5 Best Features of Employee Self Service Kiosk

Posted on May 17, 2021 by admin

Features of Employee Self Service Kiosk

The Employee Self Service Kiosks are gaining popularity these days in Dubai, UAE. These kiosks are used to provide HR services to the employees at remote locations, or in simple words, the Employee Self Service Kiosk (ESS Kiosk) is a Virtual HR. It is a common trend in UAE that the HR always located at the head offices, or some businesses and enterprises could have regional HR or branches for their HR, mostly the HR doesn’t have local branches. It means that each time an employee who has to avail any HR services, must have to visit the HR office, which not only causes waste of time for the employee but this practice put huge pressure on HR department as well. The HR and most of the resources are consumed to handle daily inquiries and visitor’s flow management. This not only makes the HR processes slower but it also requires a lot much manual documentation and filing too which is an additional workload. However with the Employee Self Service Kiosk, these all problems can be solved, employee satisfaction can be improved, HR productivity and efficiency can be enhanced, and much more. The Employee Self Service Kiosk or HR Kiosk is a great tool for businesses and organizations.

1. Employee Satisfaction

Employee Satisfaction

One of the biggest advantages of the Employee Self Service Kiosk is that it facilitates the employees. In most of the cases in Dubai, UAE companies and businesses are operating in multiple locations having the HR department located inside the head-office only. In such scenarios, if an employee needs HR services they will have to take a day off or some hours off to plan a visit to the HR office. This not only causes a delay in employee’s tasks but it also costs more resources such as the replacement for that employee (if required) and travel arrangements to the HR office from the work site or accommodation. In some cases, both are located in different emirates also.

After all, that hustle when an employee managed to arrive at the HR department, they will have to wait in long queues, which could ruin their experience at the HR office. Not only that sometimes the employees may have to stay for the entire day, which is very bad. This not only makes the employee unhappy but also reduces the productivity of the HR department as well. The unhappy employee could lead to devastating long-term effects on business growth.

The HR Department is the interaction of an organization with its workforce. If that interaction is unhappy and unsatisfactory, it means the employee will think that their organization or businesses don’t value them hence they will also start thinking in the same way, which will result in poor efficiency and poor work quality. It is extremely important for an organization to maintain a healthy relationship with its employees. If the employee will be satisfied they will be more productive.

See More: 10 Useful Features of Interactive Kiosks

2. Reduced Work Load of the HR Department

Reduced Work Load of the HR Department

Having hundreds of daily visitors at the HR department is a huge work manual and otherwise for the HR staff. Daily visitors require more resources to attend to them and then later on the paperwork, filling and manual work is also a huge problem for the HR department. Most of the time the HR department is utilizing their resources in the manual works such as paperwork, filing, printing, and mailing, etc. Without the Employee Self Service Kiosk the HR staff will have to do a lot of manual work, for example, if an employee needs a salary certificate, they should have to come to the HR department to receive the certificate, the entire service delivery process begins with the employee signing-up for the queue at the HR office, then waiting in the queue then reaching to the counter, then identification might be required, then the agent or server will take the print, put it in an envelope and will hand it over to the employee. This is just a very small and common HR service there are other services too, and sometimes an employee needs service in urgency, such as it could be a request for travel, etc.

The manual business processes not only make the employee unhappy but also tremendously increase the workload of the HR department. All such processes and works are done manually, a lot of paperwork is involved and a lot of manual filling is required which increases the service delivery time. However, with the Employee Self Service Kiosk, the employee can avail most of the HR services at the HR Kiosk instead. They don’t have to go to the HR office each time they need a service. This not only improves employee happiness and satisfaction but it also reduces a huge amount of manual work for the HR department. The reduction in HR workload can be very healthy for an organization’s growth. It means that the HR department can focus more on productive activities rather than handling daily visitors and doing manual work for almost most of their workday daily.

See More: What is the Difference in Outdoor and Indoor Digital Signage?

3. Benefits of Digitalization & Automation

Benefits of Digitalization & Automation

Digitalization and automation are the future of each industry. Technology is making our lives easier day by day. Whether it is our personal life or professional life the automation and digitalization have completely revolutionized the lifestyle. There is a huge potential of innovation and advancements in digitalization which can literally change transform an entire organization or business. The HR department is no exception at all. The technology is also consuming HR as well and the benefits are staggering. For example, technology has completely changed the recruitment process by introducing online portals and screening tools. Actually, the bigger issue is that businesses and organizations often don’t pay much attention to the HR department and their performance particularly in satisfying the employees.

However, with the digitalization and automation, the HR department can not only boost their efficiency and productivity but the employee satisfaction indicators are also significantly improved. The main advantage of digitalization is that the employee is no longer dependent on the HR department, which means they don’t have to visit the HR office each time they require an HR service.

Here are some benefits of digitalization and automation:

  • 24/7 Service Availability
  • Quicker Service Delivery
  • No wait time at HR Office
  • Reduction in human errors
  • Satisfied Employees
  • Huge reduction in HR workload
  • Improved HR Productivity
  • Improved Profitability
  • Cost Reduction

The automation aids the manual processes and is very capable of improving the entire business operation. Automation also reduces the human factor and human-related errors or deficiencies. Digitalization and automation reduce the resources and enable the businesses and organizations to easily do cost cuts and better resource management with added value to productivity and profitability.

See More: How to Choose Digital Signage in Dubai

4. Integration with HRMS

Integration with HRMS

The modern-day HRMS or Human Resource Management Systems include an in-built module for HR Kiosks or Employee Self Service Kiosks. In case if that feature is not available, the integration can easily be achieved as well. The full HRMS integration further allows additional features for the Employee Self Service Kiosk. The Employee Self Service Kiosk can also be integrated with different other systems and corporate tools to further improve the service quality and enhance the employee/user experience. For example, if an employee wants to access any HR data such as their overtime or bonuses or loans, and installments, they should have to identify themselves using any login method.

The employee login portal could reside in a separate tool or system in order to provide the logging-in facility at the Employee Self Service Kiosk we should have to integrate it with that system which is hosting the employee login portal and so on and so forth. There are endless possibilities and innovation has no limits. There are tons of services that can be offered with tons of more ways and methods to improve them to enhance the employee experience and to increase the system usability.

Here are some of the HR-related services that are most often offered by Employee Self Service Kiosk:

  • Employee Forms and Applications
  • Documents Update, Scanning, and Printing
  • Employee Clock, Schedules, and Overtime
  • Salary Slip Printing
  • Online Forms and Applications
  • Bonuses and Benefits
  • Loans and Dues
  • Leave and Travel Requests
  • Online Overtime Calculator
  • Announcements and Updates
  • HR Appointment and Bookings

These are just a few services that are most widely offered through Employee Self Service Kiosk in Dubai, UAE. Furthermore, it depends upon the nature of the service and the company policy that which services will be offered through the Employee Self Service Kiosk. Overall it is a great tool to boost HR performance and to enhance the employee experience. Satisfied and happy employees work better and produce good quality work, which makes your customer happy and satisfied which is a key to success and growth.

See More: Why HR Departments should deploy HR Kiosks?

5. Business Intelligence and Employee Feedback

Business Intelligence and Employee Feedback

Employee feedback and communication is a very important factor in employee performance and morale. When an employee is ensured that their voice will listen they will be more comfortable in expressing their problems, needs, and expectations from the employer. If the employees are not encouraged to freely speak, their morale will be lower, and sooner you will witness poor performance and even poor behavior too. The Employee Self Service Kiosk not only provides a great communication channel that allowed the HR and management to collect direct feedback from the employees but it also gathers a lot of statistical data that can be analyzed to gather business intelligence which could be very crucial in strategy making and decision making.

Above all the direct employee feedback is extremely important to understand individual employees and to address their problems. It also provides them a personalized interaction with the HR department. Moreover during personalized communication and discussions sometimes employees are hesitant to express themselves or to talk openly but, with online feedback, this is not the case, the employees can more freely express their feelings and provide more honest opinions than face-to-face or verbal discussions. This is why employee feedback is very important in employee development and increasing the overall efficiency of the business.

See More: Importance of customized Kiosks in 2021

Conclusion

The Employee Self Service Kiosk is extremely effective in improving employee experience, employee satisfaction, and HR productivity. The HR Kiosks are a great alternate of the HR office at remote locations, worksites, and employee accommodations, etc. The employee can easily receive the HR services 24/7 from their nearest Employee Self Service Kiosk. The technology behind the kiosks is very widely available which makes them very cost-effective and it also increases their lifecycle. The Employee Self Service Kiosk or HR Kiosk comes with the added benefits of digitalization and automation. Which further simplified the service delivery process and reduce human efforts. The HR department’s workload is significantly reduced by providing HR services through interactive kiosk and digitalization of various business process also improve the work efficiency.

The Employee Self Service Kiosks reduce the operational cost of the HR department as well. The HR department has to spend a lot on paperwork, printing, mailing, filing, and manual record keeping. Which also requires more human resources. Along with that, the HR department will have to have a lot more resources and staff to handle the daily incoming visitors than it would have usually required without too many daily visitors. This is another big advantage of the Employee Self Service Kiosk. The integration with HRMS and the employee feedback systems can further amplify the effects of the HR kiosk. Employee feedback is very crucial to understand their strength and weaknesses. Overall the Employee Self Service Kiosk can do wonders if utilized properly.

RSI Concepts is a leading brand in HR Kiosk or Employee Self Service Kiosk and HRMS or Human Resource Management Systems. If you want to improve your HR Department’s efficiency and effectiveness, feel free to reach us out through our Contact Us page.

Check out this: What is Employee Self Service Kiosk aka ESS Kiosk?

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Employee Self Service Kiosk (ESS Kiosk)

Posted on May 10, 2021 by admin

Employee Self Service Kiosk (ESS Kiosk)

ESS Kiosk or Employee Self Service Kiosk is basically an Employee Self Service tool deployed in a Kiosk. It provides employees with a digitalized version of the HR services. The Employee Self Service Kiosk or ESS Kiosk is a touchpoint where the employee interacts with the HR department to avail HR services that are being offered from a specialized interactive self-service kiosk with a touch screen. Employee Self Kiosks are deployed on common places in the office or the branch office to facilitate employees and save their important working time. The main advantage is the convenience for the employees and the quick service delivery.

The Employee Self Service Kiosk can offer HR services without any human intervention, the employee can follow the instructions on the screen to perform a certain task to avail a particular HR service. The ESS Kiosk not only makes the service delivery quicker but it automates the processes and saves a lot of time for the HR staff which otherwise requires a lot of paperwork and manual tasks. The Employee Self Service or ESS is a bit modern term, but all the HRMS or Human Resource Management Systems usually comes with in-built support for HRMS Self-Service Kiosks or ESS Kiosks these days.

