is one of the best tool that can help shopping malls to optimize their operations and to achieve maximum efficiency.

See Also: How and why Retail Store should use People Counting Software?

People Counting System to Optimize Mall Operations

There are several technologies that are being used by shopping mall all around the world. The people counting technologies have evolved a lot and with the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) the people counting technologies have completely evolved. Now a days a modern people counting system consists of a very powerful software. It is not just the software that evolved and transformed, in fact the hardware also improved a lot, there was a time when the people counting systems were able to calculate the people with varying accuracy and error levels ranging from 10% to 40% depends on different hardware sensors and situations.

Now a days a modern people counting hardware can count people with high accuracy more than 90%. However, a very latest breed of people counting systems have completely changed its approach towards hardware. Now a days, the people counting systems doesn’t need any dedicated hardware devices and sensors. In fact a modern people counting system can be linked with the existing CCTV security camera feeds and it is capable of analyzing the video feeds in real-time to extract the valuable data from it.

See Also: Best Features of People Counting Software

People Counting System to Optimize Mall Operations

These modern people counting systems are more advanced, can capture highly accurate data, provide a wider range of analytical data and offer more useful features. Here are some key features of the people counting system which can help management to improve their mall operations.

People Counting System: Highly Accurate People Counting Data

The people counting system uses CCTV camera feeds and turn your all connected CCTV cameras into a people counting sensors. The AI based software engine is equipped with modern image processing algorithms. It can detect different moving objects and can distinguish between human and non-human objects. Regardless of the number of people entering from a monitoring point or entrance, the people counting system can accurately measure the number of the people. It is due to advanced image processing algorithms and ability to distinguish between human and non-human objects.

Furthermore the people counting system can also differentiate between genders and it can also detect different age groups. This ability is achieved with the in-built analytical tools that extract demographic data form the live video feeds in real-time. These image processing features also raise the accuracy of the people counting data. As if a people counting systems is so powerful of identifying genders and different age groups, the people counting tasks is relatively simpler. That is why the modern people counting system can offer highly accurate people counting data.

See Also: People Counting System: Heatmap Analysis & Customer Churn Rate

People Counting System: Highly Accurate People Counting Data

When the shopping malls have real-time people counting data available for all the entrances and exits they can easily understand how many people are entering and leaving and how many people are inside the mall. Furthermore each camera is generating data, each camera is counting how many people are passing from its location, and this data is layered upon a 2D or 3D floor plan, which gives shopping mall a better understanding of people in any section, zone or area of the mall.

This information is very helpful for the mall management. The mall management can easily allocate resources according to the traffic in a particular region. They can also schedule the cleaning, maintenance and other services according to the people flow to minimize the interruption. The mall management can also assign staff and security according to the traffic in a particular region based on the data generated from the people counting system to improve the service quality and to ensure a smooth operation.

See Also: Advantages of People Counting Technology for Shopping Malls

People Counting System: Highly Accurate People Counting Data

People Counting System: Understand Customer Behavior

The modern AI based people counting system is a very capable tool. It not only measures the people count but it can do so much more. As the modern AI based people counting system analyzes the video feeds from the CCTV security cameras in real-time that means the data is fed to the system continuously. The people counting system can continuously monitor the customers and visitors within the mall premises. Which enables it to measure a lot of other matrices, such as it can measure the flow of customer in each area or zone.

It can also measure the customer dwell time in each area and zone. Let say 100 people enters the malls, 500 out of that only spend their time in F&B section and left. The remaining 500 scattered all across the mall in different areas and zones. This information is important for the mall management to understand where they need to put more attentions to. The management can significantly improve the mall operation when they clearly knows where most of their visitors will spend more time.

See Also: How Small Businesses Can Utilize People Counting Solutions?

People Counting System: Understand Customer Behavior

The people dwell time is very important it tell shopping malls that which areas are important for them. Which areas are lagging behind, and how they can arrange different tenants to achieve a balanced distribution of the traffic all across the mall. That could be a big operational challenge if the mall management doesn’t have such information. The customer dwell time also shows in which businesses/tenants the customers are taking more interest.

Let say there are three zones A, B and C people are entering from the A side, move across Zone B and end up in Zone C, the simple people count might tell that 500 people enters in Zone A and same number of people in Zone B and then in Zone C, however, the customer dwell time matric will tell which zone is popular for customers and visitors. If the Zone C have more dwell time, it will tell that people most likely made more purchases from Zone C. These information will help malls take effective steps to increase people’s interest in the areas where they are not spending more time which will eventually increase the sales.

See Also: Integrating AI in Customer Feedback System

People Counting System: Understand Customer Behavior

The continuous CCTV video feeds, advanced image processing algorithms and AI based tools enable people counting system to offer another great feature which is heatmap analysis. The heatmap analysis is a great analytical tool, it help mall management visually understand the customer flow. The heatmap analysis count number of people, measure dwell time and put it on a 2D/3D floor plan in a color coded format. Different colors shows different amount of traffic. This will help mall management to understand how exactly people are moving within the mall premises.

It can also lay down the complete route people take within the mall on the floor plan diagram, which also help management understand what is attracting people to move at a certain pathway and what is not attracting them and so on. The heatmap analysis is a great tool to understand complete customer journey, which entrances are used the most, which exits are used the most, which routes people take within mall, at which point they decide to return and so on. The heatmap analysis is very detailed and comprehensive. These all information help mall management to refine their strategies and help them making effective plans to maximize the operational capabilities.

See Also: The Future of Visitor Management: Digital Badge Kiosks

People Counting System: Understand Customer Behavior

People Counting System: Generate More Revenue with Premium Stores

Malls always have different rental categories for different stores placed on different locations. For example a 300 square foot shop next to the main entrance at ground floor would have higher rent than a same sized shop at the furthest spot from elevator at third floor. That is how the rent differs from one place to another, form one zone to another and so on. However, when the tenant comes to the malls, the malls must have to justify the premium rates for those hotspots. However, when the mall have historical data of customer flow and how customers are moving within the mall, they can easily determine all those spots and they can share the same data with the prospects to convince them for premium rents.

When a tenant knows they will be receiving a certain amount of traffic they can estimate their expected sales and profits which give them confidence to go with premium rents. The people counting system can provide highly accurate data which can help malls to arrange different tenants in a way to get more exposure and offer better visibility to the stores that are not located in busy areas. Hence the malls can set their rents on the bases of the data they get and they can generate more revenue.

See Also: Top 10 Self-Service Technologies

People Counting System: Generate More Revenue with Premium Stores

People Counting System: Effective Staff Management

The mall operation is heavily dependent on the performance of the staff and effective staff management. Most of the time the management face issues is directing staff to the areas where they are most needed. Sometimes they can’t effectively monitor the performance of the employees. However, with the people counting system the management can effectively track employee performance. The smart AI based software and image processing algorithms can distinguish between employees and other visitors. The same way that the people counting system tracks the customers and visitors, it can track the employees.

It can capture their movements, their pathways, and their dwell time at any area, and it can also provide heatmap analysis of their movement and dwell time. The management can easily relate it to the footfall and customer behavior. This allow them to make effective plans on the bases of historic data and they can also take instant decisions on the bases of live updates from the people counting system and assign more employees to the areas and job where they are most needed. This not only optimize and improve the operations but it also help improving the employee performance and efficiency.

See Also: Why Shopping Malls in Dubai Need a Footfall Analytical Tool?

People Counting System: Effective Staff Management

People Counting System: Maximize the Marketing Outcome

The marketing is one of the core function of a shopping mall operations. The management invest heavily in marketing activities and different kind of events to attract more visitors. Sometimes sales and promotions are advertised to attract more visitors. For that the shopping mall use several different marketing channels such as social media, their apps, websites, and other traditional and non-traditional marketing channels. These all activities consume a lot of resources, efforts and expense. It is crucial to measure and monitor the effectiveness of the marketing campaigns to understand which strategy is effective and which isn’t.

The monitoring and tracking also help measure the ROI of the marketing campaigns. The people counting system not only provides the accurate visitors data but it also provide complete historic record which help the management to understand the effectiveness of the marketing campaigns simply by measuring the increase in the footfall. The digital marketing and other traditional marketing campaigns are very expensive too, that is why it is important to invest only in the campaigns that really work. Furthermore the businesses can keep improving their campaigns by making changes and monitoring the impact on the footfall and sales.

See Also: The Role of Check-in Kiosks in Transforming Airport Experiences

People Counting System: Maximize the Marketing Outcome

A modern AI based people counting system is a very powerful digital tool which offer great functionalities and features. For example the people counting system can be integrated with the POS or sales system. It can be linked with any other enterprise tool or system via secure APIs which enables both system to share and synchronize the data. The people counting system can also be integrated to a central information system which enables businesses to transfer and synch data to and from the people counting system. This integration further improve the monitoring capabilities and boost the accuracy of the data. Which enables the malls to accurately track and monitor the performance of their marketing campaigns. Shopping malls also use a variety of methods to boost the customer flow and to maximize the sales within the shopping mall.

For example, the digital signage are a great marketing tool for the malls. Usually these signage are placed on strategic spots where they can have maximum exposure. The people counting system can help identifying the hotspots and it can also monitor the effectiveness of the signage by monitoring the people behavior. It can count how many people passed by a signage, how many people spend some time in front of it and how much this impact the overall sales. This way the malls can only invest in the result oriented marketing campaign and keep improving them with continuous monitoring.

See Also: What is wayfinding software and why is it important?

People Counting System: Maximize the Marketing Outcome

Conclusion

An AI based people counting system is equipped with high-tech image processing algorithms and highly effective analytical tools. Which can help malls in many ways to improve their operations. Effective and efficient mall management is a key to success. The people counting system can provide highly accurate people count. It can be linked with any existing CCTV security camera systems which save the cost of installing complicated hardware devices and sensors. The people counting system can take the feedback in real-time, its AI based algorithms can process it in real-time and they can provide reporting and analytical data in the dashboard in real-time. The shopping mall can do heatmap analysis to acquire highly accurate and very comprehensive data about customer flow and their movement within the mall premises.

The customer dwell time let them understand what interests the customers. The people counting system data and its ability to integrate with other third-party tool allow mall management to effectively and accurately monitor the performance of their marketing campaigns. The people counting system can also help management in monitoring the performance of the staff and enable them to boost the efficiency of the workforce. The people counting system not just monitor the footfall but it can provide a great wealth of business intelligence data that can be used to improve mall operations and optimize the resource consumption.

Optimizing the mall operations and achieving better efficiency is a key to long term and sustainable success. A people counting system can be game changer for malls and it can provide a great competitive advantage. RSI Concepts is a leading people counting system provider with both standard and customized solutions. If you want to learn more about the subject or if you want us to build a highly cost-effective customized people counting system for you, 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.

See Also: 5 Types of Customer Feedback

See Also: A Complete Guide to People Counting System

See Also: Self-Service Kiosks in Retail: Revolutionizing the Shopping Experience

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Top Digital Self-Service Trends of 2022

Posted on November 14, 2022 by admin

Top Digital Self-Service Trends of 2022

Here in Dubai and all around the UAE businesses are embracing self-service technologies to enhance their customers’ experience and to improve the quality and performance of their service teams. The customer expectations, market trends and customer service methods have been completely transformed since past few years. Now a days, the customers are more familiar with the technology, the rise of social media, smartphones, and other consumer technologies have completely changed the customer behavior and their expectations.

For any good business it is crucial to meet customer’s expectations to achieve higher levels of customer satisfaction. Customer experience and customer service quality plays a crucial role in customer satisfaction. That is the reason we saw a huge rise in self-service technologies in past few years. Basically any technology that enable the customers to do a transaction or to get a service by the means of digital and automated systems without any staff involvement is called self-service technology. Businesses in Dubai and all around the UAE are utilizing a variety of different technologies to enhance customer experience and to boost customer happiness.

See Also: The Advantages of Customer Self-service and Best Practices

Top Digital Self-Service Trends of 2022

The 2020 COVID pandemic have shaped the modern customer service and compelled businesses to evolve very quickly. Although it is over now, and everything have restored completely but its impact will remain for a long time. Several studies have been done so far, and it is witnessed that the new customer service methods have not only improved customer experience but also employee satisfaction which is a key factor in improving service quality and customer experience. The digital channels have been utilized in order to avoid physical interaction with the customers at the service centers. This also give a rise to self-service technologies and solutions.

The self-service solutions are win-win for everyone, customers love the control and freedom it provide, employee likes it because it lift-off some of their workload, the businesses embracing it with open arms due to its cost-effectiveness and higher customer satisfaction. In this blog we will discuss top digital self-service trends of 2022 which we are also anticipating to continue in 2023 and even beyond. These trends will help you upgrading your customer experience and customer satisfaction strategies to ensure long term success and consistent growth in future.

See Also: Analyzing the Impact of Payment Kiosks on Consumer Behavior

See Also: 10 Customer Self-Service Best Practices to Power Your Contact Center Results

Rise of Cloud Based Services and Solutions

The cloud technology have become the foundation of the modern self-service technologies. The biggest advantage is that the businesses can create all-in-one kind of ecosystem where they can easily scale as per their needs. The self-service solutions and systems can be expanded easily as per the growing needs and demands. The cloud offers a simple user control dashboard where with a few clicks businesses can scale up or down as per the current need. The cloud is totally managed by the vendor/service provider and the businesses don’t have to worry about the IT infrastructure or data center management, they don’t need technical staff to manage it, everything is fully managed by the vendor.

These attributes make cloud the most cost-effective solution for modern businesses. Another great advantage of cloud is that it help businesses achieve a unified environment where multiple systems can be deployed and this makes data sharing and integration super simple and very convenient. Such features help offering innovative solutions and services, which is considered to be the bedrock for the digital self-service solutions.

See Also: Emerging Trends in Self-Service Kiosk Technology

See Also: Integrating AI and Machine Learning in Self-Service Kiosks

Rise of Cloud Based Services and Solutions

Websites, Mobile Apps and Online Portals

The websites, mobile apps and online portals have become very common these days. Businesses are utilizing their corporate websites for communication and service purpose. Here in UAE almost 99% of the population have access to internet, they use smartphones and they are also using multiple social media platforms. In general an average user spend almost 3 hours daily on their smartphone. Which makes mobile apps even more important. Businesses offer dedicated web pages on their websites to enable self-service and they also provide various types of online portals such as customer portal, job portal, supplier portal, employee portal, etc.

All these portals can also be integrated with the mobile apps. Due to advancements in the smartphone technology, larger storage and increased computing power is available on an average smartphone, which fuel mobile apps trend. Customer also prefer mobile apps because of the personalized experience. The websites, mobile apps, and online portals are a great way to offer self-service solutions. People can access them on-the-go which enhance user experience and provide them more freedom.

See Also: What is a Self Service Kiosk? Here’s All You Need to Know

See Also: Integrating AI and Machine Learning in Self-Service Kiosks

Websites, Mobile Apps and Online Portals

Interactive Self-Service Kiosks

Interactive self-service kiosks have gained huge popularity since past 5 years in Dubai and all around the UAE. Businesses tend to use interactive kiosks to offer self-services and to facilitate several internal processes. The interactive self-service kiosk usually has a touch screen based UI (user interface) which help customers to easily interact with the system. The self-service kiosk comes with a software solution which is linked to the relevant internal databases and systems to facilitate self-service functionalities. The self-service kiosk is capable of improving user experience as well as the internal operations and business processes.

The digital interactive self-service kiosk help businesses digitalize their services and various internal processes which not only enable them to offer innovative features and intuitive methods for self-services but also help the performance of the customer service staff by streamlining various internal processes and with the automated features.

See Also: How Self-Service Kiosk are Improving Customer Experience in Dubai, UAE?

See Also: Why Interactive Self-service Kiosks are the Ultimate Customer Experience Transformation Tool?

Interactive Self-Service Kiosks

The interactive self-service kiosks are built on a very flexible technological platform which allow businesses to attach various input devices such as EID Scanners, Passport Scanner, QR Code, RFID, document scanning, document printing, invoice/receipt printing and integration with payment methods. Most of the time when a complicated service has to be delivered it might require scanning & printing documents, scanning ID proofs, and receiving service charges. These all features can be offered on a humble touch-screen based interactive kiosk.

The interactive kiosks can take cash payments, credit/debit card payments, digital payments such as Google Pay, Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and can be linked with digital payment gateways, where the users don’t have to insert cash or card, instead they can make payment online from the touch screen interface. These features are linked with the main server application or core software, which is integrated with payment gateways, customer database, financial and other business functions to offer an effortless customer experience at the self-service kiosk.

See Also: The Impact of Self-Service Kiosk on Customer Behavior

See Also: How Can Businesses Benefit From Self-Service Kiosks

Interactive Self-Service Kiosks

Omnichannel Self-Service Strategy

The self-service technologies and solutions help businesses in offering a fraction-less omnichannel service eco-system. The omnichannel service means offering multiple channels to users to interact or avail service and all those channels are integrated with each other. The main reason behind building an omnichannel self-service environment is the desire of customers to be able to interact with business instantly and more conveniently. These days, customers want to get support from digital channels, studies have shown that 69% of the customers want to resolve the problem by themselves before deciding to go to a customer contact center or service center. This trend demand businesses to offer omnichannel self-services.