The ESS enables the employees to perform certain tasks by themselves which also relieves the HR staff from a lot of work. The digitalization of the services also saves tons of manual HR work and the cost of printing, mailing, manual filling, and paperwork. Usually, most of the HR staff’s work hours are consumed by manual processes and paperwork. This could also cause errors and sometimes requires revisions, the updates are lengthier due to the manual processes and manual workflow. However, the Employee Self Service Kiosk or ESS Kiosk can easily fix all these issues and it can provide an excellent experience for the employees as well as for the HR staff.

The ESS Kiosk is basically a customized interactive self-service kiosk equipped with specialized features based on two major components, the software, and the hardware:

Employee Self Service or ESS Kiosk Software

Employee Self Service or ESS Kiosk Software

Employee Self Service Kiosk or ESS Kiosk software is basically just a module of the modern day’s HRMS (Human Resource Management System), in fact, it is an extension of the HRMS. All the services are converted to digital and are provided through the ESS Kiosk System for security and authentication there are certain protocols that are followed to ensure regulations and checks are in place. Usually, the ESS kiosk doesn’t require additional stand-alone software. In some cases the HRMS doesn’t have support for the kiosk or doesn’t have enough support to allow the businesses to achieve required functionalities and objectives.

If the HRMS doesn’t support ESS Kiosks, then usually an intermediary application or software is being developed which essentially synchronizes with the HRMS, other database and corporate tools to achieve the functionalities required to be performed on the interface of the ESS Kiosk software. Most of the time having dedicated ESS software is the best approach. It also allows tons of customizations and a lot of future improvements/upgrades can also be done very easily on the customized ESS Software.

Here are some common software components of the ESS Kiosk:

  1. Kiosk API integration
  2. ESS Interface for Employee
  3. Administrative Interface
  4. HRMS API Integrations

However, all of the above-mentioned components are not mandatorily to be deployed in each scenario but these all are widely used in the industry. The most popular method is the web-based interface or a desktop application for the kiosk. The inherent ability  of ESS Kiosks to automate and digitalize HR services can greatly improve productivity and help the team in managing the HR more efficiently.

The ESS Kiosk’s API is the main brain of the system, it collects and updates data from and to various corporate and enterprise systems, it takes commands from the employee and then performs the logic and returns the results on the employee terminal. The server-side software is installed on a local server or at a cloud or online and is always connected with the ESS Kiosk or employee terminal. The employee terminal is usually a web-app-based user interface, and it just requires a browser to run.

The employee can come to the interactive touch screen and tap on different buttons to choose whatever they are looking for and the entire computing is done at the server-side software. The server-side ESS Kiosk software is integrated with the HRMS system which enables it to fetch up-to-date info and update everything in real-time during the interaction.

This is just a basic explanation of the workings of the ESS Kiosk obviously there is a lot going on behind the scene. The ESS Kiosk System also collects statistical and usage data and can be used to collect employee feedback too. All these inputs can be processed through a powerful software engine and valuable reports can be generated.

Employee Self Service or ESS Kiosk Hardware

Employee Self Service or ESS Kiosk Hardware

Employee Terminal or ESS Kiosk hardware has a basic foundation and all other features are built on and around this foundation. The employee self-service kiosk is just a tailor-made interactive self-service kiosk. And that kiosk is basically a  touchscreen with a computer terminal, it could be a full or mini-sized Windows or Linux-based computer or it could also be an Android or iOS-based tablet. Mostly a full-sized windows based computer is used as the foundation of the employee terminal or Employee Self Service Kiosk. The entire system is built around this foundation.

As it is an employee terminal and it should provide various HR services which may require printing, scanning, and such tasks so there could be a lot of hardware accessories or peripherals required too. That is why Windows-based computer is the most suitable choice, as the technology is widely available, cost-effective and it is compatible with tons of easily available hardware accessories and peripherals.

Here are different hardware components of the ESS Kiosk:

  1. Display Screen/Touch Screen
  2. Computer (Processor, RAM, and Storage)
  3. Physical Keyboard & Track-pad
  4. Documents Printers
  5. Documents Scanners
  6. NFC or Contact Card Readers
  7. Passport Scanners
  8. Intercom or Call Center IP Phone

Of course, these are just some of the most popular peripherals that are used at the employee terminal. There are so many other devices that can be attached with the ESS Kiosk to support more exclusive HR services. The entire employee terminal is customizable which enables the HR department to include any kind of compatible and relevant hardware to provide the required service and to keep the interface and interaction simpler and easier for the employee. The employee self-service kiosk or ESS Kiosk offers great many features and it is built on a very flexible platform which allow businesses to create customized and tailormade features to align it with their unique needs.

The hardware accessories are easily available in the market and can be configured with the employee terminal through software integration. The selection of the hardware is determined by the scope of the service that is being offered at the Employee Self Service Kiosk or ESS Kiosk. For example, if an employee needs to print their salary certificate then the employee terminal should have the printer, or if an employee has to scan their medical reports to apply for leave then they should have a scanner in the ESS Kiosk and so on and so forth. This is how the hardware and peripherals are selected for the Employee Self Service Kiosk.

HR Services Offered via ESS Kiosk

HR Services Offered via ESS Kiosk

Businesses can benefit from self-service kiosks by optimizing operational cost and efficiency using many different features and tools and the employee self-service kiosk or ESS kiosk is just another application of these incredible solutions. There is a wide range of services that can be offered very efficiently from Employee Self Service or ESS Kiosk. Most of the time all the most required services can be digitalized and offered through the employee terminal/ESS Kiosk. Automation not only makes the service delivery fast but also reduces the human effort to manage the manual processes and paperwork by automating various steps and processes for particular service delivery.

To enhance security multiple authentication methods can be built within the employee self-service kiosks. For example, an employee can come to the ESS Kiosk and scan their Emirate ID Card and the system will automatically authenticate them. Once the authentication is done the employee will be able to perform certain tasks and avail of certain services or to get access to certain information. Automation and digitalization result in quicker service delivery, and as the human intervention is limited so the chances of error and repeated work are also very less.

Here are some of the very popular HR Services offered through Employee Self Service or ESS Kiosk:

  1. Documents Update (Passport, EID Card, etc.)
  2. Loan and Other Benefits, Incentives, and Overtime
  3. Time Clock and Work Schedules
  4. Annual Leaves and Travel Requests
  5. Salary Certificate Printing
  6. Appointment Booking for HR
  7. Online Forms and Registrations
  8. Printing and Scanning Requests/Forms/Applications
  9. Employee Feedback Survey and Suggestions
  10. News, Updates, and Announcements

Obviously, these are the very basic services an employee terminal can offer. There are tons of other services too which can be offered from the Employee Self Service Kiosk such as businesses are also utilizing them as self-check-in kiosks to improve efficiency in office buildings.

The Employee Self Service Kiosk can be integrated with HRMS, other enterprise databases, and a huge variety of hardware accessories. The technology used to build the employee terminal is very supportive with innovation and unique ideas. The HR department can innovate their own new ideas to further facilitate the employees and to reduce the steps in a service delivery process.

Benefits of Employee Self Service aka ESS Kiosk

Benefits of Employee Self Service aka ESS Kiosk

Providing an Employee Self Service aka ESS Kiosk not only improves the employee experience but also helps the HR department to significantly reduce the workload and expenses. The ESS Kiosk or Employee Terminal is always integrated/linked to the HRMS (human resource management system). The integration allows the employee terminal to authenticate the employees and let them access their data to avail certain services. The Employee Self Service aka ESS Kiosk is a Virtual HR and it can significantly improve the efficiency of the HR department by automating a lot many processes and reducing the workload of the HR staff. With the help of the Self Service Employee Kiosk, the HR staff can focus on more productive tasks.

Here are some benefits of the Employee Self Service aka ESS Kiosk:

  1. Employee satisfaction
  2. No more long queues and no wait time
  3. Instant service delivery (24/7 Operation)
  4. Onsite Document Printing
  5. Onsite Document Scanning
  6. Simple and Easy to Use Interface
  7. Multi-lingual, On-screen instructions and Call Center Support
  8. The reduced workload of the staff and increase HR productivity
  9. HR Cost Reduction
  10. Automation results in greater HR efficiency
  11. Improved Employee Satisfaction and Retention
  12. Integration with other databases enables real-time updates
  13. Allow HR to push the latest news and make announcements at the employee terminal
  14. Help HR to implement new policies and rules
  15. Provide HR Services at Remote Locations
  16. The system commissioning cost is low
  17. Employee Terminals require very less maintenance
  18. The system is long-lasting and can easily be upgraded to extend its lifecycle
  19. The Employee Self Service Kiosk system can collect vital business intelligence
  20. The ESS Kiosk have excellent ROIs rates

Unlike other popular self-service technologies the Employee Self Service Kiosk comes with great value and benefits due to its ability to offer innovative features covering broader scopes of services. It could significantly improve HR work efficiency and productivity. It helps the HR department to achieve its goals and objectives. The HR department can instantly implement company rules and policies at all employee terminals. The monitoring and KPIs help the management to make improvements and the business intelligence help businesses to take vital decisions and make future strategies to ensure business growth.

Conclusion

The HR department is the busiest department at any organization or business. Most of the time the HR is occupied with the daily employee queries and attending the visitors. The remaining resources are consumed in tons of paperwork, filing, mailing, printing, and manual routine processes. This not only requires a huge HR department with a larger staff and more expenses but also reduces the overall productivity of the HR department. Above all the employee satisfaction and employee experience is another big challenge under such circumstances. The main responsibility of any HR department is to acquire the right staff and take steps to improve employee satisfaction to ensure greater employee retention and maximize employee performance.

The HR Kiosk or Employee Self Service (ESS) Kiosk is an employee terminal that allows instant and remote interaction with the HR department and can offer most of the HR services through an interactive kiosk machine. The HR Kiosk can be placed anywhere near to the employees, either at their work or their residence or their project site, and so on. This is to provide instant HR access to the employees without any worry of being waiting in long queues or traveling to the HR department and skipping the work or any such problem. The Employee Self Service Kiosk or ESS Kiosk system consists of a software and a hardware unit.

The software is always linked with the HRMS (human resource management system) and it could also be connected to other databases and corporate tools. The hardware entirely depends upon the objectives and scope of the service that has to be offered through the employee terminal. The Employee Self Service Kiosk offers an excellent employee experience and it can significantly improve the HR department’s efficiency.

The overall system offers remarkable ROI rates as it directly causes to reduce the HR resources and HR expenses and on the other hand the Employee Self Service Kiosk significantly improve the HR performance and employee’s experience. If you are seeking an HR Kiosk or Employee Self Service Kiosk feel free to reach us through our Contact Us page or write us in the comment box below.

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Importance of customized Kiosks in 2021

Posted on April 20, 2021 by admin

Importance of customized Kiosks in 2021

As 2021 comes with very unique and new challenges, the preference and expectations of the customers have also been changed. Business and organizations are actively seeking ways to reduce their operational cost. In Dubai, UAE the year 2021 is the year of Expo as well, which will attract millions of people and a lot many businesses and investors from all around the world. That means new business opportunities as well as more competition. The last year has completely changed the landscape of the market. Especially in the services industry, all the standards, procedures and business practices have been changed. Business is seeking ways to expand their areas of operations with as minimal cost as possible. The customer experience and satisfaction is the biggest concern of the businesses. In Dubai, UAE all sort of industries are adopting digital solutions to reduce their costs which also help them improving profit rates. Automation and digitalization can significantly reduce the operational cost, and fix expenses. This is why more and more businesses are implementing interactive kiosk-based solutions and the best way to get maximum out of a self-service or interactive kiosk is to have customized for you, a tailor-made solution is cost-effective and can serve the needs of the customers better.

As all businesses have established their own unique business identity, everyone has a unique kind of customer experience and customer journey. All are offering something unique to stand out. Customers appreciate uniqueness and innovation. New ideas which can bring convenience and comfort to the customers could have a huge impact on business reputation and growth. The problem with any standard solution is that it follows a standardized process and approach, however, your current business practice or approach could be different than that. In order to resolve this conflict, the business has to change or modify their business practices, which definitely cost more human work hours for the additional work. That is not a good cost-effective approach. However, a customized kiosk is specifically build to serve a specific purpose, which means that there is no additional cost for additional human work, or no extras are included, you will only pay for what is needed rather than like the standard kiosks, in which a lot of unwanted features are also included as they are meant to be general-purpose to serve a spectrum of scenarios. Which not only increase their cost but also makes it difficult to integrate them inside the business infrastructure.

See More: 5 Types of Touch Screen Kiosks

Customized Kiosk and Customer Experience

Customized Kiosk and Customer Experience

Customer experience is extremely important for business. The customer journey and customer experience directly impact the brand reputation, customer retentions, new sales & conversions, and business growth. That is why business has to be very careful with all the touchpoints where their customers are interacting with them. A standard kiosk doesn’t allow intensive control over customer interaction, as the kiosk is already designed to be operated in only a certain set of scenarios and for a very limited number of applications. Which makes it harder for the business to control the customer interaction and customer experience at the kiosks. However, a customized kiosk not only allow the business to control the customer interaction but can offer particular features and functionalities that are exclusive to your business. This also allows the business to be able to control each step of the customer journey at the kiosk. This way business and organizations can significantly improve the customer experience as the kiosk would be designed exclusively to improve customer experience and customer journey.

See More: Shifting of business process on interactive kiosk dubai

Customized Kiosk and Customer Engagements

Customized Kiosk and Customer Engagements

Whenever it comes to a new solution or interaction for the customers the major concern is always the customer engagements. As self-service or any other customized kiosk is a direct interaction of the brand with its customers so it is extremely important to have a clear pattern set for customer engagements as well. As there is no employee or staff would be available along with the kiosk so the brand must have to rely on the kiosk itself. The problem with the standard off-the-shelf kiosks is that they are already designed for a certain range of purposes and whereas the brands always have new innovative ideas and techniques to improve customer engagements. A standard kiosk might not fulfil all the needs of the business when it comes to customer engagements.

However, a customized kiosk is exclusively designed for businesses to meet their specific needs so there is no such limitation in the case of the customized kiosk. For example, if a business wants to have a larger screen to design a user interface with bigger buttons, texts and so on, then they must require a slightly larger than usual screen size. In case a business wants to play videos, adverts and sounds, the customized kiosk can offer a better solution. The customized kiosk is always great to enhance customer engagements as different software and hardware aspects can be modified as per the needs to improve customer engagements.

See More: 7 Features of Self Service Kiosks

Customized Kiosk and Efficiency

Customized Kiosk and Efficiency

The customized kiosks not only provide quick services and a better customer experience but are also capable of significantly increasing the efficiency of any business or organization. As the customized kiosks are digital devices, hence all the offered services are digitalized. Digitalization in itself is a very excellent way to improve a business’s efficiency.  The digitalization of the services automates a lot many business processes and human work can also be reduced significantly. This not only makes the service delivery quicker but the automation also eliminates humans from various processes, the automation can perform a task instantly while a human must require some time to perform any task. This is why a customized kiosk solution has been deployed along with improved service delivery and enhanced customer experience the performance and efficiency of the entire business can be improved. This makes customized kiosks even more important for businesses to increase efficiency and to reduce the workload of the employees which help organizations and businesses to focus their human resources in more productive activities.

See More: What is the Difference in Outdoor and Indoor Digital Signage?

Customized Kiosks and Adoptability

Customized Kiosks and Adoptability

Customized kiosks are a digital product and the technology is very flexible. This allows the businesses to update the services they are offering in the kiosk or they can even completely repurpose the kiosk for another service or any other purpose. Basically, the kiosks are built with a touch screen, a computer and internet connectivity. Mostly the software is residing in the cloud or is connected with the kiosk. Which makes it easier for businesses to instantly push information on the kiosk, or instantly push new policies and much more. The connectivity via cloud or online enables the kiosks to accomplish a lot of tasks, and it also enables the vendors to offer so many services via the kiosk. This also makes it easier to upgrade or change the services offered through the kiosk by a simple tweak at the software end. The software is basically the management system for the customized kiosk. It allows businesses to instantly update information or services in the kiosk and it also provides real-time monitoring and great business intelligence.

The customized kiosks can completely repurpose too. As the technology used to build those kiosks is long-lasting and the machine itself requires very little maintenance and can last for decades without requiring any huge maintenance or overhaul. For example, a kiosk that a business is currently using as a customer sign-up self-service kiosk can be repurposed as an info kiosk or as an internet kiosk or a way-finding kiosk or anything else, in fact, other services can also be offered from the kiosk with just small upgrades to its software without installing new hardware or any such thing. This makes them more important and in the long term, the return over the investments for customized kiosks are excellent.

See More: How to Choose Digital Signage in Dubai, UAE

Customized Kiosks and Expansion

Customized Kiosks and Expansion

Business is always trying to expand to unexplored territories or to reach out to the furthest corners of the market. For that business open up new branches or regional offices which are very expensive and required a lot of resources to function. However, with the help of a customized kiosks business can expand their area of services with very minimal expenses. The customized kiosks can be designed exclusively for the business to serve a particular purpose or to offer particular services. The customization allows the business to maintain a unified customer journey and experience on all their interaction points. With the customized kiosk the customer can avail the services from their closest location without staying in the large queues or without any human intervention which enables the businesses to offer non-stop services 24/7. Which is another great advantage of the customized kiosk.

As the year 2021 brings a lot of new challenges one of them is the cost of expansion, business are operating on tight budgets and the expansion to new territories is very expensive. However, a customized kiosk is the most cost-effective way to provide your services in new areas and markets. You can offer your services in close proximity to your customers this will not only expand your territory but it will significantly improve your customer experience, as now they no longer need to travel to the nearest branch, stay in the queue to get the service done. This increases customer satisfaction and improves the brand reputation, which both are vital for business growth.

See More: Why HR Departments should deploy HR Kiosks?

Conclusion

Businesses are always seeking expansion and ways to control the cost. In the year 2021 when the expo is also happening in Dubai, UAE and the country is expecting millions of visitors, investors, and tourist from all around the world. The local market is expecting a big rise, which is why in the year 2021 everyone is trying to get an edge over their competitors. The Dubai market is always very competitive and the standards and expectations of the customer are very high. This is what compels organizations to invest heavily to improve customer experience and customer journey. Another big concern is the expansion and reduction in customer wait time for service delivery. Interactive kiosks can solve both problems. Customer flow management can be controlled using an interactive kiosk. As for self-service kiosks, the standard kiosks are not so good, as they are built for a larger range/sets of application. Which makes them less effective or hard to work when it comes to any specific or unique business need.

In order to improve the customer journey and customer experience, every business has its own unique method and technique to work with. This is why the standard kiosks cannot fulfil the needs and businesses have to move towards the exclusively designed customized kiosks. The customized kiosks offer extraordinary benefits, the customer experience and customer journey can be improved significantly, the self-service features are easy with customized kiosk design, the scalability, integration and automation features make it even more effective. Businesses can improve customer engagements as well with a customized design. RSI Concepts is a professional customized kiosk and custom software provider in Dubai, UAE. If you have any such need or if you want to explore the possibilities to utilize an interactive kiosk to help your business grow? Please feel free to reach us out through our Contact Us page.

Check this out: Challenges in Customized Kiosk Project

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Why HR Departments should deploy HR Kiosks?

Posted on April 15, 2021 by admin

Why HR Departments should deploy HR Kiosks

Why organizations should deploy HR kiosks for their HR departments and link them with their HRMS systems? The HR department is the backbone of the growth, if an organization is growing they require better workforce management. The HR departments always have to be very efficient to meet the needs of the growing organizations and enterprises. The HR department ensures a sufficient supply of human resource for the organization’s operational needs. In Dubai, UAE the competition is rising, the economic developments are attracting more businesses and investors to enter the market. This led to a very competitive market, the competition cause businesses to increase the quality which results in higher expectations from the customer and the cycle goes on and on.

The basic functions of the HR Department are:

  1. Recruitment
  2. Employee Satisfaction
  3. Employee Retention
  4. Reduction in Labor Cost
  5. Ensuring Maximum Employee Performance
  6. Self-sufficiency
  7. Enforcing Organizational Policies
  8. Employee Development

The HR departments recruit skillful staff to ensure cost-effective operations. This is a very important function in any organization as outsourcing has its challenges and it is not as cost-effective either. The second function of HR is to ensure the employees are satisfied and are working at their optimum efficiency levels. This also includes monitoring, incentives and performance management. Another very crucial function that HR perform is employee retention. Businesses and organizations could spend a lot of resources in order to train their employees and on their personal development. It is important to keep those employees to ensure maximum operational capabilities. The HR departments not only in Dubai, UAE but all over the world heavily rely on technological solutions and tools to boost their efficiencies. The HR Kiosk or Virtual HR is one of the most effective tools which can help the HR department in all of their organizational functions.