Where the customers can reach out to the business any time from their preferred channel and would be able to get a service without any limitation. Businesses can utilize self-service technologies to offer omnichannel service without any barrier. This has completely revolutionized the tech-support industry, now a days businesses are offering instant tech support where customers can connect with the self-service portals or service agents any time they want. Chatbots and AL based natural language processing algorithms have significantly improved the quality and customer experience.

See Also: How Video Conferencing Enhance Self-Service Kiosk Experience

Omnichannel Self-Service Strategy

Leverage Automation to Improve Self-Service

One of the most popular trend in self-service is the automation. The automation and digitalization help businesses achieve better customer experience with self-service solutions. The automation help reducing the need of human/staff involvement. Mainly the automation is done using intelligent algorithms and AI (artificial intelligence) based technologies. Most of the customers attempt to solve their problem at their own before reaching to the customer service and support. The most common trend to solve problems is to look it up in the internet. Customers tend to look for the online articles, blogs, how-to-guides, FAQs sections of the service provider/vendor, etc.

However, that is not always enough. That is why the customer portals, complaint systems, online support, and interactive self-service kiosks are deployed. This is where the automation can enable businesses to offer excellent customer experience through self-service without involving any staff. The self-service is not only for support and service, it also help businesses generate more sales. Businesses can create online portals, mobile apps, and interactive self-service kiosks where the users can make a purchase and acquire new services. Expanding in the physical markets, and opening up new offices or sale centers in new markets is very expensive, instead businesses can provide self-service interactive kiosks and online solutions to tap into untapped markets.

See Also: 4 Reasons Why Self-Service Enhances Customer Experience

Leverage Automation to Improve Self-Service

Collect Valuable Business Intelligence Data via Self-Service Solutions

Due to digitalization and fast-paced markets, the businesses need an optimum level of maneuverability to tackle obstacles and market changes. In Dubai and all around the UAE the markets are highly competitive and the customer demands are skyrocketing. This demand businesses to follow proactive strategies rather traditional reactive strategies. For that the businesses will have to be very informed. That is why the modern business landscape is very much data driven. The data flows like the blood in any enterprise. The self-service solutions bring automation and digitalization to the internal and external business processes.

The digital systems are inherently very efficient at collecting data and stats. By implementing self-service solution a business can easily collect valuable business intelligence data. The data help management make informed decisions and alert them on time, which increase their readiness and ability to deal with unexpected scenarios. The business intelligence data also help businesses understand customer persona, their interests, and preferences. Such information is very helpful in personalizing customer experience and communication which results in better customer satisfaction.

See Also: Can Self Service Kiosk Machines Improve Revenue?

Collect Valuable Business Intelligence Data via Self-Service Solutions

Conclusion

The digital solutions and self-service is completely revolutionizing customer experience and business practices. Businesses in Dubai and all around the UAE are rapidly adopting to modern solutions and digital systems. This help them bring automation and self-service, which not only help them to improve service quality but also customer experience. Happy customers tend to be more loyal with the business and loyal customers always gives repeated business. According to several studies acquiring a new customer is almost 5 to 25 times more expensive than selling to an existing customer. Furthermore the self-service help businesses tap into further markets. Expansion become easier and cost-efficient with self-service solutions.

Most of the customers try to solve the problem by themselves before reaching out to the customer support, this help balancing the workload of the customer service staff and make them happy and satisfied, which improve service quality and reduce employee turnover. The self-service solutions are very cost-efficient and tend to have longer lifecycle which ensures greater ROIs. The self-service solutions are not just functional or operational improvement, in fact in Dubai and all across the UAE the customers are also expecting some kind of digital interaction and self-service solution from their favorite brands.

In this blog we have listed the most modern digital self-service trends of 2022 and the same trends will continue in the 2023 and beyond. The self-service is not just a value added feature but it have become industry norm now a days. If you want to learn more about the subject or if you need our help to build high quality and cost-effective digital self-service solutions 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.

See Also: How to Enhance Customer Experience with Customer Feedback Surveys?

Posted in Self Service Kiosk | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

How Can Businesses Benefit From Self-Service Kiosks

Posted on November 10, 2022 by admin

How Can Businesses Benefit From Self-Service Kiosks

Businesses always seek ways to improve customer satisfaction, increase their productivity and efficiency to maximize profitability and to ensure a long term sustainable growth. It is very true that the customer satisfaction provides a foundation at which business can grow. Furthermore it is also important that businesses understand that there is a cost associated to better customer service and product quality. They need to find a balance between the expense and the quality of outcome.

This is where the businesses look towards technology and digital solutions. The technology minimize the cost, offer excellent value and enhance productivity and operational capabilities of a business. Businesses in Dubai and all around the UAE have started adopting to self-service solutions since more than a decade now. Over the time the technology improved, the self-service solutions also got better. Now a days, the self-service kiosk are considered to be an integral part of customer satisfaction strategy.

See Also: Why Interactive Self-service Kiosks are the Ultimate Customer Experience Transformation Tool?

How Can Businesses Benefit From Self-Service Kiosks

One of the most common type of self-service kiosk is the ATM machine. We all are also familiar with the refreshment vending machines and the mobile top-up kiosks, these kiosks are very common in Dubai and all around the UAE. The self-service kiosks are serving millions of customers on daily bases across several industries. Different businesses are using the self-service kiosks differently, for example, the government sector is majorly using them to offer information and basic services, the event management industry is using them for self-service registration portals, the HR sector is using it to offer HR services (usually off-campus), the facility management are using them to offer self-service wayfinding portals, the service sector is using self-service kiosks, the retail industry is using to offer self-service checkout and many more. Here are some key benefits of the self-service kiosks which any business can use to gain a greater competitive advantage.

See Also: What is wayfinding software and why is it important?

How Can Businesses Benefit From Self-Service Kiosks

Interactive Self-Service Kiosk: Improves Customer Experience

Customer experience is one of the most important aspect of a successful business strategy. Satisfied customers tend to be more loyal towards the business, they are good brand advocate, they tend to tolerate more bad interactions, and they do repeated business and help businesses sustain growth. The customer experience depends on several factors, one of the most important factor is the customer wait time, and if customers will have to wait longer then they will get annoyed and frustrated which have huge impact on customer satisfaction and customer happiness.

The self-service kiosk offer quicker operation, self-service features and 24/7 availability. The kiosk can maximize the customer engagements and it can provide in-depth product information which help customers to acquire information very quickly. Since the self-service kiosk doesn’t require any assistance form the staff, the customers can have more freedom and control during their interaction.

See Also: What is a Self Service Kiosk? Here’s All You Need to Know

Interactive Self-Service Kiosk: Improves Customer Experience

These days in Dubai and all across the UAE the use of interactive kiosks is very common, so much so that most of the time the customers expect from the business to offer a self-service interactive kiosk or any other form of digital interaction. Of course the human interaction is important too, but the digital interaction offers more freedom, confidence and flexibility to the customers. Businesses can also offer personalized customer experience at their self-service interactive kiosk.

The self-service interactive kiosk comes with a powerful software tool, which can offer a personalized experience based on past customer interactions, their preferred products/services, and a lot of other analytical data. This ensures the customers are catered with the information, products and services they would be interested in. The system can also personalized the customer experience based on customer persona, their preferences and business strategies.

See Also: Emerging Trends in Self-Service Kiosk Technology

Interactive Self-Service Kiosk: Improves Customer Experience

The self-service interactive kiosks comes with intuitive user interfaces which also help improving customer experience. As here in UAE there are multiple nationalities and ethnicities which means your customer base would be very diverse. Communicating and interacting with such customers in their preferred language could be very difficult. If businesses wants to enhance their experience they might have to hire a lot of service agents to maximize their language capabilities.

However, with an interactive self-service kiosk businesses can easily integrate multiple languages without hiring special staff and interpreters. All those languages can be added to the system with only one time cost, there would be no impact on the operational expenses. This can provide a great advantage and it can increase customer engagements too. With the help of the interactive self-service kiosks businesses can easily offer personalized experience to maximize the customer satisfaction and customer happiness.

See Also: Top 10 Self-Service Technologies for Business in UAE

Interactive Self-Service Kiosk: Improves Customer Experience

Interactive Self-Service Kiosk: Offers 24/7 Availability

The lifestyle in Dubai and all around the UAE is very fast-paced. People don’t have much time to spare, everyone is busy and have schedules. In such lifestyle it become difficult to take time to visit a customer service center or a business. There are a variety of problems when you invite your customers to visit to your service center or business. For example, the first thing is the timing, each business or service center have fixed timings. When customers decide to visit a business or a service center, they will have to travel to there, then they will have to wait in waiting lines, sometimes the queues can get longer and take a lot of time. Which badly impact customer experience and cause frustration and stress. Another problem is that business usually have limited service centers/branches, it is very expensive to open a new branch.

However, the interactive self-service kiosk can operate 24/7, they don’t bound customers to visit only during the office hours or standard operating hours. The can cater to customers 24/7 and the deployment and operating cost is also very low.

See Also: How Self-Service Kiosk are Improving Customer Experience in Dubai, UAE?

Interactive Self-Service Kiosk: Offers 24/7 Availability

On top of that the interactive self-service kiosks can be placed at several places, opening up new branch or service center very expensive and complicated, however placing an interactive kiosk is very cost-efficient and easy. That is why the 24/7 availability of service offers excellent customer experience and higher customer satisfaction. The customers can visit there anytime they want, there will be no queue, and they will be served instantly. The reduction in wait time itself is a great advantage, and it can significantly improve customer experience.

The customers are interacting with a digital system, hence they can spend as much time as they want on the digital counter/kiosk. They can chose their preferred language, they can have access to all information and they feel more freedom while interacting through a digital channel or medium such as interactive self-service kiosk. Offering 24/7 service not only satisfy your customers but it also add value to the brand image and brand reputation.

See Also: The Impact of Self-Service Kiosk on Customer Behavior

Interactive Self-Service Kiosk: Offers 24/7 Availability

Interactive Self-Service Kiosk: Digitalization Drives Efficiency

The interactive self-service kiosks comes with a powerful software which is integrated with internal systems and central information center. This enables the system to offer services via a self-service mode. As the self-service operation doesn’t require interaction with the human staff so the customers should be provided with all the necessary information to be able to take them through the process and improve their success rate. That is very important, because if the customers start failing at the interactive self-service kiosk they would start complaining about it.

Large number of complains and unhappy customers can easily overwhelmed your customer support and service teams and would cause additional problems. That is why all the services and the delivery mechanisms are transformed to support the self-service mode. Sometimes businesses might have to remodel their internal processes and service delivery mechanisms to ensure the customers can easily get the service via a self-service mode.

See Also: 7 Features of Self Service Kiosks

Interactive Self-Service Kiosk: Digitalization Drives Efficiency

The digitalization of the services and improvements in the internal processes results in better efficiency and higher productivity. The digitalization drives innovation and automation, in fact the self-service solutions are all about achieving autonomy. Deploying an interactive self-service kiosk solution not only enable businesses to offer services in an automated way, but this automation also automates several service delivery steps and improve all internal processes as well. Such changes increase productivity and efficiency and improve performance.

This is due to the integration of several systems and converging all the data and information to a single portal. The same processes and changes can be deployed to the core processes that are being used by the service agents and other staff. Which will also help reducing their workload and reduce the efforts required for a particular task. Hence the productivity and efficiency of the entire business can be significantly improved.

See Also: What is HRMS Self Service Kiosk?

Interactive Self-Service Kiosk: Digitalization Drives Efficiency

Interactive Self-Service Kiosk: Reduce Cost and Maximize Profitability

The interactive self-service kiosk is a very cost-effective solution, it consists of a software application and a hardware kiosk machine. Creating the self-service kiosk software is just a one-time cost, and the hardware have longer lifecycle and can be used for many years without any significant maintenance. This means that the interactive self-service kiosk can offer excellent ROI. Furthermore the per-service cost can be significantly less comparing to the customer service centers.

The interactive self-service kiosk can support business growth, businesses can deploy these kiosks in their targeted locations and regions to extend their services to the customers in those regions and this also help acquiring more customers and generating revenue. Opening up a new branch or regional office is a very expensive feat, it is complicated, time consuming and required a lot of resources, whereas deploying a kiosk will just cost you a fraction of that. That is why the self-service kiosk can be great tool to support your growth.

See Also: What Is a Self-Service Payment Kiosk? Unveiling the Future of Transactions

Interactive Self-Service Kiosk: Reduce Cost and Maximize Profitability

Businesses also deploy interactive self-service kiosks in their service centers. Usually businesses hire more staff when their footfall increases. Hiring more staff and developing training programs for them can cost a lot. Here in Dubai and all around the UAE most of the general consumers are very well-versed with the technology, and most of the people prefer self-service. When businesses deploy interactive self-service kiosks at their premises, they can divert a lot of customers from the service counters towards the self-service kiosks. Which not only enhance customer experience but also help reducing the workload of the staff and also eliminates the need of hiring new staff.

In fact even if you don’t need to hire more staff you can still deploy self-service kiosks to balance the workload of the employee and allow them to focus on more important tasks. If we compare an interactive self-service kiosk with an employee, they are very cost-efficient and they can work 24/7 without any break. This maximize the efficiency while also reduce the cost in hiring or retaining more staff and increase profitability of the business.

See Also: What is Employee Self Service Kiosk?

Interactive Self-Service Kiosk:Reduce Cost and Maximize Profitability

Interactive Self-Service Kiosk: Remote Management and Instant Updates

The interactive self-service kiosks comes with a powerful information management system software. The software is basically a server side application, which manages the data, take commands from the users, follow the company policies and workflow and ensures a quicker and smoother service delivery. The front-end part is the user interface (UI), the UI allow the customers to interact with the system through the interactive self-service kiosk’s touch screen.

It also allow them to perform several tasks, such as scanning their Emirate ID, taking photos, printing documents, making cash payments or payments via credit/debit card or any other supportive method, take prints, scan QR codes, and several other functions that are required to deliver the service. There is another section of the software which is called the back-office or administrative dashboard. The administrative dashboard provide access to configurations, settings, information, data bases and other features of the system.

See Also: Employee Self Service Kiosk (ESS Kiosk)

Interactive Self-Service Kiosk: Remote Management and Instant Updates

The server software is always hosted online or on company network and the kiosks serve as a client to that server and also on the same network or online to communicate with the server. Usually the administrative control panel is provided to the head-office, regional offices and any other concerned person who is responsible for managing the system. This means that each time when a customer interacts with the system through the interactive self-service kiosk, all the data is stored on the server. The interactive self-service kiosk server is integrated with other relevant systems and databases such as customer database, financial system, inventory management, etc.

Hence the information and data can also be updated on all other connected systems to ensure the consistency and to eliminate the repeated work and confusions. Furthermore the information on the kiosk can also be management through in-built dedicated modules and can be updated on each individual kiosk or all of them simultaneously and in real-time. Hence there is no delay or gap between the kiosk and any other relevant system.

See Also: Integrating AI and Machine Learning in Self-Service Kiosks

Interactive Self-Service Kiosk: Remote Management and Instant Updates

Interactive Self-Service Kiosk: Offers a Wide Range of Functionalities

An interactive self-service kiosk is a highly customizable machine. It is built on a widely available hardware which also make it very cost-effective. Especially since past decade, the manufacturers have invested a lot in the R&D of the interactive technologies. This led to highly innovative and advanced technological solutions. Basically the interactive self-service kiosk consists of a computer module, which act as the main brain of the kiosk.

There is a touch screen display which let users interact with the user interface (UI) of the systems. Obviously the touch screen alone is not enough for a lot of services, so there are other peripherals are added to achieve the desired functionalities. Here are some generic functionalities that can be offered by an interactive self-service kiosk:

  • Navigating through dashboards and web pages via touch screen & on-screen keyboard
  • Input data and information using physical track pad and a physical keyboard
  • Connectivity via LAN, WiFi and 3G/4G connections
  • Print Receipts via thermal printer or a full-size (A4) printer
  • Scan and print documents via standard size scanner and an A4 size printer
  • Scan RFIDs, QR Codes, Barcodes, Passport and Boarding Passes
  • Integrated Retina Scanners, Facial Recognition, Thermal Camera & CCTV Security Camera
  • Make payments with cash and coins with dedicated cash and coin accepting modules
  • Make payments with credit/debit cards, Google Pay, Apple Pay, online payment gateways, etc.
  • Build customized vending machines for merchandise and small size items
  • Integrated special peripherals, sensors and hardware accessories to meet exclusive needs

These are some of the most widely used functionalities and hardware devices that can be integrated in an interactive self-service kiosk. Businesses can use any of the above or a combination of the above to achieve their required functionalities to maximize the customer experience.