The HR Kiosks are basically a touch screen interactive device, usually floor standing or wall mount. The HR Kiosks would be connected with the HR database and information center to enable the employee to perform HR tasks via a self-service interface. It is important to integrate your HR Kiosks with your HRMS (Human Resource Management System) to utilize them at their maximum potential. This also expands the possibilities of digitalization and automation of a lot many processes and services.

Here are the core benefits of deploying an HR Kiosk:

Easy Access to the HR Information

Easy Access to the HR Information

Most of the time the HR departments are located in the head-offices or at a different location or employees could be working in a production unit or at a project site and the HR department elsewhere or something like that. This made it harder to reach out to the HR department each time an employee requires a service. This also causes a waste of time and resources. There are a bunch of other challenges too, the employee would require transport, off-time to schedule a visit to the HR, and if it is a busy day you can even lose the entire workday. The HR Kiosk can solve this problem. These kiosks are free-standing designs, you can place a floor standing or wall mount HR Kiosk at the project site, or at the company accommodation of the staff, or at the local branch or regional office and so on. This not only reduces the workload of the HR staff but also adds value to the employee experience and satisfaction. The HR kiosk is a great tool to maximize HR team’s efficiency and to ensure easy-to-access services for the employees.

Reduce HR Department’s Cost and Expenses

Reduce HR Department’s Cost and Expenses

The mailing and printing is a huge cost for the HR department. It is time-consuming too. With the help of an HR kiosk, you can eliminate these costs by a huge percentage. Apart from that the HR department’s most resources are consumed in filling and documentations. They have to maintain a lot many files, which itself consumed a lot of financial resources, for example, you need extra staff to do the manual work, you need more stationary and more storage spaces to store the files and paperwork. These all things could be very expensive. The employee self-service kiosk (ESS Kiosk) will not only automate a lot many processes but it also digitalizes them which reduce the paperwork, mailing and manual filling. This is why the HR kiosk should be integrated with the HRMS or intranet or any other corporate tool which holds the HR and employee database.

Increase Employee Satisfaction and Employee Retention

Increase Employee Satisfaction and Employee Retention

The HR Kiosks can provide an excellent experience to the employees. Self-service kiosks are always preferred by the customers in almost every service-based industry. The HR Kiosk allows the employees to get the required service without depending on any human/staff and or travelling to the HR department. This saves their time and efforts. Another advantage of Virtual HR or HR Kiosk is that business can place them at the closest and convenient locations to the employees. The employees don’t have to wait in a long queue, they can get the service instantly. This significantly boosts the employee experience and satisfaction. Once your employees are satisfied with you the employee retention is easier. The HR Kiosk can also provide a feedback channel to further understand the expectations and needs of the employees which can help the businesses to take steps to improve employee satisfaction and employee retention.

The Employees can avail themselves of many services from the kiosk instantly which otherwise could have taken them hours or in some cases days. For example, if an employee has to check to apply for the annual leave. They will go to the HR kiosk, scan their Emirate ID Card or Employee ID to authenticate themselves, and then they can either fill and submit the form completely digitally or either they can take the print out of the HR Kiosk and fill the form and then scan it back again to submit the application.

The HR department can offer virtually any service from HR Kiosk, some of the most commonly used services are:

  • Employee Documents (new ID, new passport, etc.) Update
  • Annual Leave Application, Leave Status, etc.
  • Employee Benefits, Overtime, Incentives, etc. Calculations
  • Attendance, Time Clock, Schedules, Shifts, and Time Updates
  • Loan Applications, Status, etc.
  • Request Appointment with HR Department
  • Forms Printing and Submissions
  • EID Scanning, Passport Scanning, Facial Recognition, RFID, Employee ID, etc.
  • Company News, Notices and Events Updates
  • Surveys, Feedbacks and Suggestions

All these services and a lot of others can be provided with HR Kiosks. The biggest advantage of the HR Kiosk is that the technology itself is very flexible and it can include tons of software and hardware features that can help HR departments to improve the employee experience. The instant availability of the HR services at the most convenient locations to the employees can significantly increase their satisfaction and happiness. This not only saves their time but it provides them more access to the HR services. Happy and satisfied employees are the key to employee retention. The HR department can achieve a lot using a standard HR Kiosk or a customized employee self-service kiosk.

Reduce HR Work Load and Increase Efficiency

Reduce HR Work Load and Increase Efficiency

HR is a very critical business asset. If your HR staff is always busy attending so many daily requests and visitors, they would not be able to fully focus on more productive activities. The automation and digitalization of the services not only save the cost of lengthy filling processes, paperwork and mailing, but it significantly reduces the workload of the HR department. The automation also improves the efficiency of the HR staff. As most of the digital services got updated automatically and instantly in the system and no need for manual data entry or any such thing. This could have a tremendous impact on the HR department’s efficiency. With less workload, the HR staff can focus on other productive tasks, which will further improve the efficiency and output of the HR department. The business can also reduce the HR staff as the digitalization of the services doesn’t require any human intervention. When we automate the process and digitalize it, the chances of human error got significantly reduced this save a lot of time in repetitive work. Automation and digitalization significantly increase the HR department’s efficiency.

See More: How HR Kiosks help managing the HR more efficiently?

Collect Employee Feedback

Collect Employee Feedback

Employee Feedback is very important. Most often good employee leaves an organization if they feel the organization is unable to meet their needs or if they are not been able to communicate with the HR department freely and easily. In order to understand the needs and demands of you’re employees, it is important to provide them a channel where they can freely express their thoughts and suggestions. This will not only help the HR department to improve customer retentions but it will also help them to provide better HR services with the HR kiosk. Employee feedback is a very valuable asset for the HR department, it is crucial to consider their employee’s needs and demands while making new strategies and taking important decisions.

See More: 10 Useful Features of Interactive Kiosks

Implement Organizational Policies Effectively

Implement Organizational Policies Effectively

One of the best advantages of digitalization is that you can update everything instantly. The HR department is the one that has most of the internal announcements and information sharing. The HR kiosk is the best solution to push news and announcements on the screen. Rather than making changes in the documents and creating new forms or such things, just from the administrative control panel all such changes can be made and implemented instantly throughout the organization. Whenever there is any update in any process or a policy is being changed, all can be implemented instantly at all HR Kiosks. This not only saves a lot of efforts and resources but it makes it easier and convenient for the HR Staff as well to implement and update organizations policies effectively.

See More: How to Choose Digital Signage in Dubai, UAE

Conclusion

The HR Department is the busiest department in any organization or business. It also happens to be the most important department as well, as the main functions of the HR department include, recruitment of the right people, employee satisfaction, employee retention, resource optimizations, cost reduction, employee’s personal development and employee performance management. These all factors play a major role in any business’s success. The HR Kiosk is a modern solution for HR departments that enables them to easily provide their services in remote areas, near to their employees and it also enables them to reduce service delivery time, paperwork, cost, manual labor, and overall workload of the HR department which results in boosting the performance of the HR departments.

Employees satisfaction led to good performance and employee retention ensures that the business always has a great pool of skill set, which further helps them to work with better efficiency and greater quality output. The HR Kiosks also help the HR department to effectively implement the organizational policies and procedures. This is the reason the business and enterprises in Dubai and all across the UAE are adopting HR Kiosks and HRMS solutions very rapidly. The HR Kiosk with it enormous spectrum of application& usability can help businesses and organizations in maintaining steady growth and controlling the cost of operation and production. If the employees will be satisfied, they will work on their optimum efficiency, which means with lesser inputs the businesses can harvest higher outputs.

Not only that the automation and digitalization of HR Services significantly reduce the workload of the HR department and let them focus on more productive activities rather just attending too many daily visitors and doing manual paperwork for filling and mailing, etc. The HR Kiosk is built with the most widely available technology, which makes them very cost-effective, in addition, the technology can last long and can easily be repurposed too. The software itself is a very flexible framework that allows easy integration with HRMS, intranet, ERPs, Financial and Production Systems and much more.

This is why all medium size and big size business, organizations and enterprises need an HR Kiosk which will eventually improve the overall growth and revenue. If you are interested in commissioning HR Kiosks, feel free to approach us through our Contact Us page. We have a huge variety of indoor and outdoor kiosks, which can be placed in any type of environments and easy to manage at remote locations.

See Also: What is the Difference in Outdoor and Indoor Digital Signage?

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How to Choose Digital Signage in Dubai, UAE

Posted on April 11, 2021 by admin

How to Choose Digital Signage in Dubai, UAE

Digital Signage is the most valuable marketing asset these days. In Dubai, UAE businesses are rapidly adopting them. Digital signage is everywhere, whether you are indoor or outdoor, these flashy displays are compelling you to look at them. This is a very long term investment and it could have a huge impact on your business. There are two major types of digital signage, one is used indoors and the other is for outdoors. Both have different technologies and have different audiences. The indoor signage is used for different type of adverts, self-service, wayfinding solutions and the outdoor for different. For example, if you are visiting a clothing store, in their specific section signage is advertising price of the new arrivals and also the discounts on some articles.

For outdoor signage, you usually use it for brand awareness, not for a specific item or niche or any such thing. Both types of digital signage have a different purpose and different technology in them. When it comes to taking a decision the selection of the display screen is the most difficult. Choosing an appropriate display screen could not only impact the advertisements and campaign results but it will directly impact your system commissioning cost. The objective of this blog is to let our customers and reader understand the basic difference between different screen types that are used in digital signage and the impact of the screens on the other components of the system. In this blog, we will discuss how to choose an appropriate digital signage display?

See Also: Smart Fitness Mirror – Customized LCD Mirror Screen Technology

Here is a brief introduction to digital signage display screens most commonly used in Dubai, UAE:

1. Indoor Display Screens

Indoor Display Screens

Indoor signage is gaining popularity. There are different types of indoor digital signage screens. These screens are classified in terms of size, orientation, display brightness, resolutions, multimedia content compatibility and software. Usually, the major and most prominent difference between indoor and outdoor signage screens is their brightness. The indoor digital signage screen has around 200 Nits to 500 Nits maximum. Whereas the outdoor digital signage screen could illuminate up to 1500 Nits or even in some cases 2500 Nits. The indoor digital signage screens require less power and generate less heat. Physical access is also easy so an onboard computer can also be sufficient for basic multimedia content playing.

2. Outdoor Display Screens

Outdoor Display Screens

The outdoor signage screens are usually LED displays. As LCDs are not so good with the weather, especially the heat. Apart from the weather since the outdoor displays are meant to illuminate too high so they themselves generate a lot of heat and need separate cooling mechanisms or air conditioners. The outdoor signage, video walls, outdoor self-service kiosk and billboards are big and are meant to be viewed from a distance, so medium resolution content works perfectly fine with them, however for the indoor signage as they are meant to be viewed from a close, so we need HD content.

As for the content and media, there are dedicated software and hardware interfaces are required. As the outdoor signage screens are not just a single piece but it is a collection of small modules. Small displays of various sizes form up a large videowall or billboard or outdoor signage like a brick forming a wall. Another important thing to understand about the outdoor digital signage screens and the indoor video walls is the installation. The installation includes all the cabling, connections, holders, stands, mounts and other components.

These are very big displays and building such a large display and then transporting it to the destination is not an easy task. So such displays are built-in modular form factor. It means that there are small displays that are installed on a housing or frame to form up the full screen. There are two major differences here, one installation type is front-maintenance and the other is back-maintenance. That is not all both types have completely different types of installation components such as brackets, frames, cabling, and others which could also impact the costing.

See Also: What is the Difference in Outdoor and Indoor Digital Signage?

3. Difference between LCD and LED Screens

Difference between LCD and LED Screens

LCD is a Liquid Crystal Display and LED is a Light Emitting Diode Display. Both are completely different technologies and are suitable for different environments and applications. The LCD is sharp, high contrast and very high definition. It is an older technology so today’s LCDs are very high-tech. The issue with LCD Screens is that they are difficult to illuminate high, so suitable for indoor use only. The other disadvantage of using an LCD in outdoor environments is that it doesn’t perform well against high temperature, and for outdoor we need high brightness, if we increase the brightness the contrast will decrease and there will be more heat at the backside of the LCD. But for indoor, the LCD Screens are more cost-effective and can provide very high definition resolutions.

The LCD Screens are excellent at varying photos or videos. But if an image sticks to the screen for extended periods of time it could permanently damage it. This is why LCD Screens are mostly used indoor with multi-media content. The LED Screens however are very rigid and strong. They can display a single image for an extended time period without damaging itself. The LED Screens can illuminate to higher brightness. These days most high-end cars are using LED headlights, which are very bright and consume very low power, the same technology is used in the LED Screens in their miniature form.

The LED Screens can also effectively last longer to high temperatures without changing color or any damage. They consume less power and are extremely good at medium resolution and fairly higher resolutions too. But for the outdoor signage screens mostly medium resolution LED displays are used. The drivers and control modules are also widely available and considerably cheaper than that of the LCDs. The power consumption is also less and the cooling and air conditioning requirements are also simpler. LED Screens are an excellent choice for outdoor signage.

See Also: Integrating Exhibition Stand Kiosks with Your Digital Marketing Strategy

4. Computer and Driver Hardware Technology

Computer and Driver Hardware Technology

Another differentiating factor is the computer and driver hardware technology for the signage screens. No matter it is indoor or outdoor, it requires a computer or special purpose hardware to process and play multimedia content. The screen itself is just a display it requires both software and hardware to act as digital signage. There is a variety of different hardware and software available in the market but all of them can be classified into two major categories:

(I). All-in-one Computer Screen

All in one computer is a single module and majorly used in all sort of indoor signage screens. It contains an onboard computer, with Windows or Android or there are some proprietary operating systems are also there. Regardless of the operating system or the content management system, the main advantage of the onboard all-in-one computer is that it provides peripherals. You can easily upload media on-site. The computer makes it possible to run the Digital Signage Software which let remote monitoring and it enables a lot many useful features and marketing tools. The maintenance and commissioning cost is low, the lifecycle is longer. But the main issue with all-in-one digital signage screens is that they are only available in small sizes and are not available for the outdoor.

(II). Separate Computer

A separate computer is fixed inside the signage or at the signage. The computer could be either windows or android and allows all benefits of software, as well as onsite media, transfer through various peripherals. The biggest advantage of using a separate computer with the signage screens is that it can work with very large screens. It is very cost-effective for large and medium-size screens. The computer allows the decoding of the videos and media playback along with the option to install a content management system with providing a lot many additional benefits and remote access.

See Also: List of Customized Interactive Kiosks Designed by RSI

TV Signage Screens

TV Signage Screens

There is another type which is also very popular, it is digital signage TV with media player. These days smart TVs are also available which can be converted into digital signage easily using a smart TV application and doesn’t require any intermediary software or hardware driver. Although the TV signage is not technically signage due to the advancement of technology and compatibility, the TV Screens are frequently used as digital signage screens. The TV signage screens are extremely cost-effective, can be used only indoors and can provide excellent resolution and picture quality.

The biggest disadvantage of the TV signage is that the TVs are not built for 24/7 operations, so they are very suitable for public offices, banks, and places only operates in the day time. So in the evening, they can be turned off. It doesn’t mean the TV cannot operate 24/7 at all. The TV signage screens can also operate full day but it reduces their life and within a few years the screens start showing problems or could completely go out of service.

Digital Signage Software

Digital Signage Software

All digital signage screen needs driver hardware or software, in fact, the purpose-made dedicated hardware themselves must have a proprietary or open-source software in them. Anyway, as the digital signage screens are meant to play multimedia content so a medium to push content on them is required. As there are two major classifications of the signage screens, the indoor screens and the outdoor screens, the software also differs. There is a wide variety of digital signage software available in the market. Such as:

See Also: The Benefits of Temperature Detecting and Monitoring Kiosk

CMS for Digital Signage Screen

CMS or Content Management System for digital signage screen is also known as digital signage software. It allows various configurations and input mediums. There is two basic part of the software, one is the server-side application and administrative control panel and the second is the client software. The client software runs at the digital signage. The system administrators can control multiple digital signage screens from a single admin panel and the entire operation can be done remotely as well. There are two digital signage software types:

  1. LAN or Local Area Network Software: It remains in the local server which is locally connected to the signage screens
  2. Cloud-Based Software: It is online on the internet and is the best option for connecting with digital signage screens placed in distant locations, all the controls can be done from the head office

There is another basic type of software interface is also available, that is an in-built computer or media player and the content can be pushed to the digital signage via the USB or Memory Card.

Conclusion

Digital signages are a great marketing tool and an excellent piece of technology. They are very effective, cost-effective, can last for long and offer excellent ROIs. As in marketing, we set up different campaigns with different objective. Digital signage is no exception, for different marketing objectives different types of digital signage is required. The digital signage screen is basically the only part that communicates with your client. The industry is a bit complex there is a huge variety of manufacturers and vendors who are producing the components and a variety of supportive electronics and software tools are available. In order to ensure the best ROIs of your campaigns, you just have to choose the best digital signage screen and the hardware which suits your requirement. Else you won’t be able to get the full benefits of digital signage.

See Also: Modern Technologies to Make Your Exhibition Booth Stand Out

This is an ultimate guide to digital signage and the purpose of this blog is to provide some basic understanding of the most important component of the digital signage, the screen and its effect on the other system which could impact the cost, quality, and ROIs for the project. The software and the hardware both works in harmony to build the full system so it is important to understand the basic differences of the digital signage screens and the effect of choosing a particular screen on other components of the system. RSI Concepts is a well-reputed digital signage and video wall provider in Dubai, UAE. If you need to understand more or have an enquiry please feel free to contact us through our Contact Us page.

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What is the Difference in Outdoor and Indoor Digital Signage?

Posted on April 6, 2021 by admin

If you are a business or an organization operating in Dubai, UAE and looking for brand awareness or promotional advertisements, digital signage is an excellent tool to help you with your marketing objectives. Here it is worth noting that both indoor and outdoor digital signage have gained huge popularity in the past few years not only in UAE or GCC but all across the world. The market researcher is predicting that the digital signage market could grow up to 30% or even more in the coming five years, and that is huge.

As we all know the year 2021 is the year of the Expo, which will attract millions of visitors and thousands of investor from all across the world to Dubai and UAE. It is always wise to prepare beforehand to get a competitive edge. Even before the event for the past few years, the local market is rapidly adopting digital signage technology and we are witnessing new indoor and outdoor screens popping up everywhere.

What is the Difference in Outdoor and Indoor Digital Signage

Both the indoor and outdoor signage displays are different from others. The business and organizations need to understand this difference very well before investing in technology. Here are the major differences between indoor signage and outdoor signage:

Marketing Goals and Audience

Marketing Goals and Audience

Each advertisement campaign has a goal. For the digital signage campaign, there must be a marketing goal. First of all, you should decide what are your marketing goals of utilizing digital signage? Then you will be able to determine which type of digital signage can help you achieve your goals. For example, when you are running an advert on outdoor signage, you are targeting a broader spectrum of audience. Whoever is passing by can view the ad and can be a potential prospect. Hence a completely different approach is required, the advert should be created with those audiences in mind. The content of the advert, the size of the digital signage and everything else should be prepared accordingly to make the advert more attractive for your targeted audience.

For the indoor signage, the audience is completely different. The indoor signage is mostly placed inside the premises or at least in near proximity. If the digital signage is installed indoors inside the business’s premises then it means that you have already attracted a prospect who is already at your showroom or store or whatever. Now the information you should display in the advert should be different which could encourage your customers to make an instant decision. For example a sale offer or discounted price list of a particular item, service or product. Now the approach is totally different from that of the outdoor signage.

See Also: How to Choose Digital Signage in Dubai, UAE

Business can have multiple indoor signage on different strategic positions. For example, you are in a store to purchase a mobile phone, the store hosts a wide range of electronics and gadgets. In the mobile phone section, you can have indoor signage showing the discounted price of a branded headphone. This will be very encouraging for a customer to make an instant decision to buy the headphones along with their new smartphone.

Both indoor signage and outdoor signage have different audiences and a completely different communication approach is needed to get the full advantage of the digital signage. Digital signage and video walls are a very effective type of advertisements, they always interest the passing by people. The flashy content and bright lights always attract people towards them. If used effectively with appropriate targeted audiences in mind the digital signage and video walls could do wonders to boost your sales and conversions.

Interactive User Interfaces

Interactive User Interfaces

The interactive user interface is available for both indoor signage and outdoor signage. Although for the outdoor signage and video walls the interactive features are limited to certain applications only. For example, the billboards do not offer touch screens and interactive interface as no one is expected to climb to the top of a pole or side of a building to interact with them. However, for floor standing or wall-mounted indoor and outdoor digital signage, interactive user interfaces can be provided. For the video walls, as they are also very huge no matter used indoor or outdoor the interactive features are not so effective, except only in a certain environment with very limited applications.