See Also: Self-Service Kiosks in Retail: Revolutionizing the Shopping Experience

Interactive Self-Service Kiosk: Offers a Wide Range of Functionalities

A great benefit of the interactive self-service kiosk is that it is highly customizable. Which means businesses have a lot of room for innovation and they can offer highly advanced features to their customers to enhance the customer experience. Here are some industries who are rapidly adopting to interactive self-service kiosk systems and solutions:

  • Banking and Financial Sector
  • Government Departments and Ministries
  • Utility Service Providers
  • Facility Management and Real Estate Businesses
  • Healthcare Sector
  • Educational Institutions
  • HR Sector
  • Public Offices
  • Food and Hospitality Industries
  • Transport Sector
  • Airports, Ports and Immigration Departments
  • Telecommunication Sector
  • Retail Industry
  • Events and Exhibition Management Sectors
  • Marketing, Communication and Entertainment Sectors

These are some of the major industries that are embracing interactive self-service kiosks. Listing all businesses and their types is not relevant to our subject. The above list is to show how wide spread the technology is and how many different types of businesses are using interactive self-service kiosk systems.

See Also: What are the Features of a Best Self-Service Payment Kiosk Software?

Interactive Self-Service Kiosk: Offers a Wide Range of Functionalities

See More: People Counting System: Heatmap Analysis & Customer Churn Rate

Conclusion

Businesses from various industry sectors are rapidly adopting to modern technologies and solutions to enhance their customer experience and to maximize the productivity and profitability. The interactive self-service kiosk system is also one of those modern technologies that is embraced by almost all industry sectors. Businesses located in Dubai or anywhere in UAE knows very well that the customer demands are very high in UAE market and the competition is very tough. In such scenarios the customer experience and the customer happiness matters the most. In order to delight the customers, businesses offers a variety of products and services, the customer self-service is one of them. It helps improving customer experience and gain their loyalty. The interactive self-service kiosk solutions are available 24/7 offer excellent user experience with multi-lingual and intuitive user interfaces. The interactive kiosks offer a variety of features and hardware compatible devices which help businesses innovate new solutions to maximize the customer satisfaction.

The interactive self-service kiosk system also offers a powerful software which help businesses digitalize and automate several services, internal processes and workflows. The automation improves efficiency and also have positive impact on employee performance as the self-service kiosks and the automation help reducing the workload of the staff. Which also help businesses in improving the efficiency and it is also very helpful in optimizing and reducing the operational cost. The interactive self-service kiosks are the modern day’s solution for the ever growing customer satisfaction needs of the businesses. RSI Concepts is a leading interactive self-service kiosk solution provider in Dubai, UAE. If you want to learn more about the subject or if you want us to help you build a tailor-made interactive self-service kiosk solution 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.

See Also: 10 Customer Self-Service Best Practices to Power Your Contact Center Results

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People Counting System: Heatmap Analysis & Customer Churn Rate

Posted on November 9, 2022 by admin

People Counting System: Heatmap Analysis & Customer Churn Rate

Businesses in Dubai and all around the UAE are considered to be more adoptive towards innovation and modernization. This is because of the overall market conditions. Especially the service and retail industries are one of the most rapidly growing industries in the UAE. The biggest challenge for such industries is that the competition is always high, the consistent growth always attracts more businesses and investors, and hence the competition starts getting tougher. With the rise of competition the offering businesses made to their customers also start increasing, which eventually raise the customers’ demands and market standards.

In Dubai and all around the UAE the customers are already very demanding, they prefer experience over cost. People are willing to pay extra if they are provided with a better customer experience. The customer experience matters so much so that an average consumer puts customer experience equally to the quality of the product or service. For customers the product/service quality and experience are both equally important.

See Also: How and why Retail Store should use People Counting Software?People Counting System: Heatmap Analysis & Customer Churn Rate

Businesses always strive to improve the quality of their products and services, there are many ways to deal with this problem. However, customer experience is a very complex and sophisticated problem. The customer experience is basically customer response towards the products, services, purchase process, interactions with the business, and the entire customer journey. If a customer have positive response, or they feel better after interacting with a business, they tend to come back and make more purchases from it. If anything goes wrong, the customer leave unsatisfied and unhappy, they will most likely never return to the same business.

That is why the customer experience is extremely important. If we talk about the retail businesses, there are tons of options available for an average consumer, if we talk about the service industry the conditions are almost the same. This really empowered the customers, they have power to choose any business they want. On top of that the rise of e-Commerce and online channels the customers have even more options than ever before.

See Also: A Complete Guide to People Counting System

People Counting System: Heatmap Analysis & Customer Churn Rate

It has become extremely important for businesses to offer an excellent customer experience along with high quality products and services. In order to understand the customer experience the customer journey is the key. The customer journey is the entire processes that starts with customer acquiring information about products or services, interacting with the business, making a purchase/checkout and even post-sale services. These all touch points in totality form the customer experience. In this blog we will discuss how businesses can use people counting system and heatmap analysis to understand and reduce their customer churn rate.

What is customer churn rate?

The customer churn rate is a rate at which customer leave without making a purchase or a rate at which customers unsubscribe from the service within a certain time period. Basically the customer churn rate is heavily influenced by the customer experience. Let say in case of a retail business the customer churn rate would be the measurement of the customers who happen to visit your store but left without making a purchase. Of course there are some window shoppers too, but the most of the customer who left without purchasing is due to the experience, they might suspect they will have to wait for a long time in the queue at cash counter, long waiting time could be very stressful for some customers.

That is why they decide to leave without making a purchase and in that case usually those customers end up purchasing from another store. Similarly in service sector the customers usually left without getting the service is due to the long queues at the service counter. The rate at which customers are leaving the business without having a transaction is basically the customer churn rate.

See Also: Best Features of People Counting Software

What is customer churn rate?

What is People Counting System?

The people counting system is a digital solution that counts people entering or leaving through a door, entry point or passage. The people counting systems have evolved a lot over the past few years. The people counting phenomenon is not new, in fact businesses are doing it since a long time, in the very beginning usually a staff member was appointing on counting people manually, he/she sits at the entrance or exit and count people manually. This means that businesses have realized the importance of people counting at very early times.

Later on when the technologies start evolving and electronics and IT technologies have become popular, businesses started implementing technology based people counting systems. The earlier people counting systems were just basic ones with an infrared sensor and emitter, whenever someone passed through the door, they cut the beam and the system add one to the counter. Later this become more advanced and replaced by dedicated devices and sensors who offered better accuracy such as infrared cameras, ultrasonic and laser technologies, etc.

See Also: People Counting System to Optimize Mall Operations

What is People Counting System?

However, the accuracy of the system was still not up to the mark. That is what made businesses think of something more innovative, sophisticated and accurate solution. The people counting systems have evolved a lot over the past decades, however, in the last decade, with the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), more sophisticated algorithms and powerful software applications, the modern day AI based people counting systems have emerged. A modern AI based people counting systems are equipped with highly advanced image processing algorithms who can detect various different objects and who can accurately distinguish between the surrounding background and moving people.

This made them highly accurate and also comes with additional benefits. The modern day AI based people counting system doesn’t even require a dedicated sensor, in fact with its powerful software it can turn any camera into a highly accurate people counting sensor. The modern people counting system is completely a software based solution which can be linked to existing CCTV camera feeds, and from that feed it can extract the valuable people counting data and other analytical stats which offer a great value to the business.

See Also: Advantages of People Counting Technology for Shopping Malls

What is People Counting System?

What is Heatmap Analysis?

The heatmap is a very useful feature of the people counting system. Basically the heatmap is a visualization of the movement of the customers and visitors within your tracking region or premises. It tells businesses from which point the customers enter, how they moved inside the business premises what attractions attracted them the most, how much time they spend at any place in the premises, where they make the purchase, or where the abandoned the customer journey and leave. Basically the businesses wants to know which places or points are acting as the bottle necks, and which are acting as the honeypots for the customers.

The heatmaps are a color coded visualization of the analytical data collected by all connected cameras within the premises or coverage area and place that on a 2D or 3D floor plan of the premises. It can track the popular and unpopular pathways and routes customer take within the premises during their visit. That kind of information is very helpful for businesses, it helps them understand which products, places, or attractions are popular among their customers and vice versa. The heatmap analysis is one of the most important aspect of the modern day people counting system.

See Also: How Small Businesses Can Utilize People Counting Solutions?

What is Heatmap Analysis?

How People Counting System’s Heatmap Analysis Help Reducing Customer Churn Rate

The customer churn rate can only be reduced if the business clearly understand its causes and then take actions to eliminate those reasons. In a service center or retail setup where customer footfall is high, it is difficult to understand the customer churn rate. Here are a few sample questions that you can ask yourself during the heatmap analysis to understand the reasons of the customer churn rate:

  • Are customers going to the important products/sections?
  • Are customers reaching out to the offers/deals, or high selling items?
  • If marketing stands and screens are distracting customers from going to the high-selling items?
  • Are customers waiting longer in the queues?
  • What is customer dwell time at the cash counters or service counters?
  • What is customer dwell time at important places/spots?
  • Which areas customers are not visiting or spending time at?
  • Where are the employees deployed when the crowed formed at the counters?

In order to reduce the customer churn rate, it is important to understand the customers get what they are looking for. In any businesses, not every product is equally popular, some sell more some less. In fact sometimes there is only a short list of the products that are top selling. It is important that the customers reach to those products and those places where you want them to go.

See Also: What are the advantages of Digital Wayfinding Signage?

How People Counting System’s Heatmap Analysis Help Reducing Customer Churn Rate

Furthermore businesses adopt to different strategies and marketing tactics to improve customer experience. However, you can’t force them to go to those products or areas. The heatmap analysis will help you understand the customer behavior within the premises and it will help you understand the customer flow and pathways. With that knowledge in hand, you can rearrange your inventory to increase the visibility of the high-value and most selling products to maximize the sales. Businesses keep installing digital screens and other marketing materials which could distract the customers from the important items or areas.

Another huge cause of customer churn is the long waiting lines and longer time spent at the cash/service counters. Most of the times in shopping malls and at service centers due to inefficient management the facility is always operating at lower than its actual potential. The people counting system help businesses understand how to strategically allocate resources during the busy time. The customer dwell time and heatmap is very helpful in understanding the busy hours, customer wait time and customer queues.

See Also: How Can Businesses Benefit From Self-Service Payment Kiosks?

How People Counting System’s Heatmap Analysis Help Reducing Customer Churn Rate

The people counting system also track employee movement which can portray a clear picture of employee positions, movements and their work patterns within the premises, which can be very helpful for the management to efficiently manage resources to maximize the customer experience. Furthermore businesses also want to know why there are some sections or places which customers are not visiting, the heatmap can provide a full customer movement analysis with visualization on an actual 2D/3D floor plan of the premises. This help businesses understand which areas are not attracting the customers and why.

Businesses can take some steps to improve visibility of such areas such as by marketing, or shuffling of some products and so on. The people counting system is also very helpful in improving the marketing campaigns, for example, if a business added a new standee, a banner, a digital signage or even an interactive self-service kiosk, they can understand how customers and visitors are responding to that. If customers and visitors start showing interest in it, then it is good and same can be followed for future campaigns, if not, businesses can revamp their marketing content, until they get the desired result.

See Also: Self-Service Kiosks in Retail: Revolutionizing the Shopping Experience

How People Counting System’s Heatmap Analysis Help Reducing Customer Churn Rate

The heatmap analysis and all its advantages are excellent in reducing customer churn rate. Businesses can easily understand what customers are liking and not liking, they can understand their behavior and movement patterns within the premises, they can get valuable information about the queues and customer waiting time and much more. The people counting system not only provide heatmap but also provide other useful information such as your customers’ demographic data which is also very helpful. Businesses can make informed decisions on the bases of the people counting system data and heatmap analysis.

For example, they can better manage their internal space, they can maximize the visibility of the products they are selling, they can streamline their customer flow in their service centers, they can track and analyze the employee performance and they can easily highlight the areas of improvement with the help of the data. Hence rather than making your strategies based on guesses or incomplete data, they can take decision on highly accurate data. Which maximize the chances of the success. The customer churn is a very complicated problem, but with the help of the heatmap analysis and business intelligence data gathered by the people counting system businesses can easily reduce it.

See Also: Employee Self Service Kiosk (ESS Kiosk)

How People Counting System’s Heatmap Analysis Help Reducing Customer Churn Rate

Conclusion

High customer demands, tougher competition and complicated management, lead businesses to lose their efficiency. For profitability and growth it is important that a business operates at its full potential and doesn’t lose any sales opportunity. The customer churn could be very damaging for the business, it not only cause loss of sales but in long term it impact business’s reputation and image as well. The people counting system is one of the great tool to understand your customers’ behavior and track their movement within the business premises. A modern people counting system is based on artificial intelligence (AI) based image processing algorithms which enables it to extract valuable business intelligence data form the CCTV camera feeds. The data along with the heatmap provide vital information about customer behavior and their movements. Which areas are most visited, which areas got least attention, how much time was spend at counters and in queues, etc. The heatmap can also track employees which help management understand employee performance.

All this data is very helpful in identifying the bottlenecks and honeypot areas, and also help businesses evaluate their resource planning and marketing strategies. With the data from people counting system and heatmap analysis the businesses can take more informed decisions, they can refine their strategies to enhance customer experience and to reduce the customer churn rate. RSI Concepts is a leading people counting system development company in Dubai, UAE. If you want to know more about the subject or if you want us to help you with deploying a very cost-effective tailor-made people counting system and heatmap analysis tool at 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.

See Also: 10 Customer Self-Service Best Practices to Power Your Contact Center Results

Posted in People Counting Software | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

5 Types of Customer Feedback

Posted on October 28, 2022 by admin

5 Types of Customer Feedback

The customer feedback is basically the information, suggestions, complaints, opinion, or just a thought your customers and your audience shared with you. There are two major classes of customer feedback, first is the feedback that customer share without asking and it is called passive feedback. And when the business ask the customer to share their feedback that feedback is called active feedback. In this blog we will focus only on the active feedback types. The customer feedback is a very valuable data which help businesses understand their customers and let them make strategies to maximize the satisfaction of the customers.

The customer feedback can be used to evaluate the product and services that you are offering to your customers. The feedback data can be used to improve your products and services and it also help in new service & product development processes. Businesses can also utilize the customer feedback to evaluate the entire customer journey and all touch points to analyze the customer experience. The customer feedback data can also highlight the areas of improvements and let businesses improve everything to align with customers’ needs, expectations and desires.

See Also: Why Your Business Needs a Customer Feedback System?

5 Types of Customer Feedback

Here in Dubai and all around the UAE businesses have started adopting a more customer-centric business model since more than a decade now. It doesn’t matter which industry you operates in, the customer happiness and customer satisfaction is always the top priority. Here are some key benefits of taking customer feedback:

  • Learn about customer persona
  • Listening to the customer build trust
  • The criticism help identifying the areas of improvements
  • The praises help understand what you are doing right
  • Completing feedback loop strengthen relationship with customers
  • Feedback data help in learning new trends and customer expectations
  • The customer desire, expectations and demands drive innovation
  • Evaluate employee performance and improve training programs
  • Acquire deeper insight to customer journey and customer experience
  • Identify problems and bugs or if anything starts failing the customers
  • Increase customer happiness and customer satisfaction

The customer feedback is a very powerful tool that can completely transform your products, services, internal business processes, marketing & communication, strategy, methods and the even the entire operations. It will help you align everything with the customer and develop strong long term relationships with your customers, which is a key to long term success and sustainable growth.

See Also: Key Features of a Customer Feedback System

5 Types of Customer Feedback

Types of Customer Feedback

If we classify the customer feedback on the bases of the channels we are using to collect it then there are so many types and there are so many channels and methods which a business can utilize to collect the customer feedback. However, on the bases of the feedback type or the data type there are only a few major types or categories. Here are the five most popular and common customer feedback types:

  • Net Promoter Score / NPS Score
  • Customer Satisfaction Score Survey / CSAT Score
  • Customer Effort Score Survey / CES Score
  • General Feedback Surveys
  • Social Media Feedback

Net Promoter Score / NPS Score

The net promoter score or NPS Score is a very common and very important type of customer feedback. The net promoter score is usually used to measure the customer loyalty. It asks customer if they would like to recommend the business or its products/services to someone else. It is a single questions survey but it can capture valuable data. The actual NPS Score is measured from -100 to +100 and the highest value is considered to be the best. The customers are asked a single question and they can respond on a rating scale from 0 to 10.  Here are some examples of the NPS Score questions:

  • How likely are you to recommend us[brand name] to your friends, family or colleagues?
  • How likely are you to recommend our product [product name] to your friends, family or colleagues?
  • How likely are you to recommend our service [service name] to your friends, family or colleagues?