The interactive user interfaces can help customers further explore your products and services via a touch screen. The adverts and information provided on interactive digital signage also vary from case to case. Each application is different from the other and each objective of the campaign is also different. The interactive user interface provides more chances of getting instant leads and conversions. It is more effective and efficient to have an interactive feature with indoor signage rather than outdoor signage. As the indoor customers and prospects are already on the next stage of conversions so the interactivity can definitely impact their decisions a lot.

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

Hardware

Hardware

The hardware of both indoor and outdoor signage is completely different in all ways. The outdoor environment and indoor environment both are totally different in terms of natural lighting hence require a different level of display brightness. That is the difference that can easily be recognized by the customers and visitors. As the sizes of digital signage range from as small as that of an iPad and as big as that of a billboard, the hardware and technologies are also different.

Indoor Signage Display

For indoor signage, the screens are usually used of very high definition and higher resolutions. As the customers and visitors can view them from very close. The indoor signage display brightness is also low, almost equal to the normal TV screens or slighter higher than them. For the indoor signage, the environment is also very stable and friendly, you don’t have to worry about the display brightness once it is set to an optimum level.

Outdoor Signage Display

As for the outdoor signage the brightness has to be higher than the indoor. The outdoor signage will have to be rigid enough to withstand different weather conditions and especially during sunny days, the brightness should be kept at the highest level to make it more visible. The outdoor signage is usually capable of emitting up to 1000 nits of brightness. Which is way too high for the night and excellent for the day. So, the brightness should have to be controlled during different hours of the day and of course for the night. Some modern outdoor signage comes with automatic brightness controls as well which is a great advantage, apart from the brightness it also helps controlling the power consumption and it also increases the life of the hardware.

LED VS LCD

LED VS LCD is a very difficult argument. Sometimes the LED are better for certain applications and sometimes the LCD is better. I think both have their very own domain of operation and spectrum of operation where they are most efficient. For digital signage, the LCD is preferred for almost only indoor applications. As the LCD is more clear and better for closer viewing. They can render sharper colours and are good at changing the content quickly. However, LCD contains a liquid placed in two layers which means that at higher temperatures, the LCD couldn’t perform better.

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

Computer and Interfaces

Digital signage is incomplete without a computer. The multimedia content has to be played via a computer or a special-purpose device such as Media Box/Player, in fact, these media players are also most of the time Android-based computers. Anyway, digital signage whether indoor or outdoor must require a computer to play the content of performing its functionalities. The indoor signage comes with built-in computing hardware, which allows some kind of a software layer to allow us to play multimedia content on them. The indoor signage can easily plug into a multimedia storage device to fetch content from it. Or even can be connected to the internet either by LAN or by WiFi to allow remote access and content can be pushed through certain software interfaces.

However, for the outdoor signage, the hardware requirements are slightly different. For the indoor signage, we can simply plug-in a media storage device and play the content directly from the device but for the outdoor signage, it is not a practical solution to climb a huge pole at the roadside or a building wall to reach the signage and plug in your media storage device (USB, Memory Card, etc.). For outdoor signage, there is always an additional layer of hardware interfaces which enables remote access and controls. Another requirement of that hardware interface layer is due to the large size of the outdoor signage. Usually, the outdoor signage comes in multiple small panels combined on a large holding structure to form a large display of various sizes, in order to play a full picture on this big display an intermediary hardware and software layer is required.

See Also: Integrating Exhibition Stand Kiosks with Your Digital Marketing Strategy

Software

Software

Each digital signage requires some kind of software interface to allow the users to push and play content on them. As we have already discussed the computing engine and other hardware interfaces are already integrated with the digital signage. So, the software is also required to push, control and manage the content of any digital signage. For indoor signage the software is pretty simple, it usually provides multiple display options which we call themes. Each theme allows further control over the display, for example, if you have a 65 Inch indoor signage screen, you can easily split the screen to play two different content such as the lower half is showing the contact details, pricing offers or catchy lines and the upper half is playing an attractive video to encourage viewers to make an instant purchasing decision.

That is just one example, there are a lot many other scenarios too. The software layer helps the management to operate multiple digital signage from a remote location, or a simpler PC interface. The software for outdoor signage is also a bit similar to indoor signage software. It also allows remote management, different theme and customizations are also there. Remote management is also available. The big catch is that the outdoor signage software automatically controls and manages the additional hardware layer which enables small individual panels to form a large display.

This makes the software a bit more complex in terms of programming but from the user perspective, it is still another PC interface. The interface can be in form of an application that is installed on the client’s computer or a web-based software tool, which resides on a server and allow connectivity via the cloud or local area network. The software not only provides the functionalities to control the content and multimedia but for the interactive signage, the software could also provide self-service capabilities.

See Also: Why should we use hand sanitizer digital signage kiosk?

Conclusion

The digital signage is dominating all types of industries and providing excellent marketing and communication channels for the business and organizations. The flashy screens and colourful contrast always appeal to the eye. No matter where you install them they will at least once got the attention of the people passing by. There are two major classifications of digital signage one is indoor and the second is outdoor. The hardware, software, operations, applications and management is completely different from one another.

The outdoor signage and video walls are usually large and brighter with a different targeted audience and entirely different marketing objectives in mind. The indoor signage and video walls are small and are for entirely different application with different marketing objectives in mind. Both are the result of a remarkable technological advancement and can help business with their brand awareness campaigns, announcements, and marketing goals. The interactive features are great for in-store marketing and self-service.

Digital signage is not a short term investment it is a very decent long term investment that could serve for coming years. It is always advised to consult professional digital signage and video wall solution provider like RSI Concepts. We are a leading name in the digital signage and video wall solution providers in Dubai and UAE. If you need a quotation or just a consultation for your next project, feel free to contact us through our Contact Us page. If you have any comment or suggestion please leave a comment in the below comment box.

See Also: 10 Useful Features of Interactive Kiosks

See Also: Smart Fitness Mirror – LCD Mirror Signage & Smart Mirror

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10 Useful Features of Interactive Kiosks

Posted on March 28, 2021 by admin

10 Useful Features of Interactive Kiosks

Customer experience is everything, if your customers are not satisfied with you, then you are surely doomed. This is what business are focusing on these days. Especially in Dubai, and other parts of UAE, the expectations of the customers are very high and the competition in the market is tough. The interactive kiosks have started their journey from ATMs and now they are providing from simplest to very complex services across all industries and sectors. Those services can be accomplished using powerful software and an interactive kiosk which might also involve a lot of peripherals and accessories. The kiosk industry is being expected to get doubled in the coming five years. If you are living in Dubai, you must have seen those bright screens everywhere. From very basic to very complex and complicated services all are being offered through the kiosks, for example, a simple token dispensing kiosk to a customer servicing AI-based interactive robot that can recognize the visitors and customers by their face and can have a conversation with them or it can escort them through twisted lobbies and much more. This is the spectrum of the utility of interactive kiosks. Businesses are realizing the benefits of interactive kiosk systems more than ever before. The adaptation level for the innovative solutions has also risen and the business is willing to do serious investments to ensure a great customer experience.

See More: What is the difference in iPad Kiosk and a standard kiosk

Here are the 10 useful features of Interactive Kiosks:

1. Communication

Communication

The interactive kiosks can be used to display useful information. It also helps organizations to easily propagate their multi-media content across different branches and locations simultaneously. The business can push adverts, news and events and any announcements within seconds across their entire network. It is a completely free advertisement platform. The real-time updates, remote management and other features even maximize the efficiency of the system. There has been researching and the data reflects that more than half of the retail customers prefer to shop from the places which have digital signage and kiosks playing adverts on them. That is huge, due to the modernization and digitalization of your society and daily lives, we are becoming more adopted and attracted towards technology. This is why the kiosks and screens can be so effective in communication and marketing.

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

2. Payments

Payments

One of the most widely used features of an interactive kiosk is online payment capabilities. Business is utilizing the interactive kiosks to provide an easy-to-reach payment counter in the shape of an interactive kiosk to not only expand their operational territory but to also facilitate their customers. This could significantly improve the customer experience. The payment functionality whether it is online payment via Credit/Debit card or cash deposit is a lot easier on the kiosk placed at any nearby location and most certainly there will no queue. People don’t like waiting in long queues, it is frustrating, time-consuming and annoying. The interactive kiosks can offer a more robust and instant method of payment which improve customer experience.

See More: 7 Features of Self Service Kiosks

3. Self-Service

Self-Service

These days the interactive self-service kiosks are everywhere. All types and sizes of business and organizations are using them to offer self-service terminals. Where the user doesn’t have to require staff or an agent to assist them with the service delivery. The service can be delivered in a fully autonomous way using the interactive features of the interactive kiosk. Self-servicing is gaining huge momentum for the past two-three years. From small business to large corporations, banks, hospitals, educational institutes, HR departments, government departments, and other public offices are adopting to self-servicing interactive kiosks to maximize their customer’s experience and satisfaction. Self-service Interactive Kiosks are a great innovative and easy-to-use solution that could ensure a superior customer experience. A great customer experience is very crucial for any business’s success. It improves customer loyalty, positively impact brand identity and brand reputation which further attract more customers. The interactive kiosk can really help a business sustain steady growth.

See More: Shifting of business process on interactive kiosk dubai

4. Customization

Customization

One of the great features of interactive kiosks is that they can be easily customized to adapt to the particular needs and requirements of the business. This enables the organizations to easily offer their products and services via an interactive kiosk. Both the software and hardware can be customized to form the service delivery mechanism which ensures a superior customer experience. The customization is also very important, as all businesses and organizations have their slightly different organizational culture, practices and approaches toward different aspects of the business. The customization ensures that the brand maintains its unique business identity and customer experience at the interactive kiosk too.

The customization also makes the system more adaptive and integrated within the organization’s echo-system. It also improves the overall usability, productivity and efficiency of the system and business process. Businesses and organizations can customize an interactive kiosk to offer particular services in a very specific manner to ensure a great customer experience. This can easily be achieved by software customization, system integration, and hardware customization and accessories. The interactive kiosks are a great option to offer cost-effective customized solutions.