The customer responds on a rating scale ranging from 0 to 10. Here is a NPS Score breakup:

  • Promoters (Answer: 9 or 10): The respondents with answer 9 or 10 are the one most likely to recommend your business, products or services to others and these are also the most loyal and enthusiastic customers.
  • Passives (Answer: 7 or 8): The respondents with the answer 7 or 8 are also considered to be the happy and satisfied customers. They might be satisfied with the service, but not happy enough to recommend you to others.
  • Detractor (Answer: 0 to 6):The respondents with the answer 0 to 6 are not happy, and they will never become a promoter, they might not purchase from you again and they are also likely to discourage others from buying from you.

See Also: Leveraging Customer Feedback System for Business Growth

Net Promoter Score / NPS Score

The calculation of the NPS Score is very simple, you just have to calculate the percentage of the promoters and detractors. Once that is calculated subtract the detractor from the promoters. For example, if the total number of respondent was 100, 70 were promoters, 20 were detractors, and 10 were passive. Then the percentage of the promoters would be 70% and the percentage of the detractors would be 20% and the NPS Score would be 70 – 20 = 50. The NPS Score is always a whole number, ranging from -100 to +100. Here is a formula to manually calculate the NPS Score:

  • (Number of promoters − Number of detractors / Number of responses) × 100 = NPS Score

There are two mainstream methods to interpret your NPS Score to understand if your business is satisfying your customers or not. The first one is called absolute method, in the absolute method the 0 is taken as the reference point, and if the NPS score is below 0 you are in trouble. Because most of customers will pass bad words about your brand, and more likely to repel others from your business. The second method is called relative method, as name suggests, in relative method the NPS score is compared with the industry benchmarks. Usually a score from 30 to 50 is considered to be the best, but this varies from industry to industry.

See Also: Utilizing Customer Feedback for Competitive Advantage

Net Promoter Score / NPS Score

Customer Satisfaction Score Survey / CSAT Score

The customer satisfaction score survey or CSAT score is one of the most widely used customer experience matric which is usually used to measure customer’s sentiments for a product, service, support or any other interaction with the business. The CSAT score is different from the NPS Score, because it measures customer experience and not the customer loyalty. The customer satisfaction score surveys are also a great tool to understand the quantitative and qualitative performance. It tells businesses whether the customers are satisfied or not and it can also tell why they are happy or unhappy. Here are some examples of a typical CSAT survey question:

  • How satisfied are your with our business [business name]?
  • How satisfied are your with our product/service [product/service name]?
  • How satisfied are you with your today’s interaction with our staff [support/service agent’s name]?

The SCAT Score surveys have usually one primary CSAT question which is followed by an open-ended questions/comment section. However, in some cases in order to acquire deeper insight businesses can also add more questions. It is important to keep your survey short as long surveys tend to have less conversion rate. However, businesses can have up to 10 total questions in a CSAT survey although typically a CSAT survey have only 2 or 3 questions.

See Also: What are the best devices to be used for Customer Feedback?

Customer Satisfaction Score Survey / CSAT Score

The CSAT score is usually measured within a range of 1 to 5. The CSAT score is measured in percentage, hence it can tell how many percent of your total customers are satisfied with a specific interaction or experience. The respondent are provided with a scale from 1 to 5 which usually also have tags such as:

  1. Very unsatisfied
  2. Unsatisfied
  3. Neutral
  4. Satisfied
  5. Very satisfied

Now a days businesses also use emoticons instead of the numbers, each emoticons represents a number to simplify the analysis and reporting. The satisfied customers are the respondent with answer 4 or 5, the remaining all are considered to be unhappy or unsatisfied. In order to calculate the CSAT Score you will have to take the number of satisfied customers (4 and 5) divided by the total number of respondent and then multiply it with 100. Here is the formula to calculate the CSAT Score:

  • (Number of satisfied customers (4 and 5) / Number of survey responses) x 100 = CSAT Score

For example, if you have 76 satisfied respondents and the total number of responses was 110 then the CSAT score would be 69%. That is how the CSAT score is calculated. The CSAT score is tracked over the time and the dips in the CSAT score trend line will help you identify the causes of the customer dissatisfaction. Businesses can done more in-depth analysis to understand why they had a dip in the CSAT Score trend line.

See Also: The Role of Customer Feedback in Personalizing User Experience

Customer Satisfaction Score Survey / CSAT Score

Customer Effort Score Survey / CES Score

The customer effort score survey or SES score is also a customer loyalty matric used to determine the level of difficulty or ease a customer have to face during the interaction with the business. It is used to measure the efforts a customer have to make throughout the customer journey or during an interaction with the business such as for solving a problem, etc. The CES score is measured at a scale of 1 to 7 where the 5 or 6 is considered to be the best. There is a reason the 7 is not the top rated, actually present day businesses offer a lot of self-service solutions, and they want their customers to utilize them too. In case if all customers are rating 7 that means they are already undermining the self-services. Here are some examples of the customer effort score questions:

  • Likert Scale (1 to 7): How do you agree to the following statement – The [business name] made it easy for me to solve my problem?
  • 1 to 10 Scale: How much efforts do you have to put to solve your problem today?
  • 1 to 5 Scale: How easy it was to solve your issue?
  • Emoticons (1 to 3 or 1 to 5): How easy it was to use our new payment method? Or registration process? Or updating your document through our self-service kiosk?

The CES Score or customer effort score is usually measured through the likert scale. The likert scale ranges from 1 to 7 where 1 represents the Strongly Disagree, then 2 for Disagree, 3 for Somewhat Disagree, 4 for Undecided/Neutral, 5 for Somewhat Agree, 6 for Agree, and 7 for Strongly Agree. Here is the formula to calculate the CES Score with a likert scale:

  • (Sum of CES Score / Total Number of Respondents) x 100 = CES Score

The CES Score is usually measured in percentage, so if a likert scale is used, then the 5 to 7 values will be taken as positive response, and the CES score can be calculated by simply dividing the sum of results by the number of total respondents and then multiply by 100.

See Also: Overcoming Challenges in Customer Feedback Collection and Management

Customer Effort Score Survey / CES Score

For the 1 to 10 scale, the CES can be calculated by dividing the sum of CES scores by the total number of respondent, for example, total 100 customers respond to the survey, the total sum of their feedback was 650 then the CES score will be 6.5. For the happiness meter or emoticons, you can calculate the percentage of positive respondent and negative respondent separately, then subtract the percentage of negative respondent from the percentage of positive respondent to get the CES Score. The best time to send a CES survey to your customers is immediately after they made a purchase or had an interaction with your business.

The CES scores surveys can produce highly valuable data which provides highly precise information about what customers liked or not. Usually the CES score is just one question, but it can be followed by another question to further understand the happiness level of the customer. The CES score survey data provide businesses a better understanding of the customer journey and help them reduce the friction and ensure an easy, comfortable and desirable customer journey and customer experience.

See Also: Integrating AI in Customer Feedback System

Customer Effort Score Survey / CES Score

General Feedback Surveys

Apart from all above customer feedback types there are a lot of other surveys. Usually a customer feedback survey is a great way to connect with your customers and provide them a chance to express their feelings, needs, demands and desires. The customer feedback management strategy must include general surveys with different objectives. Usually a general customer feedback survey consists of 5 or more than 5 questions. In some cases a customer feedback survey could have around 30 to 40 questions too. These all surveys have different purpose, and mostly used to acquire in-depth knowledge about your audiences.

For example, the product usage surveys are shared with the customers, sometime after they made a purchase, these surveys can be shared via online links, emails, websites, customer portals, mobile apps, and any other preferred channel. The demographic surveys let businesses understand who their audience is, to whom they should cater the most, and if they want to target another audience group what they should do and so on. Businesses understand market trends and predict future demands with the data acquired from such customer feedback surveys.

See Also: 8 Proven Practices for Successful Customer Feedback Management

General Feedback Surveys

The general surveys could be used to research for the product development and innovation. They help understanding the customer trends and their needs. They help identifying customers’ problems and also help businesses to understand what their customers are expecting from them. The general feedback surveys can have different types of questions such as multiple choice questions, rating scales, happiness meters, check boxes, single select answers, leading questions, conditional questions and much more.

Businesses can target mass audience with these surveys and apply conditional logics and other techniques to extract different information from different audiences. These surveys can be conducted with the focused groups, targeted customers and audiences to acquire highly precise and in-depth insight. The general purpose surveys could also have NPS questions, CSAT and CES questions along with other very subjective and to-the-point questions to acquire a more in-depth knowledge and insight. If done properly the general feedback surveys could have huge influence in modeling your future strategies and plans.

See Also: The Ultimate Guide to Execute a Customer Feedback Campaign

General Feedback Surveys

Social Media Feedback

The social media have become an essential part of the today’s business and marketing management strategies. The digital marketing have already proven to be more effective than the traditional marketing methods and techniques. Here in Dubai and all around the UAE the social media platforms are heavily integrated in our daily lives. People used to spend hours on social media in a day. Whether it is for work or for personal use, communication or just for entertainment, people tend to spend a lot of time on their social media channels.

According to latest stats, almost 99% of the UAE population is using some kind of social media. It means that almost all of your customers will be on those social media, most of them have already liked, followed or bookmarked your business profile and pages. People tend to visit their social media many times a day. This means you also have a lot of chances to get in touch with them via these social media platforms and channels. The social media is designed to connect with others and share your opinions. That is why the businesses can leverage the social media to collect customer feedback.

See Also: What is Multichannel Customer Feedback and Why it is so Important?

Social Media Feedback

The simplest way to start with is by sharing your online survey links at your social media profiles and pages and let your customers provide their feedback via those surveys. There are a variety of social media platforms that can help you conducting various types of customer feedback surveys. For example, having contest on you social media is a great way to increase customer engagement and get their opinion very quickly. The direct messages, chatbots and auto-responders can also help asking questions to your followers, and one who commented on your posts.

Some social media also allow publishing polls on your profiles and pages. These polls can be a great way to ask different types of questions, such as NPS, CSAT, or even product usage and product development related questions. Furthermore the stories and going live could also help getting quick feedback from your customers. There are so many different social media platforms and each one have different features that can be utilized to ask questions to your audience. The social media feedback is great tool to listen to the voice of your customers.

See Also: 11 Customer Feedback Examples for Business Success

Social Media Feedback

See More: Advantages of People Counting Technology for Shopping Malls

Conclusion

The customer feedback is a great tool to listen to the customer voice. As the present day businesses have become more customer-centric, they need a much deeper understanding and information about their customers and their needs in order to improve their customer centric model. The customer feedback let businesses include the customers in the decision making and strategy making processes, although not directly but when you know what your customers want and what they don’t want, it is easier to cater to their needs, expectations and desires. The customer happiness and customer satisfaction is one of the key matric to measure the success of the business. If your customers are not happy and satisfied it is just a matter of time, you will lose them.

That is why it is crucial to understand your customers and their problems and ensure they remain happy, satisfied and loyal to your brand. The customer feedback campaign help businesses connect with its customers, and it help increasing trust and loyalty. As when customers know their voice is important for you and you do care what they think and feel, they will feel more emotionally attached with your brand and become more loyal. The customer loyalty and the customer satisfaction are the most important goals of the customer-centric business models. When it comes to launch a customer feedback campaign, it become very difficult for the managers to decide which type of feedback they need, and which channel they should be using to share the surveys and questionnaires.

In this blog we have covered the 5 major types of the customer feedback. If you want to learn more about the subject or if you want us to help you deploying a tailor-made customer feedback system that can help you with your next customer feedback campaign. 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.

See Also: Your Guide to an Effective Customer Feedback System

See Also: The Impact of Real-Time Feedback on Customer Experience

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Advantages of People Counting Technology for Shopping Malls

Posted on October 27, 2022 by admin

The success of a shopping mall depends on various factors, some of the key aspect of a successful strategy is customer satisfaction. The customer satisfaction is crucial so does generating revenue. Businesses will have to find a way to enhance customer satisfaction without compromising their profits and revenue. This can’t be achieved without implementing technological solutions. That is why the people counting technology have gained huge momentum since past decade. However, with the rise of e-Commerce and drastic changes in consumer behavior forced the shopping malls and retail businesses to come up with new and better solutions to support their customer-centric strategies.

Here in Dubai and all around the UAE the retail industry and shopping malls are rapidly growing and expanding. The overall competition is very high in UAE, the customer trends are rapidly changing, the influence of social media and online is getting stronger day by day, and the shopping malls need more proactive customer satisfaction strategies.

See Also: People Counting System to Optimize Mall Operations

Advantages of People Counting Technology for Shopping Malls

Many shopping malls in UAE and all around the world use people counting technologies to monitor the behavior of their customers and to understand how much sales and revenue they should expect. An average shopping mall in Dubai or anywhere in UAE have groceries, food courts, electronics shops, cloths and other retails businesses. This means that people are visiting a shopping mall for different purpose and reasons, some might be visiting a shopping mall to shop groceries, some are coming to meet other people, some are coming to shop electronics, some just came to sit in a coffee shop, some are even coming for entertainment, etc. Each visitor group have different value for the shopping mall as well as for the other businesses in it.

It is crucial to understand your visitors and their behavior in order to build strategies that can maximize the customer satisfaction as well as the exposure to tenants. An ordinary people counting device which tracks footfall and collects basic demographic is not enough. In present day a shopping mall needs a highly effective people analytical data to be able to acquire deeper insights. In this blog we will discuss how an AI based People Counting Software can help shopping malls achieve their goals.

See Also: People Counting System: Heatmap Analysis & Customer Churn Rate

Advantages of People Counting Technology for Shopping Malls

What is an AI based People Counting Software?

The AI or artificial intelligence based people counting software can process live video feeds to extract analytical data. It has in-built smart image processing algorithms which can accurately count people entering or exiting a mall or premises through multiple entrances and exits, it can capture several demographical details, it can effectively track and monitor employees and it can also store all the data which can be later analyzed by in-built analytical tools such as customer flow and behavior, heat maps, dwell time, footfall count, customer churn rate, peak time trends, etc.

The traditional people counting technology usually rely on dedicated devices and sensors which have very limited visibility and focus area, the results are also not as that accurate and such devices has to be installed on all entrances and focused areas. Poor visibility and focus results in low quality data and multiple entering and exit points can further skewed the results. Which is why the traditional people counting technology is fading away and shopping malls are moving towards more advanced AI (artificial intelligence) and ML (machine learning) solutions.

See Also: How and why Retail Store should use People Counting Software?

What is an AI based People Counting Software?

Advantages of AI Based People Counting Software for Shopping Malls

The modern business strategies are completely data driven. These days’ businesses are heavily relying on business intelligence data. Building and implementing an effective strategy require accurate data. The retail businesses and shopping malls also need that data to benchmark their performance. Such quality and depth of data can’t be achieved with traditional people counting technologies. That is why shopping malls need an AI based people counting software and technology.

Another great advantage of the AI integration in people counting technology is that it can significantly reduce the implementation cost while providing excellent quality of data and analytical tools which enable managers to generate actionable reports and KPI data. These reports and data can help shopping mall in building great success strategies and help them boost their revenue as well. Here are some key advantages of an AI based people counting software.

See Also: Best Features of People Counting Software

Advantages of AI Based People Counting Software for Shopping Malls

People Counting Software: Accurate Footfall Count

The Ai based people counting software use live feeds from the CCTV cameras. As the CCTV cameras are already covering all entrances and exits so the people counting software can accurately count the number of people entering and leaving the shopping mall. Unlike the traditional technologies with poor accuracy and less coverage area, the AI based people counting software can cover each and every point without any problem. The AI core have smart image processing algorithms which can accurately detect people. The smart object identification matrix enable people counting software to distinguishes between human and non-human objects which was very difficult with traditional people counting technologies.

The people counting software can also precisely identify the direction of the people, whether they are entering or leaving which further enhance the accuracy and quality of the data. That is why the AI based people counting software can provide highly accurate footfall count. The accurate footfall count help shopping malls to understand their customer flow and let them identify the areas of improvement.

See Also: How Small Businesses Can Utilize People Counting Solutions?

People Counting Software: Accurate Footfall Count

People Counting Software: Demographic Data

The marketing is a key component in success of any business. Now a days’ businesses use highly targeted marketing to maximize the outcome and to reduce the cost. For that it is important that the business clearly understand its targeted audience. In case of shopping malls it is important to understand the demographic data of the audience. Since the AI powered people counting software is linked to the CCTV camera feeds, it can easily process the live video and with the in-built smart analytical tools and image processing algorithms it can precisely detect the gender and even age group of the visitors.

That is a very valuable data it can help shopping malls and their tenants to improve their marketing campaigns to attract more customers from their audience. This data can also help improving the accuracy of several other analytical processes. The shopping malls can easily understand which type of traffic they will get and the same can be used to arrange different businesses accordingly and other tactics can be used to route the targeted traffic to more revenue generating areas. This data will also help them design better marketing campaigns and maximize the outcome.

See Also: The Future of Visitor Management: Digital Badge Kiosks

People Counting Software: Demographic Data

People Counting Software: Detailed Heat Maps

The heat map is basically a visual representation of the customer flow. The people counting software keep track of the customers’ movement within the premises as well. On the bases of their movement it generates a heat map. The heat map shown which areas are getting the most traffic and which areas are not so popular. That is an excellent feature. Just counting how many people are entering is not enough, if the shopping mall could get the full record of their movements that will help the management streamline customer flow.

It will also help the shopping mall management to improve certain areas to get more visibility for the tenants located in such places. The customer heat map is also very helpful in planning for the marketing, such as installing new signage or communication devices. It also help shopping mall understand which areas are more liked by the customers and let them analyze the businesses/tenants located in those regions and help them build a balanced strategy where they can blend the popular and unpopular retailers to maximize the customer flow in all regions of the shopping mall.

See Also: Complete Guide to People Counting System in 2022

People Counting Software: Detailed Heat Maps

People Counting Software: Better Staff Management

The AI powered people counting software help shopping malls understand the customer/visitor distribution in the premises. They can clearly identify how people are moving within the shopping mall, which areas are more attractive and where they should expect more people. The people counting software have in-built intelligent algorithms which can analyze the historic data and provide accurate information about the peak hours, peak days and during different peak times which areas are receiving the most traffic and where the crowed can be formed.

Furthermore the people counting software can also identify the staff and it can also track their movements in real-time. Which help shopping mall management to plan better resource distribution according to the expected traffic in particular areas and regions of the shopping malls. The mall management can keep track of the staff movement which help them understand their performance and also enable them to effectively utilize each resource to maximize the productivity and efficiency. The historic data enable managers to plan everything beforehand which can significantly improve the employee efficiency and results is better and happy customer experience.

See Also: Innovative Self-Checkout Solutions for Retail Success

People Counting Software: Better Staff Management

People Counting Software: Increase Revenue and Help in Cost Reduction

The shopping mall can significantly reduce their operational cost by intelligently manage resources and staff. However, it is difficult to make a cost-saving strategy that not only save cost but also doesn’t affect the customers and tenants. That is when the AI powered people counting software can help shopping malls. The management can utilize the data collected by the people counting software and learn several trends. The business intelligence data also help them acquire deeper insight to the customers and visitors behavior as well.

This allow them to plan for better energy consumption, cleaning and maintenance services and also help them maximize the efficiency of the staff which help them reducing the staff. Better maintenance, energy saving and staff management strategy can save up to 30% of the operational cost in some cases. Furthermore the shopping malls can utilize the people counting software data to set premium rents for the tenants who are at hot spots and who are having maximum exposure. The shopping mall can also maximize the outcome of their marketing campaigns. All these strategies can significantly reduce the operational cost and maximize the revenue of the shopping mall.

See Also: Your Guide to an Effective Customer Feedback System

People Counting Software:Increase Revenue and Help in Cost Reduction

People Counting Software: Low-Cost Deployment and Long Lifecycle

One of the biggest advantage of the AI powered people counting software is that it doesn’t require any traditional hardware devices such as infrared people counting, 2D/3D counters, ToF and thermal people counters, etc. All it need is a feed from existing CCTV network. And the software can be deployed in both cloud and in-premises data centers. These features help optimizing the installation cost. Since there is no dedicated hardware installed with the system hence there is no additional hardware maintenance cost. The AI powered people counting software is a very reliable software, it doesn’t require frequent software maintenance, only occasional updates are more than sufficient to keep it operational.

Furthermore the server environment is managed by the service provider team, hence there is no additional cost to deploy any infrastructure or to hire new staff for the maintenance of the people counting software. On top of everything the AI powered people counting software can effectively serve for multiple years without requiring any major update or upgrade which makes it lifecycle longer than usual enterprise solutions. Over a longer period of time the people counting software have excellent ROI rate.

See More: 10 Customer Self-Service Best Practices to Power Your Contact Center Results

People Counting Software: Low Cost Deployment and Long Lifecycle

Conclusion

The AI (artificial intelligence) and ML (machine learning) had a huge impact on the modern technologies. The people counting systems have also transformed significantly since past few years. The software development companies such as RSI Concepts, are heavily integrating their traditional technologies with artificial intelligence to maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of their products and solutions. The AI powered people counting software is a great example of technological evolution. It is equipped with powerful image processing algorithms and smart software engine which makes it a powerhouse of the business intelligence data.

The business intelligence data can make a huge impact on businesses’ decision making abilities and strategy building processes. The data from people counting software can help modern shopping malls in improving customer experience, enhancing tenant revenue by actively managing the customer flow. The people counting software can also help shopping malls build strategies that can save cost, maximize the revenue and let them optimize their operational processes to maximize the productivity and performance.

If you want to learn more about the subject or if you want us to help you implementing a highly efficiency AI powered people counting software, 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.

See Also: Your Guide to an Effective Customer Feedback System

See Also: Why Shopping Malls in Dubai Need a Footfall Analytical Tool?

See Also: Self-Service Kiosks in Retail: Revolutionizing the Shopping Experience

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10 Customer Self-Service Best Practices to Power Your Contact Center Results

Posted on October 26, 2022 by admin

10 Customer Self-Service Best Practices to Power Your Contact Center Results

Business needs contact centers and customer service centers to offer a variety of services throughout the customer journey. Here in Dubai and all around the UAE the B2C sector is very competitive. The customer demands are also very high and the market trends are also changing rapidly. This demand businesses to offer a great customer experience through their contact centers and customer support. However, managing customer support offices is not as that easy, it requires a lot of efforts and resources, on top of that the turnover rate in customer support and call centers is fairly high, which keep creating problems.

The modern customer contact centers are not limited to call centers or customer service centers only, in fact a lot of self-service channels are added to maximize the customer satisfaction. The performance of a traditional customer contact center pretty much depends on the performance and training of the service agents. That is not all, it also depends on the right technology and platform. There are a lot of moving parts that can impact the customer experience. That is why businesses have started focusing on the self-service channels to maximize the performance of their contact centers.

See Also: Integrating AI and Machine Learning in Self-Service Kiosks

10 Customer Self-Service Best Practices to Power Your Contact Center Results

What is a Self-service Channel?

The self-service channel is a medium or interaction type where the customer doesn’t require to interact with a human staff for solving their problem or accessing information. The self-service channels are gaining more popularity due to their ease of access and convenient. On top of that the self-service channels empower the customers and make them able to solve their problems by themselves. Here in Dubai and all around the UAE most of the population is well versed with technology. That is why an average consumer prefer to solve their problem by themselves via any digital channel.

Mostly the customers prefer to go through the website to acquire information, they are also willing to interact with chatbots and virtual assistants to acquire information quickly. That is why businesses started offering such self-service channels to enable customers to access to the services and information whenever they want. The interactive self-service kiosks surely took this to the next level. As they proven to be more successful than any other channel to enhance customer experience and to increase sales.

See Also: What Is a Self-Service Payment Kiosk? Unveiling the Future of Transactions

What is a Self-service Channel?

What are Common Self-service Channels?

According to several studies and researches around 70% of the customers used a self-service channel at any point during their customer journey. It is not that they have to use it, but in most of the industries the customers themselves are willing to use a self-service channel instead of visiting a customer care center or reaching out to a contact centers. Most of the time for the simpler queries the customer prefer to seek a self-service channel and for more sophisticated matters they would want to reach out to a human contact.

However, thanks to the advancements in the modern technologies, now a days’ businesses can even offer much more complex and important services via self-service channels. Here are a few most important self-service channels:

See Also: The Advantages of Customer Self-service and Best Practices

Interactive Self-service Kiosks

If you are living in Dubai or anywhere else in the UAE you must have seen those bright flashing screens everywhere. Whether it is a mobile top up machine or a payment kiosk at bus station or at a restaurant, the interactive kiosks have become a regular aspect of almost every business belongs to service industry. Businesses deploy interactive self-service kiosks for several reasons. The biggest advantage of the interactive self-service kiosk is that it offer customers a freedom to access to the information and services whenever they want.

These self-service kiosks operates 24/7 non-stop. The self-service kiosk industry gained rapid adaptation and huge growth in international market, which is why many manufacturers started focusing on interactive self-service technologies. This trend resulted in some remarkable technological advancements. The modern interactive self-service kiosks are not just limited to a touch screen or a thermal printer anymore.

See Also: How Self-Service Kiosk are Improving Customer Experience in Dubai, UAE?

Interactive Self-service Kiosks

There are tons of hardware devices that can be integrated in interactive self-service kiosks, such as POS, cash acceptors, various types of printers, QR Code reader, Biometrics Scanners, Cameras, Passport and Emirate ID Scanners, etc. and much more. All these different types of hardware peripherals significantly improved the capabilities of an interactive self-service kiosk. On top of that the software development technologies and platforms have also shown a huge improvement along with possibilities to integrate machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) based platforms.

All these features have helped businesses raising up the customer experience with the self-service channels. A self-service which feels like a full-service is a modern trend that is attracting customers. These interactive self-service kiosks are a very capable tool, which can easily be customized if needed and when needed. Businesses can provide very intuitive, customer-friendly and multi-lingual user interfaces (UIs) which enhance customer experience and raise their satisfaction level.

See Also: Emerging Trends in Self-Service Kiosk Technology

Interactive Self-service Kiosks

The interactive self-service kiosk comes with a powerful software which enable businesses to offer a variety of enhancements in the customer interaction. Customers love a personalized experience, a self-service kiosk software enable businesses to personalize the customer experience by offering them the information and services they would like the most and also allowing them to access the wider knowledge base and broader spectrum of services. The digital services drive automation in the businesses and help them maximize their operational efficiency and productivity.

The automation and digitalization also enable businesses to collect valuable business intelligence data. This data help them acquire a deeper insight to the customer personas and help them understand their needs, expectations and desire. The business intelligence data also help businesses evaluate their current strategies and help them identify the areas of improvement. This knowledge can greatly improve the efficiency, performance and profitability of a business.

See Also: How to Choose a Right Self-Service Payment Kiosk for your Business?

Interactive Self-service Kiosks

Chatbots and IVRs

The Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML) and smart software development platforms enabled businesses to offer exceptional self-service experience with their Chatbots and conversational IVRs (Interactive Voice Responses). The modern chatbots and IVRs interact with your customers with more intelligence and offer a closer to human like interaction. Although setting them up is a big challenge and require intensive research to build their knowledge base, but they are a great option to offer an excellent self-service experience to your customers with 24/7 availability.

The modern day chatbots can also offer a proactive support through digital channels, such as websites and mobile apps. They can popup messages with new features, helpful content and even instruction at each stage of the customer journey. The modern speech recognition technologies enables IVRs to understand various languages, and with the integration of AI and ML the IVRs and Chatbots have become increasingly successful. Which not only offers a better customer experience but also help businesses in reducing the cost of the contact centers.

See Also: Self-Service Kiosks in Retail: Revolutionizing the Shopping Experience

Chatbots and IVRs

Knowledge Base

A well-crafted knowledge base management platform and omnichannel service approach can significantly improve the effectiveness of the knowledge base. The content is a key, a quality content that is simple and easy-to-understand with ability to search through the knowledge base using advance smart search features can significantly reduce the resolution time and also help reducing the influx at the contact centers which is very helpful in improving the customer experience and quality of the services at the contact centers. The businesses can easily educate their customer by the knowledge base articles, FAQs, Forums, Blogs and easy-to-understand user manuals.

In the modern era of digital marketing the online knowledge base also help businesses attracting new customers and helping prospects in understanding your products and services and acquiring first-hand knowledge about the experience of the other customers. With an effective knowledge base businesses can significantly reduce the cost of their contact centers as most of the enquiries are just very simple, and easy, and if all those can be managed through the self-service then the flux of customer at contact centers will be reduced significantly.

See Also: The best Self-service Kiosk Software for Hotels

Knowledge Base

Customer Self-service Portals and Mobile Apps

Dedicated customer self-service portals and mobile apps are among the most effective self-service channels. The customer self-service portals allow customers to login to the portal through an online link, the business’s website, or even from the mobile apps. The purpose of dedicated customer portals is to manage and organize their interaction with the business. The customer portals provide all previous complaints, enquiries and interactions that a customer had with the business through these portals. The customer self-service portals are basically to improve customer experience and to make their interaction more useful with the business.

For example, if a complaint is filed through the email or an enquiry is raised through the email, there could be a lot of back and forth communication between the customer and the contact center agents. However, it would be difficult to track and access those communications in emails, WhatsApp or online chat. The customer self-service portals avoid this problem and organize everything in a single dashboard which allow customers to easily get updates and allow them to access any other previous session whenever they want. The same features and functionalities can be provided via mobile apps as well.

See Also: 5 Best Features of Employee Self Service Kiosk

Customer Self-service Portals and Mobile Apps

Top 10 Customer Service Best Practices to Boost your Contact Center Results

A modern customer contact center should have to implement a mixed strategy with both human-assisted services and self-services as well. Implementing a best self-service requires a higher level of organization, management and discipline. Now that we have already discussed the self-service channels in details, let us see the 10 customer self-service best practices to power your contact center results and efficiency:

Customer Self-service Best Practice: 1. Don’t be too Aggressive with the Implementation

Most of the time businesses in Dubai and all around the UAE made a serious mistake which it they bite more than what they can chew. The implementation of self-service channels such as interactive self-service kiosks, chatbots, IVRs, knowledge base and others at once could cause a lot of problem. It is better to start implementing one channel at a time, then let it integrate into the internal eco-system, let employee understand how the system will benefit them and the business. Arrange training session for the employees to make them able to adopt to new changes. Then implement another channel and repeat the same with that. Implementing all self-service channels at once could cause a lot of confusion, and will create management issues.

See Also: The Future of Healthcare: Self-Service Kiosks for Patient Management

Customer Self-service Best Practice: 1. Don’t be too Aggressive with the Implementation

Customer Self-service Best Practice: 2. Select Right Type of Interaction for Customer Self-service

It is crucial to include right interaction in the self-service. Remember there would be no human assistance, so include only simple, smaller, none-emotional and easily doable interactions in self-service channels. Too complex and sophisticated services are not suitable for self-service as they will require a lot time and efforts from the customers and also from you in designing them. It is better to keep the complex and sophisticated tasks for the human assisted channels only. It is extremely crucial that the interactions and services that you are including in the self-service channels add value to customer experience rather frustrate them by overwhelming efforts and time required for the service.

See Also: The Impact of Self-Service Kiosk on Customer Behavior

Customer Self-service Best Practice: 2. Select Right Type of Interaction for Customer Self-service

Customer Self-service Best Practice: 3. Communicate with All Stakeholders

It is crucial to maintain a continuous and regular communication with all stakeholders, strategy makers and relevant personal throughout the process of implementation and even afterwards. These are the people who will be helping you to design the self-service and select a proper channel for the service. It is important to closely monitor the impact of the implementation of the self-service channel and share the analytics, data and findings with all stakeholders.

It is important to communicate with the agents too who might feel threatened by the implementation of the new self-service channel and could feel that this might replace them later. Communicate agents about the changes they should expect in coming future, and provide them proper training and inspiration to let them adjust for the changes. This will help you improving the performance of your contact centers.

See Also: How Video Conferencing Enhance Self-Service Kiosk Experience

Customer Self-service Best Practice: 3. Communicate with All Stakeholders

Customer Self-service Best Practice: 4. Enable Access to Agents in Customer Self-service Channels

As the self-service interaction is purely digital and done through digital channels and offers a great customer experience and quicker access to the services and information which would be very tempting for a lot of your customers. However, some of them might feel stuck with it and will seek a way out midway to get in touch with a service agent. That is why it is important that you provide a visible way to back out and let your customers contact the service agents, either through the channel or from traditional contact channels such as email, phone call or live chat with the agents. So far this practice has proven to be the most effective in maximizing the customer satisfaction and happiness.

See Also: Can Self Service Kiosk Machines Improve Revenue?

Customer Self-service Best Practice: 4. Enable Access to Agents in Customer Self-service Channels

Customer Self-service Best Practice: 5. Train Agents to Serve the Customers Diverted from the Self-service Channels

Studies have shown that on an average almost half of the customer attempt on self-service channels failed. There are several factor that contributes to that failure. Sometimes the channels or the service itself is very complex, sometimes the customer don’t have sufficient technical or digital proficiency. And this also varies from business to business and industry to industry. However, you should be ready to entertain the customers who failed on a self-service channel and are already frustrated to solve their problem. That obviously require additional training and right IT infrastructure that can provide complete context and relevant details to the serving agent. So, the agents can immediately take control of the situation and ensure a delighted customer experience.