See More: 5 Types of Touch Screen Kiosks

5. Hardware Add-ons and Accessories

Hardware Add-ons and Accessories

Apart from customization, another great advantage of the interactive kiosk is that a wide variety of hardware accessories and peripherals are easily available in the market and at a very low cost. For example, usually in Dubai, business mostly require touch-screen, thermal printer, Emirates ID Card Scanner, Fingerprint Scanner, Iris Scanner, Passport Scanner, Document Printer and Scanner, Facial Recognition camera, intercom, physical keyboard and mouse pad, etc. These all hardware accessories are easily available at very low costs. There is a huge variety of different hardware components that can be added to perform certain tasks from the interactive kiosk. All those hardware are the most widely available and very cost-effective. The customized solution with customized hardware components can further improve the operational efficiency of the interactive kiosk system. Such solution is excellent at improving customer experience and on the same hand offering great value to the organization’s business process.

See More: Fragrance Dispensing Kiosk

6. Powerful Software

Powerful Software

The interactive kiosks also come with powerful software. The software allows the business to link various databases to enable the automation and digitalization of various processes. The software tool not only allow to manage interactive kiosks remotely but it also help organizations to collect statistical and usage data which can later be extracted in reports and used at various stages of decision and policymaking. The interactive kiosks are available with various computing platforms, such as Android, Windows, Linux, etc. This further enhances the technical capabilities of the interactive kiosk software.

The software of interactive kiosk not only provide user interface and interaction to perform certain tasks or for service delivery, but the software of interactive kiosks also includes module to capture data, collect feedbacks, generate reports. These reports could be extremely helpful in measuring KPIs, and taking decisions or setting up new business strategy. The software records all the activities and statistical data which then converted into actionable reports. The interactive kiosks system can help business in improving the customer experience and also collecting valuable business intelligence to understand their customers’ behavior, market trends and evaluation of their products and services.

See More: Aramex Customer Feedback Interactive Kiosks

7. Integration with other Corporate Systems

Integration with other Corporate Systems

Most of the time when using interactive kiosks the business might want to integrate the system with other corporate systems and tools, for example the ERP or the HRMS or CRM, etc. This type of integration is mandatory to offer certain services and functionalities in the interactive kiosk. Thanks to technology, these types of integrations and data synchronizations are much easier. The data security is ensured using secure web services or APIs to establish a link between different corporate software and tools. The integration can help the organizations to share data between different departments to for a digital ecosystem which allows the interactive kiosk to offer certain functionalities and features for the customers.

The integration can also be used to synchronize the data between the interactive kiosk system and other corporate systems. For example, if a business is already using a CRM tool, they might want to receive the customer feedback collected from the interactive kiosk in that CRM system. So that the team won’t have to use multiple systems. This can only be possible by system integrations. There are a lot many other different tasks and functions that we can achieve by system integration in order to maximize the efficiency and usability of the interactive kiosk system.

See More: Why should we use hand sanitizer digital signage kiosk?

8. Automation

Automation

The interactive kiosks are very efficient at bringing automation to various business processes. Which not only reduce the workload of the staff but also provides a more efficient service delivery mechanism. Due to the automation, the monitoring and business intelligence data capturing is fairly simple and very effective. Automation not only reduces the workload of the staff and reduce the resource consumption of a particular service or business function, but it also improve the function itself. The service delivery could become instant and immediate, the data inputs could be error-free, the human factor can be eliminated which could cause delays and errors too. The automation also helps business in improving the customer experience. As there is no human involved so the entire delivery time could be reduced to the amount of time a user took to navigate the user interface, the rest is automated and don’t take any time.

See More: How HR Kiosks help managing the HR more efficiently?

9. Generate Sales

Generate Sales

Interactive kiosks help business to increase sales and revenue, not only that they also help business to save cost on advertisements. The business can place their interactive kiosks to offer various products and services in those markets where opening up a new branch or outlet might be more expensive. This not only increases the sales but it also helps to sustain the existing customers by providing them easy access to various services in their nearby locations. Sales not only dependent on the marketing you are doing but it requires a certain threshold of reputation and brand identity to compel a customer to make a purchase. The entire brand identity and brand reputation revolve around the customer experience and customer journey. The interactive kiosks can solve both of those issues and help businesses in building a positive brand reputation and a super-customer-friendly customer journey.

See More: Installation Of The Customer Satisfaction System For Electricity Department in Sharjah

10. Low Maintenance and Cost-Efficient

Low Maintenance and Cost-Efficient

The interactive kiosks are built with vastly available technologies which significantly reduce the cost of the system. This also makes the maintenance easy and low cost. Usually the interactive kiosks require very little maintenance due to the technology and techniques to manufacture them. This made them significantly cost-efficient. If you compare the expense of opening up a new branch or a regional office, the interactive kiosks will cost you merely a fraction of that. Another extraordinary ability of interactive kiosks is that you can repurpose them easily with a very low cost. This not only expand their life but it also helps organizations to reduce cost a lot.Most of the hardware used in the kiosks can operate for years of inconsistency. Which also reduce the demand of regular maintenance and repair work. As the interactive kiosk industry gained popularity more manufacturers started building specialized components at mass production which significantly reduced the cost of the interactive kiosk itself and also reduced the cost of maintenance and repairs too. Even if you are using the interactive kiosks for a particular project for a particular time period in mind, you can still repurpose them as the upgrade and modifications are comparatively easy and cost-effective in terms of the hardware, as for the software the software customizations are much easier and even more cost-efficient.

See More: Mobile Anti-theft Charging Stands for IKEA Dubai

Conclusion

These days the customer experience is the most debated topic among marketers. The only reason is that the entire success and growth of a business relies on the customer experience. Obviously, if you started taking bad financial or management decision while maintaining a good customer experience as well as a great brand identity, then that is an exception, but for 99.99% of the business and organizations the customer experience is a huge factor in their success and growth. The interactive kiosks are helping organizations in creating innovative and technologically advanced solutions that can help them maximizing their customer experience and service delivery mechanisms. The automation and system integrations are also additional benefits which can further improve the system efficiency. The interactive kiosk systems always come with data capturing, KPIs measurements and other features that can help the business further maximize their ROI. The low cost and lower operational expense makes them an excellent option for business growing or seeking growth. We are specialized in customized interactive kiosk solutions, if you need any help or need consultation feel free to reach us out through the below comment box or contact us through our Contact Us page.

Check this out: Challenges in Customized Kiosk Project

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Challenges in Customized Kiosk Project

Posted on March 14, 2021 by admin

Challenges in Customized Kiosk Project

Digital kiosks are classified as cyber-physical interactive products. As they provide a physical interaction with the digital services. As in the year 2021, most of the businesses and organizations are actively seeking low-cost expansion, great customer satisfaction and reduction in the operational cost. This lead to a trend of rapid adaptation of the digital or interactive kiosks for multiple services. The main objective is to reach out to as many physical locations as possible or to automate your service delivery mechanisms for a better customer experience. The kiosk has the potential to significantly reduce the wait time to improve customer satisfaction. The business growth is not only dependent on getting new customers but it heavily relies on retaining the existing customers too. Which requires continuous improvement in service delivery mechanisms and adaptation of a high-tech solution to improve customer experience with the brand. This is when businesses and organizations start looking for customized interactive kiosk solutions. The digital kiosks are made up of high-end technology which could allow businesses to digitalize their products and services with virtually no wait time.

The digital kiosk can not only reduce the operational cost but can significantly improve business efficiency. The reduction in the workload of the staff, the automation and digitalization of the services, self-service capabilities, real-time monitoring and updates and improved customer satisfaction are a few benefits of integrating digital kiosks based solutions in your organization.

There are two types of interactive kiosks solutions available in the market:

  1. Ready-made Kiosk Solutions
  2. Customized Kiosk Solutions

Obviously, one-fits-all doesn’t apply here. There are still a lot many ready-made or ready-to-install off-the-shelf digital kiosk solutions which are still useful to some extent. But if you have a customized digital kiosk solution instead, the efficiency of the system can be doubled or even better. There will be less hustle to operate the system and to integrate it into your organizations.

Here are a few challenges that you could face while acquiring or fabricating a custom/tailor-made digital kiosk solution for your specific needs:

Challenge 1. Idea and Concept

Idea and Concept

The very first form of digital kiosks was the ATM machines, but slowly they became integrated into various sectors and industries. The main driving force behind digital kiosks is the customer experience. If you are aiming for a customized digital kiosk project the first and most important thing is to have an idea or concept of the kiosk. This not only depends on your needs but it also requires a little bit of innovation and idealization of what can be proposed to your customers and users of the system. At this stage you should be able to list down:

  1. Why do you need a digital kiosk?
  2. What services do you want to offer via interactive kiosk?
  3. What is the objective of installing a kiosk?
  4. What other additional or bonus services you can offer via the kiosk?
  5. Define the KPIs of the System
  6. What type of business intelligence do you want to collect from the digital kiosk system?
  7. What are your budget limits?
  8. What are your technological and/or financial limitations?

These questions are important to develop an idea and a concept of the customized digital kiosk system. Before moving any further you must have to have the answers to these questions. Discuss the idea with your colleagues, the concerned department heads and managers and also with your staff, take their inputs and feedbacks on related matters and then refine your idea and concept. Only then you will be able to develop a great idea and concepts of your expected outputs of the system.

See More: Mobile Anti-theft Charging Stands for IKEA Dubai

Challenge 2. Digital Kiosk Software Plan

Digital Kiosk Software Plan

The next step is to plan the software of the digital kiosk system you have envisioned in the previous stage. As all the basic information and the expected outputs of the system are defined the next step is to formulate a plan of the software. For example, if your kiosk requires interacting with users using multiple peripherals and touch screens, you should consider the software and technical details of integrating them all into your system. Let say a particular service requires the users to scan their ID card or Emirates ID Card, then you must have to link the kiosk system with your existing database to authenticate the user and to verify their identity. There are so many different types of services and methods of service delivery that can be achieved using an interactive kiosk.

The next step is to consider the technical aspects of the software. A good software application for digital kiosk always provides remote management and remote monitoring options. Most of the time the head-office wants to manage and monitor all the kiosk units or digital self-service terminals. That should be there, a good system always provides a configurable administrative hierarchy and workflow management in the system. Here is a shortlist of software features or functions that you should consider before planning software for your interactive digital kiosk system:

  1. Remote management and monitoring
  2. Data Access and Authentication levels and administrative hierarchies
  3. Data collection, protection, privacy and storage
  4. Touch-screen and other input devices support, for example, EID, RFID, Fingerprint Scanner, Facial Recognition, Passport Scanner, Call Center/Intercom Support, etc
  5. Receipt Printing, Onsite Documents Printing, Onsite Documents Scanning, etc
  6. Onsite Payments, Cash Payments, Credit/Debit Card Payments, Digital Payments, Cash Return & Change, etc
  7. Internet Connectivity via LAN, WiFi or 4G, etc
  8. Offline Functionalities

Of course, a full software plan may or may not include above all, or may also require more things which are not listed above, but overall in general these are the things commonly used in the digital interactive kiosk systems in Dubai, UAE.