See Also: Advantages of a Self-Service Kiosk at a Cinema

Customer Self-service Best Practice: 5. Train Agents to Serve the Customers Diverted from the Self-service Channels

Customer Self-service Best Practice: 6. Educate Your Customers and Guide them Through the Self-service Process

The primary goal of implementing a self-service channel is to provide freedom, control and convenient to your customers, which can’t be achieved without ensuring maximum customer success. The self-service channels should be designed to make customer successful, this will also help you diverting the workload of your contact center and will definitely improve the performance. Each customer self-service channels should provide basic details and should be able to understand the customer’s problem before letting them into the actual process. The goal here to identify if the customer’s problem can be solved efficiently through the self-service channel or if they should be diverted to the contact center agent.

Furthermore the channel and its interfaces should also provide guidance and popups or additional information at each step of the process to guide them through the process. This will ensure maximum customer success.

See Also: Why Interactive Self-service Kiosks are the Ultimate Customer Experience Transformation Tool?

Customer Self-service Best Practice: 6. Educate Your Customers and Guide them Through the Self-service Process

Customer Self-service Best Practice: 7. Closely Monitor and Measure the Performance of the Customer Self-service Channel

The great advantage of a digital system is its capabilities to collect statistical and analytical data. It is crucial for any customer self-service channel that it is monitored closely and the performance is tracked and analyzed regularly. The business analytical data collected from the customer self-service channel can be a valuable asset for the businesses. It help them continuously improve the channels and also provide them information that can help them setting up next customer self-service channel.

Furthermore the customer feedback can also be collected which can provide a deeper insight to their perspective. A customer self-service channel is not just a one-time task, it is a continuous growth strategy hence require a lot of attentions from the management and stakeholders.

See Also: Employee Self Service Kiosk (ESS Kiosk)

Customer Self-service Best Practice: 7. Closely Monitor and Measure the Performance of the Customer Self-service Channel

Customer Self-service Best Practice: 8. Invest Time and Efforts in Training AI based Systems

The AI or artificial intelligence is a relatively new technology that businesses very eager to implement. However, the fact is that the AI might not suit every situation and scenario. So, be careful while implementing AI based customer facing solutions. It is also important to understand that the AI itself is nothing without the proper data which often referred as training. The AI based interactions require proper training and a vast knowledge base, which enables AI to effectively solve customers’ problem. Else the customers could end up frustrated with illogical questions, or irrelevant answers by the AI. So, it is important to do adequate research before implementing AI at any customer self-service channel.

See Also: Why Self Ordering Kiosks Are a Secret Weapon for Small Restaurants

Customer Self-service Best Practice: 8. Invest Time and Efforts in Training AI based Systems

Customer Self-service Best Practice: 9. Chose a Flexible and Scalable Customer Self-Service Solution

The present market landscape is very vibrant and dynamic with more frequent changes in trends, market standards and benchmarks, and customer behavior. This require businesses to choose an IT solution which can evolve and grow as the business needs grow and evolve down the road. It requires a lot of efforts to finally reach to the optimum levels of efficiency from a customer self-service channel. It could be devastated if after reaching to that point you have to change the system just because of such limitations. A customized solution is always a best choice for such situations, because it is easier and convenient to scale in future and it can be customized and upgraded easily with less effort and expense.

See Also: Why more self service kiosks are being used in Dubai now?

Customer Self-service Best Practice: 9. Chose a Flexible and Scalable Customer Self-Service Solution

Customer Self-service Best Practice: 10. Only go for Integrated Customer Self-service Channels

The customer self-service channels must have to be integrated with other internal systems and with the central information center or database of the organization. The customer self-service channel might have to access information from various other system and internal processes. All those databases and processes could have been managed by several different enterprise software and tools. Which is why it is crucial to make sure that the customer self-service channel you are designing should be able to integrate with all existing systems and databases. Only a highly integrated customer self-service channel can promise success and long term stability.

See Also: Complete Guide to People Counting System in 2022

Customer Self-service Best Practice: 10. Only go for Integrated Customer Self-service Channels

Conclusion

The traditional contact centers are expensive, difficult to manage and slowly their outcomes are declining. This is due to the market trends and customer behavior. As the integration of technology is becoming deeper and deeper day by day, the customers need a more direct, flexible and technologically advance experience from their favorite brands. In fact the digital experience plays a crucial role in customer satisfaction and loyalty. That is why businesses have started investing in customer self-service channels, which not only provide customer a much rich digital experience but also help businesses overcoming many problems they are facing at their contact centers.

In this blog we have discussed the customer self-service channels and a strategy to establish a future proof customer experience management solution via self-service channels. If you follow the 10 customer self-service best practices highlighted in this blog, it will not only help you improving customer experience and satisfaction but it will also help you effectively managing your traditional customer contact centers.

RSI Concepts is a leading customized software and solution provider in Dubai, UAE. If you want to learn more about the subject of if you want us to build a tailor-made customer self-service solution for you. 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.

See Also: What are the Types of Interactive Kiosks?

See Also: Why Shopping Malls in Dubai Need a Footfall Analytical Tool?

See Also: Solar Powered Outdoor Kiosks – Ideal fit for Large Expos and Busy City Areas

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Complete Guide to People Counting System in 2022

Posted on October 25, 2022 by admin

Complete Guide to People Counting System in 2022

Businesses and enterprises in Dubai and all around the UAE are very adoptive towards modern technologies and advanced customer satisfaction solutions. The UAE is considered to be one of the most modernized and technologically advanced country, not only in MENA region but all around the world. This is due to the fact that the markets are growing, competition is increasing and the customer behavior is changing on a very rapid pace. Which demands from businesses such as retail, hospitality, healthcare, educational institutions, and service based sectors to adopt to a more proactive approach and improved business practices to stay above the competition.

The people counting system is not a new concept. In fact enterprises are counting footfall since a long time, however, the processes have evolved from an employee sitting at entrance carrying hand clicker to an AI (artificial intelligence) based people counting system with advanced analytical data gathering tools and in-built algorithms to process that data into actionable reports.

See Also: How and why Retail Store should use People Counting Software?

Complete Guide to People Counting System in 2022

In this blog we will discuss what a modern day people counting system is in 2022 and how businesses can benefit from its advanced features and capabilities.

What is a People Counting System?

A people counting system is a tool that help businesses and enterprises to count the number of people entering and leaving their premises. However, a modern day people counting system in 2022 does a lot more than just counting the visitors. A modern day people counting system is designed on the AI (artificial intelligence) based platforms with advanced image processing and data analytical algorithms. With intensive IT and technology integration in the businesses and even in our daily lives. The modern day success strategies are driven by the business intelligence data.

The integrated algorithms and AI enable the people counting system to collect valuable business intelligence data. Businesses are using dedicated hardware devices/sensors and some are using dedicated cameras for people counting. However, a modern people counting system in 2022 doesn’t require any of these. In fact it can be linked to the existing CCTV Security system to get the video feeds which is processed by the AI based algorithms in real-time to produce the analytical data.

See Also: People Counting System: Heatmap Analysis & Customer Churn Rate

What is a People Counting System?

What are Different Types of People Counting Systems?

The people counting have started very early since the businesses have started offering services at their service centers and since the modern day retail businesses have established. The need to relate the number of visitors with the revenue generated or with sales remained the same. However, one more thing that added to the equation is the customer experience. Earlier the customer experience was not as that crucial as it is today. There are several studies and researches around the globe, which are suggesting that the customers value the experience equal to the product or service.

In order to improve customer experience businesses need to understand the customer behavior, their problems, their desires, needs and expectations. This all can be understand easily if the business have right amount and type of data. That is why the people counting system in 2022 not just count the number of visitors but they collect valuable analytical data which help businesses in analyzing their strategies and let them identify areas of improvement.

See Also: People Counting System to Optimize Mall Operations

What are Different Types of People Counting Systems?

The business intelligence data produced by a modern day people counting system is a valuable asset in present day business landscape. This demand is what driven the innovation and modernization in the people counting systems and methods. Here is a list of some most popular people counting systems and their features:

Modern People Counting System in 2022 with CCTV Integration

A people counting system is not just a software, but it also include some kind of hardware devices and sensors to detect the people. The businesses need a better, most accurate, rich in functionality and cost-efficient system. These all features are available in the modern day People Counting System with CCTV integration. Thanks to the recent advancements in the AI technology and image processing algorithms, a people counting software can extract the data from a live CCTV feed. That is why it has to be integrated with the CCTV security system.

The people counting system includes a highly advanced software which can be linked to any CCTV security system feeds. This means that all the CCTV cameras can be turned into sensors for the people counting system. This ability makes it one of the most effective, highly accurate and highly efficient people counting system in 2022. The ability to integrate with any existing CCTV security system also eliminate the need of installing new hardware devices and sensors, which also save a lot at initial cost and running expenses.

See Also: How Small Businesses Can Utilize People Counting Solutions?

Modern People Counting System in 2022 with CCTV Integration

The AI based people counting system help businesses not only get people count but several other details about the visitors and their movement within the premises. There are some older types or versions of people counting systems also available in the market, which tend to be less expensive than the AI based people counting system. However, it is important that you deploy only an AI based people counting system, the older systems are inaccurate and have limited data collection abilities.

However, a modern AI based people counting system can offer great accuracy, in-depth details and insight. Here are some key features of a modern AI based CCTV people counting system in 2022:

  • Highly accurate people counting data
  • Calculate the customer churn rate by relating the people count with the sales data
  • Integration with POS, sales system or ERP to improve analytical data
  • Accurately collect demographic details such as visitor’s gender, age group, etc.
  • Generate heat maps on the bases of customer/visitor movement within the premises
  • Ability to distinguish between the employees and the visitors
  • Accurately calculate customer dwell time for each region/area within the premises
  • Track the entire customer journey and queuing details
  • Ability to track staff’s all day activity and movement
  • API based secure integration with any other third-party system or enterprise tool
  • In-built Analytical tools help businesses generate customized reports and understand trends
  • Ability to automatically share reports (daily, weekly, monthly, etc.) and send alerts on the pre-defined triggers or events
  • Centralized database and information center allow businesses to link all branches and offices

See Also: Advantages of People Counting Technology for Shopping Malls

Modern People Counting System in 2022 with CCTV Integration

Infrared People Counter

The infrared people counter, infrared beam footfall counter, or IR people counter is a very basic technology which includes a laser/infrared light transmitter and a receiver with a count display. The infrared transmitter and receiver are installed at the doors or entrances. The transmitter is always on and the receiver continuously receives its light, but when an interruption occurs, the counter take it as a one person. The infrared people counter are very basic, easy to install and cheap but their results are poor.

The infrared people counters don’t have sense of direction hence they can’t separate the entering and leaving people. Another biggest drawback is that there is no sense of human detection, any physical object that disrupts the infrared light will be considered as a person. Which makes results highly inaccurate. The accuracy further declines when there are wider doors and multiple entrances and exits. About two decades ago the infrared people counters were fine, but today, they can’t meet the today’s needs.

See Also: Why Shopping Malls in Dubai Need a Footfall Analytical Tool?

Infrared People Counter

2D People Counter (2D Mono Counter)

The 2D people counter, 2D mono counter or monocular people counting systems are all the same thing with different names. These people counting devices use a single camera installed at the entrances in a top-down orientation. The counter works on the same principles as any ordinary camera, but the trick is done through the software, the camera detects the moving objects, and the software digitally refine the picture and count moving objects only by eliminating the static from the background. That is also an older technology, the software is also not as that advance to be able to distinguish objects.

Hence the results are inaccurate, the 2D people counter can’t distinguishes between moving human and non-human objects. Suitable only for indoor, bright lighting and low traffic entrances only because the sunlight can disturb the camera’s vision. The 2D people counters also perform poorly in crowded spaces. Hence the results are not as that accurate and the accuracy can further decline in certain places under certain conditions. That is why the 2D people counter systems are not so popular.

See Also: Self-Service Kiosks in Retail: Revolutionizing the Shopping Experience

2D People Counter (2D Mono Counter)

Thermal People Counters

In order to minimize the problems in other popular technologies of the time the manufacturers introduced thermal people counters. A thermal people counter also consists of a thermal camera, same like the 2D Mono Counter. The difference is instead of using camera vision, the thermal people counters use body heat to detect a person. The thermal people counters are also installed in top-down orientation at the entrances and exits. Although the field vision is small and resolution is low but the thermal people counters are much better than the 2D mono counters in certain conditions.

The biggest disadvantage of the thermal people counter is that the sunlight and crowd can significantly reduce the accuracy. Furthermore as the thermal people counter measures body heat to detect a person and count the footfall, when a crowed formed it can’t distinguishes between one and other person which reduce the accuracy. Here in Dubai and all around the UAE the weather is hot, if the surrounding areas get hot equal or eve near to human body temperature, the sensor fails completely or the accuracy is extremely poor.

See Also: Innovative Self-Checkout Solutions for Retail Success

Thermal People Counters

ToF People Counters (Time of Flight Sensors)

The ToF People Counters or time-of-flight sensor based counters have overcome several common problems in the other people counting systems, however, they detect the person by sending a signal at them and then measure the time of receiving it back at the origin. It works similar to a radar, however, not as that sensitive at all. The sensor itself emits several wavelengths such as infrared, ultrasound, laser light, etc. The resolution of the sensor is low and it also has to be closer to the object.

Hence the ToF sensors are also installed in top-down orientation just above the traffic. This means more sensors are required to cover a wider area which increase cost. The accuracy is slightly better than other dedicated sensors however, the sunlight, crowded entrances and wider areas can significantly reduce the accuracy of the data. The sensors are also very inaccurate in detecting any demographic data. That is why the ToF people counters never been able to gain huge popularity.

See Also: Your Guide to an Effective Customer Feedback System

ToF People Counters (Time of Flight Sensors)

3D Stereo Vision People Counters

The 3Dstereo vision people counters as name suggest, uses highly advance 3D vision technology to detect the people. There is a wide variety of 3D stereo vision sensors, however the people counting system works on the same mechanisms. The 3D stereo sensor consist of two cameras, that work on almost the same as natural human vision, the picture captured from two cameras is processed in real time and combined to get the required spatial depth, which improve the ability to detect and distinguish humans and other moving objects.

Hence the accuracy is relatively higher. The 3D stereo people counters remain unaffected by weather or lighting conditions, however, in the crowded scenarios the accuracy declines significantly. Another important factor is the calibration, each system have to be calibrated which could also impact the accuracy of the data.

See Also: The Future of Visitor Management: Digital Badge Kiosks

3D Stereo Vision People Counters

3D Active Stereo Vision People Counter

The 3D active stereo vision people counting sensor is the upgraded version of the 3D stereo vision people counting system. The only difference is that the active stereo vision counters are capable of operating in fully dark and no-light conditions as well. The 3D active stereo vision people counters are also installed in top-down orientation, usually at the ceiling. The new sensor coupled with upgraded software can improve the accuracy and also make the data much more accurate.

See Also: Integrating AI in Customer Feedback System

How a People Counting System can Help Businesses?

The people counting system is used to improve the customer experience management strategies. A variety of businesses can utilize people counting system to maximize their operational capabilities, their customer experience and it also help them improve their strategies and planning which ultimately results in more revenue generation and increased sales. An in-depth visitor analytical data help businesses understand the people count, their behavior inside the premises and it also help them identify several problems that their customers might be facing during their customer journey.

The people counting system also offers a variety of features that help businesses in better resource management and planning. A modern people counting system is integrated with the CCTV cameras and doesn’t require dedicated hardware devices and sensors which not only minimize the initial cost but also reduce the operational and maintenance expense.

See Also: Best Features of People Counting Software

How a People Counting System can Help Businesses?

The AI based smart software engine not just only provide people count, but it can also monitor the entire customer journey, customer flow and their behavior along with in-depth demographic data and much more. Here are some key benefits of a modern AI based people counting system:

  • The people counting system help measuring the people count and their movement across the premises. It provide a detailed heat map which help businesses identifying the areas where the customers and visitors are spending their time the most.
  • The businesses can also use the data from people counting system to measure the performance of their marketing efforts. For example, if a new digital signage is installed, the heat map can highlight how many people stood by it and the dwell time module will also provide the time each visitor spend in front of the digital signage or a video wall.
  • Retail businesses can utilize people counting to understand if their inventory is arranged in the most effective way, and they can also measure the effects of different efforts and strategies by comparing it the direct sales and customer churn rate.
  • The shopping malls can utilize the people counting system to effectively arrange different stores in an order to maximize the visibility which directly impact on the sales of individual store. Furthermore the shopping malls can quote premium rents to the stores at maximum traffic flowing points.
  • The businesses can effectively monitor and track employees’ movement throughout the premises which help them effectively manage employees. The real-time data allow managers to effectively deploy resources at high traffic places to prevent bottlenecks.
  • The people counting system can be integrated with the central information center or POS system/sales system which help businesses directly relate the footfall with the sales. Further this also help them understand the churn rate and its causes.
  • The people counting system is also very helpful in crowed prevention and queue management. The data help management understand how customers are flowing and identify the bottlenecks which can be addressed to maximize the customer flow and to improve customer experience.

See Also: Enhancing Security and Efficiency with Visitor Badge Kiosks

How a People Counting System can Help Businesses?

Conclusion

Every technology is advancing day by day. Our reliance on technology is reached to a point where it becomes almost impossible for us to imagine our lives without the technology. Whether it is work or personal life, we are heavily utilizing various technologies to improve everything. The people counting systems are not so different, starting from a person sitting at the entrance counting people manually and then becoming a highly sophisticated AI based intelligent system the transition spans on decades. The AI and intelligent algorithms are not just improving the efficiency but the accuracy also.

The modern people counting system in 2022 is designed on AI based technology and highly intelligent image processing software. Which enables it to integrate with the CCTV systems and extract valuable business intelligence data from the video feeds in real-time. In this blog we have covered several popular people counting system and methods of their time, however, the AI based people counting system dominates them all. Whether it is its functional capabilities and intelligence or whether it is the cost and maintenance the CCTV based people counting system is way too superior to any other predecessor.

The businesses can gather extremely crucial analytical data using a CCTV based people counting system which can help them improving customer experience, their resource management strategies and it can also help them improve their marketing strategies. RSI Concepts is a leading People Counter System provider in Dubai, UAE.

If you want to learn more about the system or if you want us to help you deploy a tailor-made people counting system at your premises. 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.

See Also: How to get feedback from customers in a restaurant

See Also: The Impact of Self-Service Kiosk on Customer Behavior

Posted in People Counting Software | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Your Guide to an Effective Customer Feedback System

Posted on October 10, 2022 by admin

Your Guide to an Effective Customer Feedback System

Here in Dubai and all around the UAE the businesses and markets are transforming from traditional sales-centric to a modernized and more effective customer-centric business model. This transition was not sudden, in fact the market trends, customer demands, competition and several other factors contributed to a slow and gradual transformation of the markets. This change may not look significant if we compare two consecutive years, but if we compare today’s business practices and methods with a decade older methods, we will clearly notice a huge change. The customer-centric businesses always focus on delivering high value products and services to their customers.

It is crucial to fulfill customers’ needs, and meet their expectations. A happy and satisfied customer is more likely to do repeated business. Studies have shown that the almost 94% of the satisfied customers tend to come back and do more business with their favorite brands. The customer happiness and satisfaction help businesses gain their trust and loyalty. The loyal customers not only do repeated business but also tend to be a good brand advocate. A loyal customer base can provide a stable platform at which a business can built their long-term success strategy.

See Also: Why Your Business Needs a Customer Feedback System?

Your Guide to an Effective Customer Feedback System

When it comes to customer satisfaction the biggest question is how to know if your customers are happy and satisfied, or what makes them happy, what they don’t like, etc. Although the direct sales can be sign for the customer happiness, but not always, sometimes, due to competition, certain market trend or any other external factor a business can witness a rise in its sales, but that doesn’t necessarily means that all of your customers are happy and satisfied.

On top of that the businesses also keep improving their products and services, for that they always make changes in their internal processes and customer facing arenas. But how can a business know if what they are doing or offering to their customers is also delighting them? The best way is to ask them, in the modern times no business strategy can be successful without including a proactive customer feedback collection approach. In this blog we will discuss the importance of customer feedback and how a business should collect customer feedback.

See Also: Leveraging Customer Feedback System for Business Growth

Your Guide to an Effective Customer Feedback System

Why Customer Feedback is so Important?

The customer feedback help businesses understand the mindset of their customers. It help gathering valuable business intelligence data which can be directly used during the strategy making process. The customer feedback also help identifying the areas of improvement in customer facing technology, communication and staff. Business can also acquire a deeper insight to the market trends and customers’ demands. It is extremely important for a business to delight its customers.

Happy and satisfied customers are a key to long term success. It is 5 to 25 times more expensive to acquire a new customer comparing to selling to an existing customer. The happy and satisfied customers remain loyal to the brand, they are also more tolerant to negative experiences, and also help in promoting a positive brand identity. The customer feedback campaigns help understanding the factors that drive customer satisfaction.

See Also: The Role of Customer Feedback in Personalizing User Experience

Why Customer Feedback is so Important?

Here are some key facts that will help you understand the importance of customer feedback:

  • Customer Feedback help business understand what efforts they are doing are in right direction or not. The customer feedback can also be used as an evaluation method to understand the impact of all the efforts a business is doing to delight its customers.
  • According to a study published by the Qualtrics customers are 2.6 times more likely to purchase again from a business with which they have a great experience in the past.
  • The negative customer feedback are a great source to understand what is displeasing them, it also help you to highlight the areas of improvements and help identifying the policies and strategies that are not appreciated by your customers.
  • The customer loyalty is a key to long term success, growth and higher profitability, only 5% increase in customer retention can increase profits by up to 25%. Although different market sectors and industries produce different results, but just a small increase in customer retention rate could have a huge impact on profits.
  • The customer feedback data is a crucial part of new product development. Without including the VoC (voice of customer) in the product development phase, a business is most likely to fail delivering a satisfactory customer experience.
  • The customer feedback also help understanding the language your customer speaks, which can be later adopted for future communication and marketing campaigns. The marketing campaigns that speak the language of the customers can significantly boost the results and yield higher ROIs.
  • The customer feedback can also help creating marketing content, especially digital marketing content such as blog posts, support articles, FAQs at the corporate website and social media content.
  • According to another study by Qualtrics 84% of the customer who have good customer experience are more likely to purchase again and 82% of the customer with good experience are more likely to make a positive recommendation about the brand.

See Also: Utilizing Customer Feedback for Competitive Advantage

Why Customer Feedback is so Important?

Why Businesses Need a Customer Feedback System?

A customer feedback system is also interchangeable to a customer feedback software, basically it is a software which can help businesses gather customer feedback data using multiple channels. The customer feedback system allow businesses to prepare and share the feedback surveys and questionnaires. The modern day customer feedback systems can offer a lot of channels and useful features which traditional customer feedback methods can’t offer. A customer feedback system offers businesses to integrate smartphone apps, online customer portals, their corporate websites, in-premises kiosks & tablets, interactive signage, QR Codes, emails, SMS, WhatsApp and even social media too.

All these channels make the customer feedback gathering process simpler and easier for both the businesses and the customers. The businesses can also leverage the digital features to automate several customer feedback campaigns, such as an email, SMS or WhatsApp based online survey link can be sent to customers after their each interaction with the business.

See Also: Overcoming Challenges in Customer Feedback Collection and Management

Why Businesses Need a Customer Feedback System?

Businesses can also improve their feedback collection by automatically sending monthly, quarterly or yearly customer feedback surveys and much more. All the automation and simplicity help customer experience managers to gather high quality data. For any customer feedback campaign the quality and quantity of the data both are equally important. The quality help extracting accurate information which later can be used in decision making processes. The quantity ensures maximum groups, types or demographics of the audience gave their opinion which further improve the accuracy of the data.

Furthermore it is not only just data collection, the customer feedback system is built on AI (artificial intelligence) based algorithms which help improving the outcomes of the campaign and provide businesses with in-built tools to maximize the positive impact of the feedback collection campaign. Businesses can get notified as soon as a negative opinion is registered in the system, they can automate reports and result sharing with stakeholder to minimize the response time and so on.

See Also: The Impact of Real-Time Feedback on Customer Experience

Why Businesses Need a Customer Feedback System?

The manual customer feedback collection on the other hand is a traditional method of collecting customer feedback. Traditionally a business appoints staff who print down the questionnaires and await the customers to arrive at the business. Then either during their customer journey, or afterwards the staff approach each individual customer and request them to share their opinion. The biggest disadvantage of that is the inaccuracy of the data. Usually when talking one on one the customers try not to be rude and most of the times they tend to sugarcoat their opinion, or simply hide it at all. Which affects the feedback data quality.

After collecting the customer feedback data the staff will have to input in excel sheets or any other suitable program to make the feedback understandable and to perform several analysis on it to extract the required information. Which is a time and resource consuming feat. The human errors and data discrepancies are also very common. However, a digital customer feedback system software not only prevent all these problems, but also enhances the customer experience and the quality of the data.

See Also: How to Collect Feedback using Customer Feedback Tool

What is Customer Feedback Loop?

The simplest definition of the customer feedback loop is that a it is a customer feedback gathering strategy in which the business contact or inform the customer about the actions taken and efforts made to address the customer problem which was highlighted in the customer feedback. It is not necessarily means that the business should make a huge change in their strategy after an issue has been highlighted. In fact a meaningful response could be enough. For example, if a customer was unhappy because of the behavior of the service agent, the business could respond by saying that they will develop a better training program or if it was too bad, the business can say that they will penalize the service agent.

Similarly if a customer complaints about poor quality service or a faulty product, the business can respond with an apology letter and maybe a full or partial refund to make the customer happy. The main reason behind closing the customer feedback loop is to let your customers know that you consider their say a lot and how serious you are to resolve their problems. This promote trust and better relationships between the customer and the business.

See Also: Characteristics of Closed-Loop Customer Feedback Tool

What is Customer Feedback Loop?

How to Collect Customer Feedback with a Customer Feedback System?

The customer feedback system provides businesses to integrate several channels and methods of collecting customer feedback. The system gather all the feedback from all connected channels and store it in a centralized database or central information system. Obviously the selection of feedback channel and the type of questionnaire or survey form entirely depends on the goals and objectives of the customer feedback campaign. However here are a few popular customer feedback collection methods which can help you gather valuable feedback data:

Customer Feedback via Tablets and Interactive Kiosks

Collecting customer feedback via tablets, touch screens, or interactive kiosks and signage is one of the most popular method in service based industry. Usually the banks, healthcare, retail businesses, entertainment centers, government offices and other businesses who are offering services utilize interactive screens, tablets, and self-service kiosks to collect customer feedback data. It is simple, easy, more efficient and more effective method to collect a large-scale customer feedback data. All the customers who are visiting the business can easily share their opinion or experience.

There are several different types of surveys a business can conduct through these devices. However, the most common is customer satisfaction survey (CSAT Score) or the net promoter score survey (NPS Score). General surveys with multiple questions can also be done. However, here in Dubai and all around the UAE the happiness meter or satisfaction scale are the two most commonly used survey types.

See Also: What to Collect and When with a Customer Feedback System?

Customer Feedback via Tablets and Interactive Kiosks

Customer Feedback via Online Survey Links

The online survey link is one of the most common and popular customer feedback survey type all around the world. It is easier to create and manage, simpler for customers to attempt and usually have higher conversion rate. Businesses can create any type of customer feedback survey and they can have any number of questions in an online survey. However, it is better to have limited questions along with limited topics to discuss in a single survey. This will increase the conversion rate and it will also make it easier to process and analyze the customer feedback data.

These surveys usually produce highly organized data which can be categorized easily for further analysis. Moreover the customer feedback system itself offers a variety of in-built tools that help analyzing the feedback data and learning about various trends and customer behavior. Such information are very helpful in decision making and strategy building processes.

See Also: 8 Proven Practices for Successful Customer Feedback Management

Customer Feedback via Online Survey Links

Here are a few common methods to share online survey links with your customers:

  • Email: The most traditional, most cost effective and most convenient method to share your online survey link with a large-scale audience is the email.
  • SMS: After emails, the SMS is also one of the oldest and widely used method to share the online survey links.
  • QR Code: The QR Code is one of the most modern method for offering a variety of features to cater the need of modern audience. The QR Codes can also contain survey link, in that case, the QR Codes can be pasted at the business premises or any other location, the customers will have to simply scan the QR Code through their smartphone and it will automatically open the online survey page on their mobile devices.
  • Social Media: The online survey links can be published at official social media accounts and profiles as well. From where a larger audience can reach out to the business and share their opinion about the asked subject.
  • Online Forums: The support forums or online communities are also a great way to reach out to a narrower targeted audience. The online survey links can be posted in official or relevant forums to generate high quality feedback data.

The customer feedback system offers a variety of features to support several different types on online survey campaigns and the connected channels. Businesses can easily generate a link for their online survey and that link can be used at multiple channels to maximize the outcomes.

See Also: Integrating AI in Customer Feedback System

Customer Feedback via Online Survey Links

Customer Feedback via Website Forms and Mobile Apps

Corporate websites and customer mobile apps are most widely used for communication and to offer a variety of services to the customers. Here in Dubai and all around the UAE almost 99% of the population have access to the high-speed internet and also use smartphones. Which makes corporate websites and mobile apps more important and effective. These days’ businesses all around the world prefer to offer a personalized and more intuitive experience to their customers, for that the corporate websites, dedicated customer portals, forums, blogs, mobile apps, emails, etc. are widely used.

The customer feedback system allow businesses to integrate it directly with their websites and mobile apps. Businesses can also create independent survey forms on their websites and mobile apps and the feedback data can later be integrated with the centralized information center or central customer feedback database.

See Also: Importance of Customer Feedback Tool for Small Business Owners

Customer Feedback via Website Forms and Mobile Apps

Some businesses also offer a number of services through their websites, online dedicated customer portals and smartphone apps, which can help businesses to push surveys during any appropriate phase of customer journey to increase the conversion rate. The online survey forms and the personalized surveys via customer portals or mobile apps, are gaining huge popularity as they can offer a bit more personalized experience and tend to have a better conversion rate. The data collection and processing is also relatively simpler.

The customer feedback system can integrate with the website and mobile app to fetch data from these platforms or the data can also directly stored on the customer feedback system’s central database. Both makes the process simpler and more convenient.

See Also: How to Develop a Customized Customer Feedback System to Ensure Success

Customer Feedback via Website Forms and Mobile Apps

Customer Feedback Pools & Surveys via Social Media

The social media have become an integral part of our daily lives. It is an estimate that on an average a UAE resident spends almost 3 to 3 and half hours daily on social media. Which makes them the powerhouse of the digital marketing. All popular social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook (Meta), Instagram, Snapchat, etc. offer a variety of useful features which can be utilized to conduct short online surveys, such as poles or voting, etc.

These social media polls allow businesses to reach out to a large scale audience, and gather a more structured and highly accurate customer feedback data which can later be fed to the central information center as well to consolidate all data feeds in a single data pool. Moreover the social media also allow customers to directly interact with the business via private messages, comments, and online discussions. These are also very helpful. People tend to be more open minded and expressive on the social media platforms which help businesses acquire more accurate customer insight and help them understand them better.

See Also: 5 Best Practices for Designing Effective Customer Feedback Surveys

Customer Feedback Pools & Surveys via Social Media

What to do with the Collected Customer Feedback Data?

Customer feedback data collection is the initial and most important phase of the customer feedback management. However, what businesses should do and how they should extract the valuable business intelligence from the customer feedback data is even more critical. The first thing is to categorize all the customer feedback data. For example, if you are conducting several different surveys, with several different objectives in mind, then all the data should be analyzed separately. The first step to analyze the data is to categorize them in different segments.

Usually there are only a few different segments that are needed, for example:

  • Customer Service Feedback
  • Customer Experience/Customer Journey Feedback
  • Product Features Feedback
  • Feedback about any Business Process
  • Sales and Marketing Related Feedbacks

See Also: What are the best devices to be used for Customer Feedback?

What to do with the Collected Customer Feedback Data?

All segment should be analyzed separately and all of these categories can also be divided into sub-categories to get more detailed insight. Only a well-organized customer feedback data will provide you the required information and understanding of the trends and customer behavior. For example, the product feedback can be further divided into more segments, that could be related to product features, the new features customer might want to see, or if there is any problem, bug, or design defect with the product and so on.

Similarly all other categories can be classified. This data will be very helpful for the decision makes, higher management and stakeholders and it will enable them to easily create better strategies and plans to maximize the customer happiness and customer satisfaction with product/service quality and customer experience.

See Also: How to Build Customer Feedback Strategy?

What to do with the Collected Customer Feedback Data?

How to take Action on the Customer Feedback Data?

Most of the times, the businesses put a lot of resources and efforts in collecting the customer feedback data but failed to utilize it properly. Which not only limit the impact of the customer feedback data but also have a negative impact on the customers in the longer run. Collecting and analyzing the customer feedback data is not enough, the business must have to act on it. For example, if the gathered feedback is related to customer service team or customer service experience, then the data should be shared with the relevant management, stakeholders and any other relevant personal who can take actions.

For example, if there are two staff members who are consecutively getting negative rating from the customers, then they must immediately evaluated to understand what is the cause of unhappy customer experience. It could be due to their lack of knowledge about the product or service, it could be their insufficient professional skills, or it could be due to heavy workload, or even due to a personal problem.

See Also: What is Multichannel Customer Feedback and Why it is so Important?

How to take Action on the Customer Feedback Data?

The management should immediately identify the cause of the problem and they should take action to avoid such happening in future. Similarly all other different feedback categories should be handled. If the feedback is related to the product features, then the product development team and the management should immediately get the feedback data so they can utilize it to improve the products or generate new ideas for better and more customer-friendly products and services. Taking action on the customer feedback is a key to success for the customer feedback campaign.

Most of the time the customer feedback campaigns failed to make an impact due to the lack of communication and information flow among different business functions. A customer feedback system can be a great help to solve this problem. It allow businesses to fully automate the data sharing function. The customer feedback manager or CX manager can automate different customer feedback data or reports to be shared automatically with their relevant team and stakeholders. The daily, weekly, or monthly reports can be configured to avoid any delay.

See Also: The Ultimate Guide to Execute a Customer Feedback Campaign

How to take Action on the Customer Feedback Data?

Closing the Customer Feedback Loop: Follow Ups

Closing the customer feedback loop means informing your customers about the actions taken after their feedback. Businesses can chose any convenient channel to give the update to the customer and inform them what action has been taken after their review or suggestions. This will help establishing a strong connection with your customers and it will also help increasing customer loyalty. When the customers know that the business is eager to listen to them and later the business took actions in order to avoid their inconvenience in the future or it consider their opinion a lot they feel more connected and emotionally attached with the brand.

This help businesses improving their relationship with the customers. For example, if a customer showed unhappiness about their last interaction with the technical support team. The business could follow up with them by telling them that a new training program has been launched to make the team more effective which will avoid any such experience again in future. Or businesses can tell that the particular service agent has been replaced, etc. Such information and follow ups plays a crucial role in strengthening the relationship between the customer and the business.

See More: Why Shopping Malls in Dubai Need a Footfall Analytical Tool?

Closing the Customer Feedback Loop: Follow Ups

Conclusion

The customer feedback is one of the most effective way to analyze customer behavior, market trends and also the strength and weaknesses of the business. The business can collect customer feedback data through various channels and at any stage of customer journey using an advance customer feedback system. The customer feedback system enable businesses to make highly impactful strategies and help them extract valuable business intelligence from the customer feedback data. It also help them communicating with the customers and closing the feedback loop.

When your customers know they will be heard and actions will be taken as per their opinion, suggestion or complaints, they feel more valuable and feel emotionally connected with their favorite brand. The happy customers become more loyal, they have higher tolerances for the negative or unpleasant experiences, and they tend to be a good brand advocate. Loyal customers are a key to success and long term sustainable growth.

RSI Concepts is a leading customer feedback system provider in Dubai, UAE. If you want to learn more about the subject or if you want us to help you with your next customer feedback campaign. 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.

See Also: How to get feedback from customers in a restaurant

See Also: How to create Customer Feedback Surveys for Product Development?

See Also: Importance of Customer Feedback System in Public Sector UAE

See Also: Custom HR Customer Feedback Tool for Businesses in Dubai

See Also: How Customer Feedback can Help Small and Local Businesses in Dubai?

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Why Shopping Malls in Dubai Need a Footfall Analytical Tool?

Posted on October 6, 2022 by admin

Why Shopping Malls in Dubai Need a Footfall Analytical Tool

The Dubai and in fact the entire UAE is full of shopping malls. The markets are stable, businesses are growing average people are earning far much than in any other Asian and Middle Eastern regions. The buying potential or purchase power is also relatively higher among UAE shoppers. That is why the shopping malls and retail sector is showing consistent growth. This also attracts more businesses and investors which raise the competition in the market. The market signals are also great. According to reports, the consumer spending has increased by 22% in first quarter of the year 2022 comparing to the first quarter of the 2021.

Which is a great sign, it means that the customer spending is increasing. The steady growth, increase in retail spending and rise in consumer purchase power are the reasons the market is getting more competitive. New businesses are also entering in the market and the old players have also ramped up their efforts to attract more customers. For a shopping mall or any retail business the most important thing is the customer’s experience, if they managed to offer a satisfactory customer experience, they will succeed in their goals and objectives and vice versa.

See Also: How Exhibition Booth Designing Works in Dubai?

Why Shopping Malls in Dubai Need a Footfall Analytical Tool

The shopping malls in Dubai and all around the UAE are equipped with most modern technologies and digital solutions which help them improve their capabilities and strategies to ensure the customers get what they want. Happy customers tend to return, returning customers means more business. If you start shopping from a place over and over again, you will end up establishing an invisible bond with that particular shopping mall. This behavior tend to make your customers more loyal. Loyal customers tend to do repeated business and they also tend to be a good brand advocate. Which help shopping malls getting positive feedback and promotion. Which eventually attracts more customers. It acts like a chain, one after another.

The shopping malls tend to rent out their spaces, shops and premises. They also have to make sure their tenants gets enough footfall to be profitable which is also profitable for the shopping mall. The customer happiness and the tenant satisfaction are two major factors that contributes to a shopping mall’s success. Each shopping mall have different strategies, which makes them attractive for the visitors and shoppers. The footfall analytical tool helps shopping mall building those strategies and it also help them evaluating them. In this blog we will cover how the footfall analytical tool can help shopping malls to offer satisfactory experience to customers and tenants.

See Also: How and why Retail Store should use People Counting Software?

Why Shopping Malls in Dubai Need a Footfall Analytical Tool?

What is Footfall Analytical Tool?

The footfall analytical tool is a system that helps shopping malls and retail businesses to measure the number of people entering and leaving the premises and help them relate this KPI (key performance indicator) with the sales pattern and customer behavior. Let us start with a smaller example of a retail store. In retail store the managers always keep changing the product placements, their inventory and positioning of products, belongs to different categories, for example, if you are placing a t-shirt next to a Jeans section, the chances are you will get rise in sales of both items.

However, if you put Male T-shirts next to Women’s perfume, this will not going to help with any of them. This may sound very simple, however, it isn’t. The store managers knows that very well, that is why if they could get the data about the sales pattern which can be related to the changes they are making, it will help them understand the effectiveness of their strategy. The shopping malls are no different, just think of a shopping mall a macro or larger version of a small store, instead of products, the shopping malls usually manage different business categories business types.

See Also: Complete Guide to People Counting System

What is Footfall Analytical Tool?

The footfall analytical tool is a combination of software and hardware. There are some dedicated hardware devices that are installed on strategic places to count the number of people entering or leaving that particular areas, entrance, or the entire premises. Now a days the footfall analytical tools or people counting software are powered by AI (artificial intelligence) which not only enables them to count the number of people entering or leaving, but it make them more capable of gathering high-level business intelligence data which might include, demographic data, customers’ behavior, their dwell time, heat map of the entire premises and much more.

The footfall analytical tool or people counting software can be integrated with the CCTV Security Systems as well. Where it can get the live-stream from all connected CCTV cameras and process it in real-time to extract the data which help shopping mall management in understanding the shoppers’ behavior in more depth with better accuracy.

See Also: Best Features of People Counting Software

What is Footfall Analytical Tool?

The Footfall Analytical Tool Helps Increasing Traffic Flow for the Tenants/Sections

The shopping malls organize different tenants in relevant categories, and prefer to place them in proximity so the shoppers can get all the available options in a single section. Let say, if someone wants to purchase shoes, all retail stores selling shoes are placed on the second floor in a single block, so all they need is to go to that area and they will be able to see all available options in a smaller area, they don’t have to ran through the entire mall to visit all shoe stores. That is logical too, if all relevant tenants are placed in a single block, or nearby the chances are they will attract much narrower audience groups.

However, that is not what always help. It means that if someone is interested in shoes, they might not explore any other category. Which means other areas would not get that particular traffic. A shopping mall wants maximum exposure for all its tenants. That is why they strategically place different kinds of store in different places and different areas, which compel the shoppers and visitors to go to different sections, where they can also find different products. This means other stores who are not selling shoes can also get the audience that might not originally interested in their products, but the chances to get a sale are increased.

See Also: People Counting System to Optimize Mall Operations

The Footfall Analytical Tool Helps Increasing Traffic Flow for the Tenants/Sections

The footfall analytical tool help shopping malls to understand the customer flow and behavior and help them to place different businesses in different spaces, sections or areas to keep the traffic mixed which means the second floor could get all the traffic whether the customers are interested in shoes or if they are interested in any other item. Furthermore the shopping mall regularly utilizes several marketing tactics to improve customer flow and to increase footfall in certain areas. These marketing strategies usually involve digital screens, signboards, banners, etc.

This help shopping malls to regulate the customer flow in certain areas, where usually less people are going. All such efforts take time and are also expensive. The footfall analytical tool help shopping malls evaluate such strategies and help them understand the customers’/shoppers’ response towards them. Hence the shopping malls can easily improve those strategies and increase customer footfall in areas where usually less customers are going. It provide businesses a chance to get more footfall which also increase their sale.

See Also: Advantages of People Counting Technology for Shopping Malls

The Footfall Analytical Tool Helps Increasing Traffic Flow for the Tenants/Sections

The Footfall Analytical Tool Helps Boosting Mall Profits and Revenue

The shopping mall’s revenue is depends on the tenants. The rental rates are not entirely based on the size but also on the location. The places near to entrances or closer to entertainment sections might have higher rents comparing to other places. In multi-story shopping malls, usually the higher floors got lower rental rates. There are a lot of moving pats here, even the adjacent tenants and sections also matters. All these things and several others are used to decide the rental rates. The tenant also consider all those factors. Here in Dubai and all around the UAE this is usually done on the basis mindset of the tenant and the negotiation between the sales staff and the tenant.

The biggest concern of any tenant is the footfall. The tenant always consider how much traffic they will receive as it is considered to be directly proportion to the sales they will get. With a smart footfall analytical tool in place, the shopping malls can easily present the data to the tenants and provide them highly accurate stats which help them negotiate the rental rates and also help them securing a good deal. This also ensures tenant satisfaction as they know the place they are renting will receive adequate amount of traffic. Which help shopping malls in boosting their revenue and profits.

See Also: People Counting System: Heatmap Analysis & Customer Churn Rate

The Footfall Analytical Tool Helps Boosting Mall Profits and Revenue

The Footfall Analytical Tool Helps Increasing Customer Engagements

Every tenant in the shopping mall and every shopping mall wants to increase customer engagements. The concept of customer engagement in terms of shopping malls is entirely different from the ordinary customer engagement idea. Here customer engagement means customer flow, footfall or people count, customer dwell time and obviously the sales and conversions. The customer churn is one of the biggest problem any business faces. In shopping mall it is also wide spread. People usually enters in store but don’t purchase anything. Similarly people who are visiting shopping malls doesn’t purchase or doesn’t purchase much.

Let say if you are going to a shopping mall, enjoying the environment, using the WiFi, meeting, spending time there but bought only a bottle of water or just a juice, then the sale the shopping mall gets from you is only a few dirhams, however, their expense on providing you all these free services is a lot higher. This is what the shopping malls wants to minimize, obviously they don’t want to stop offering all these free services, but they want customers to engage with the businesses and make a purchase.

See Also: How Small Businesses Can Utilize People Counting Solutions?

The Footfall Analytical Tool Helps Increasing Customer Engagements

The most effective strategy to attain higher customer engagements is to arrange an optimal mix of businesses/stores which ensures maximum customer interaction. Mostly shopping malls in Dubai and all around the UAE operates on a simpler policy which is purely based on opportunity, and a basic tenant segmentation. This strategy is very simple, but lacks systematic and analytical approach. There are always some stores which drive most traffic, despite the fact that their own sale is comparatively lower. There are some stores, which always attract customers, and have potential of spontaneous sales.

When customers reach to such stores, they instantly make a decision based on the products or offers the store is offering. This requires shopping malls to analyze each and every area carefully, and also help them correlate that data to the store category. The data-driven decisions are the one who take you to the success. The footfall analytical tool provide necessary data which allow shopping malls to create a blend of different stores/categories and help them tap into the larger audience. Which in return increase the customer engagement as well as the sales of the stores.

See Also: Innovative Self-Checkout Solutions for Retail Success

The Footfall Analytical Tool Helps Increasing Customer Engagements

The Footfall Analytical Tool Helps Developing Effective Marketing Strategies

For any mall the marketing is a key to success. However, there is very less data available for the traditional marketing methods. Usually when shopping malls place a digital signage or a video wall or any other advertisements, they don’t have a mechanism to measure the success or how much customers viewed it or showed interest in it. However, with the footfall analytical tool shopping malls can accurately measure how many people viewed it with the in-built heat map and customer dwell time features. The heat map shows the traffic passed by the signage or video wall or advert. And the customer dwell time accurately measures how many customers showed interest in it.

The customer dwell time feature can accurately measure the number of customers who stood in front of the advert and also the time they spend in front of it. This data is crucial to measure the success of any marketing campaign. Furthermore the advance image processing and AI (artificial intelligence) engine is capable of capturing the demographic data such as age group, gender, etc. Which also help shopping malls to understand their customers and audience. Such information is crucial for the success of any marketing campaign.

See Also: The Impact of Real-Time Feedback on Customer Experience

The Footfall Analytical Tool Helps Developing Effective Marketing Strategies

Furthermore the shopping mall footfall analytical tool is also capable of storing and analyzing the historic data which allow shopping malls to perform several different analysis to extract useful information. This information is very helpful in learning about shoppers’ behavior and various trends. For example, the people counting software or footfall analytical tool is capable of accurately identifying the busy hours. It can detect and measure any change in the trends and is also capable of providing comparison data with the past.

Such information provide great insight to customer behavior. Businesses can measure the success of their marketing campaign as well as the impact of any promotion/marketing done by the tenants. The footfall analytical tools can also be linked with the tenants’ POS data and help shopping malls measure the overall sales made and also provide better understanding of the customer churn rate. Such information help shopping mall develop effective marketing campaigns.

See Also: The Future of Visitor Management: Digital Badge Kiosks

The Footfall Analytical Tool Helps Developing Effective Marketing Strategies

The Footfall Analytical Tool Improve Staff Planning and Operations

The shopping malls witness different footfall during peak hours, non-peak hours, weekends, holidays and special occasions. For that the management has to plan human resource (staff) and also other stuff to ensure smooth operations and happy customer experience. The footfall analytical tools comes with AI based smart algorithms which have ability to detect and differentiate the staff from the customers. The footfall analytical tool can also capture the movements and track staff activity. Which provide management a deeper insight to staff performance as well.

With the clear and accurate data available about the customer traffic, the mall management can easily plan resources to deal with the busy hours, and they can also effectively track the performance of the staff. The effective staff management is very crucial and is mandatory to achieve higher operational capabilities. The shopping mall management can also analyze staff during the peak and non-peak hours, which provide them a better understanding of the staff placements. The performance data also help them in understanding how effective their staff management strategy is. Good staff management led to better and smoother operations.

See Also: Integrating AI in Payment Kiosks for Enhanced User Experience

The Footfall Analytical Tool Improve Staff Planning and Operations

The Footfall Analytical Tools is very Cost-effective Solution

The traditional people counting software usually require dedicated devices and sensors which are hardware devices and had to be installed on all strategic places. This also limit their vision and the shopping malls cannot get enough data insight from the traditional people counting software. However, the footfall analytical tools is based on AI based smart algorithms and image processing features. Which enable them to offer full-coverage. The footfall analytical tools only require CCTV camera feeds and the data has been collected in real-time from the live feeds. The shopping mall doesn’t require to install any new hardware at all. The new hardware might require changes, civil work, cable pulling, and network.

However, the footfall analytical tools doesn’t require any of this. In fact there is no additional hardware, it only require the feed from the existing CCTV security system. The AI powered framework also enable footfall analytical tools to easily get integrated with any type or model of CCTV recording devices. Which also makes it more cost-effective. The footfall analytical tool can be hosted on cloud or online hosting which means there would be no strain on the in-house IT or infrastructure which further help reducing the cost and running expense. These advantages make footfall analytical tools very cost-efficient.

See More: How to get feedback from customers in a restaurant

The Footfall Analytical Tools is very Cost-effective Solution

Conclusion

The shopping malls in Dubai and all around the UAE are increasing day by day. Whether it is new startups or new branches of existing brand, the competition is rising. This demand shopping malls to improve their strategies and make sure their offerings are making their customers happier. Furthermore the shopping malls also have to manage many tenants. The traditional methods are losing their impact day by day. The shopping malls has to come up with a more modernized and more impactful tactics and strategies. The footfall analytical tools or people counting systems are the modern solution to the modern problems the shopping malls are facing. Shopping malls can accurately measure the count of shoppers and visitors, they can link the data to the tenant’s POS which help them understand various sales patterns.

The Shopping malls can evaluate their marketing campaigns and various strategies with the help of the business intelligence data provided by the footfall analytical tool. The staff monitoring and performance tracking allow the management to effectively manage the staff to ensure maximum performance. Especially is very helpful in dealing with peak-hours, special occasions, weekends or any other event which results in unusual footfall. RSI Concepts is a leading software development agency in Dubai, UAE. If you want to learn more about the subject or if you are a shopping mall manager or retails store manager/owner looking to implement a cost-effective footfall analytical tool. 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.

See Also: How and why Retail Store should use People Counting Software?

See Also: Enhancing Security and Efficiency with Visitor Badge Kiosks

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