See More: Installation Of The Customer Satisfaction System For Electricity Department in Sharjah

Choose Appropriate Platform and Technology

Choose Appropriate Platform and Technology

Once the software of a digital kiosk is planned, now the next thing is to choose the platform and technology as well. The software application has two major components one is the server and one is the terminal. The server-side application is easy to choose, as there are two major technologies that are leading in the market, one is PHP and one is ASP. Mostly such applications are built at PHP and platform with MySQL database as the information structure. Pardon me if those details are a bit more technical but I thought it would be helpful for you to understand the subject. Another important thing here is in Dubai and other Emirates of UAE mostly PHP based systems are used as technical support and skilful professionals are available in abundance.

See More: How HR Kiosks help managing the HR more efficiently?

Challenge 3. Hardware and Peripherals

Hardware and Peripherals

Now that we already have a concept and a software plan for our digital kiosk system now the challenge is to choose the appropriate hardware which can support and aid the software features as well and is also cost-effective. The hardware and accessories for a kiosk are available from a wide range of manufacturers. For example, if we take facial recognition cameras, there are hundreds of manufacturers who are producing facial recognition cameras, some cameras can recognize up to 50 faces in a crowd or at a large entrance, which of course is totally over-kill for a kiosk. The same is the case with other hardware components. Here is a list of basic hardware components a self-serving interactive kiosk should have:

  1. Kiosk Computer
    1. Windows Computer
    2. Android Computer
  2. Connectivity and Ports
    1. LAN
    2. WiFi
    3. 4G
    4. USB
    5. HDMI
  3. Display Panels
    1. Normal Commercial Screens
    2. Industrial Grade Screens
  4. Touch Panels
    1. IR Touch
    2. Capacitive Touch (good for on-screen keyboards)
    3. Multi-Touch
  5. Peripherals and Accessories
    1. Smart Card Reader/Emirates ID Card Reader
    2. RFID Card Reader/Job ID Card Scanner
    3. Fingerprint Reader
    4. Thermal Printer
    5. Facial Recognition Cameras
  6. Other Hardware Accessories
    1. Passport Scanner
    2. Document Printer
    3. Document Scanner
    4. QR Code & Barcode Scanner
    5. Proximity Detection
    6. Voice Input
    7. Speakers
    8. Intercom/Phone Integration (For Call Center or Help Center Support)

These are a few commonly used hardware and accessories for the digital interactive self-service kiosk. Of course, there are a lot many others that can be added to the system if required. As all these hardware are used the one and most important of all of them is the display and screen which could heavily impact your budget. So, be mindful of what you need and what type of hardware is required. Once the software and platform is planned then selecting the hardware and peripherals are much easier. This is where the cost of the terminal can be controlled and managed. Appropriate hardware will also reduce the maintenance cost hence the operational cost will be reduced.

See More: Why should we use hand sanitizer digital signage kiosk?

Challenge 4. GUI or Graphical Interface for the Customer

GUI or Graphical Interface for the Customer

This is always the biggest challenge in the self-service kiosk industry. Having a brilliant GUI or Graphical User Interface could increase the system’s usability, performance and efficiency by a significant level. You have selected the top-notch software and hardware technologies for your interactive kiosk terminal but your user interface is complex and hard-to-use, then the customers will be annoyed instead of being pleased. The GUI and customer interface is considered to be the centre of gravity of the entire system. Why would customer care if you have invested millions in the system if they are not being able to perform the tasks easily? So, having an interactive and very simple GUI is the key to success.

The user interface is the point where your customers will interact with your organization. If they are not pleased or satisfied will not only cause the failure of your digital interactive kiosk system but it will ruin your overall brand identity and brand reputation as well. This phase of the project requires great research and testing. The UX/UI designers need to pay more attention to that, the designs should be prepared with great care and the testing has to do for multiple times. Do not mind revision with the GUI design, each revision will make it better, keep room for further optimizations as well. Collect feedback from your customers for at least three months after the launch of the system and then try to improve the GUI as much as possible.

See More: Aramex Customer Feedback Interactive Kiosks

Challenge 5. Kiosk System Installation, Testing and Launch

Kiosk System Installation, Testing and Launch

The main idea of installing a digital kiosk-based system is to offer services more quickly without any wait time and to improve the customer experience. Such services always require communication of the system with other corporate systems and tools. As different types of data and services are managed differently so in order to provide them via a digital kiosk a huge work and planning is required for system integration and data synchronizations. The higher levels of sophistication and complexity demand a similar level of testing as well. The testing should be done in multiple phases as follows:

  1. Technical Testing – Computer Programmers, QC Testers, IT Teams
    1. Functional
    2. Non-Functional
  2. Internal Testing – Different internal departments and stack holders
  3. Pre-Launch Testing – Test Implementation in a few Branches or Locations
  4. Performance Testing – Post Launch Testing

Once the internal testing is done, the functional and non-functional testing and a limited scale system implementation is done. Then you should collect feedback from the system users and do tweaks to the system to improve it further if required. After that, the full launch should be scheduled. Even after the full launch, you should closely monitor the KPIs and overall response and behaviour of your customers towards your digital interactive kiosk system. Try to improve the system as much as possible.

See More: Fragrance Dispensing Kiosk

Conclusion

The customized kiosk system is always a bit challenging than choosing a ready-made off-the-shelf solution. But the overall efficiency and productivity of a customized digital interactive kiosk system are far superior to any off-the-shelf solution. A customized solution will enable business and organizations to provide their services in the most efficient way possible. First of all, an idea or concept has to be formed then you can choose the appropriate software and hardware technologies to meet your specific needs. Pay more attention to the GUI or graphic user interface of the system. Your user interface will determine the user experience. A bad user experience could ruin your reputation and brand identity. Do proper technical and non-technical testing, keep room for updates and upgrades to maximize the user experience. The customized digital interactive kiosk solution will not only help you boosting customer satisfaction but it will also enable you to expand to unexplored places and locations without having the hustle of opening a branch and bearing huge expenses. The overall maintenance of the kiosk system is very low, the kiosk unit or customer terminal hardly require any maintenance for months. Having a customized interactive kiosk system is a great way to automation, low-cost expansion and a superior customer experience.

At RSI Concepts we are helping our clients to achieve their goals. Our interactive kiosk solutions are completely customizable with a wide variety of software and hardware accessories we can ensure maximum customer experience and the highest level of customer satisfaction. If you need any help, feel free to reach us out through the below comment box or you can also contact us through our Contact Us page.

We are here to help!

Check this out: 5 Types of Touch Screen Kiosks

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5 Types of Touch Screen Kiosks

Posted on March 9, 2021 by admin

5 Types of Touch Screen Kiosks

In this blog, we will discuss the 5 types of touch screen kiosks. A touch screen kiosks is basically a combination of both interactive hardware and responsive software. The hardware is specifically designed to support certain software functionalities or a range of functionalities. If you are living in Dubai, you would see such touch screen kiosks or interactive kiosks everywhere. The screen’s glow easily caught the attention of the passing by people. Roughly almost 70% to 80% people think about inspecting the kiosks closely to see what it is. This can be used as a great advantage for marketing purposes as well. The touch screen kiosks are also very popular in the industry and can be used for a variety of self-service functionalities. The touch screen kiosks are not only a great advantage for the business but also for the customers, as a customer can perform certain transactions through the self-service interactive kiosk without requiring any help from the staff or others.

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

The interactive touch screen kiosk market has exploded in the past few years and is expected to grow more than double in the coming five years. Do you wonder why? It is because of the usefulness and benefits of the touch screen kiosks. For example, businesses can place touch screen kiosks in the places and markets where they have customers but cannot open a branch office or are not planning to open a branch office soon. This allows them access to the larger markets with very minimal cost comparing to having a branch office set up in those far-out regions. The touch screen kiosks are not only helping the businesses to reach out to the customers beyond their regular operations. That is promising but the question arises what type of kiosk will suit you? How you can benefit from it? In order to understand that we will first explore the five most commonly used touch screen kiosk types in Dubai:

1. Payment Touch Screen Kiosks

Payment Touch Screen Kiosks

Payment Touch Screen Kiosks are a very common site in Dubai, you can find them everywhere and more businesses have started adopting them. There are a variety of services that can be offered through this type of touch screen kiosk in Dubai. For example, bill payment, the customer do not have to wait in long queues to get it done through the staff at a designated branch. Instead, it can be done on any of the kiosk usually placed in easy to reach and convenient locations. Even you can find them at the entrance of residential buildings. This really adds up to the customer experience and customer satisfaction. Other peripherals and accessories can make this type of touch screen kiosk more useful. For example, the integration of contactless payment methods or payment through credit/debit cards or digital mediums such as Google Pay, Apple Pay or Samsung Pay will definitely make your customer happier and satisfied. In addition to all that such kiosk help reducing the workload and pressure on the staff hence can be helpful in reducing the resources and cost-cut strategies.

2. Ticket or Token Dispensing Touch Screen Kiosk

Ticket or Token Dispensing Touch Screen Kiosk

 

These days you can find a ticket or token dispensing kiosk in all customer service centres, banks, public offices, government departments, hospitals and a lot many other sectors. These touch screen kiosks are commonly used with a Queue Management System or a Customer Flow Management Systems. Where ever a business is expecting to have a large number of visitors or customers in the branch/office they usually install these ticket/token dispensing touch screen kiosks. This kiosk can be used for multiple purposes. Most often used in basic configurations with only serving a ticket dispensing purpose or maybe an Emirates ID Card scanner or any such peripheral. These touch screen kiosks can display information about the queue and help to guide the customers to their relevant queues without any help required from the staff. Which significantly reduce the workload of the staff and also ensures smooth automated customer flow management.

Furthermore, there are some organizations and businesses that are using ticket or token dispensing touch screen kiosks for not only dispensing the tickets for the queue but also asking the visitors to input some information from various mediums. The kiosk software can automatically rely on that information on the serving agent and once the customer arrives at the counter the service delivery can be done much quicker. The innovation has no limits, but the technology surely has some limits. Thankfully the touch screen kiosk industry has grown rapidly and with each day passing more manufacturers are producing exclusive technologies for the touch screen kiosks which is paving the way for a new revolution.

3. Information Touch Screen Kiosks

Information Touch Screen Kiosks

 

Information touch screen kiosks are gaining popularity in Dubai. Basically, the purpose of the information touch screen kiosk is to collect and process information and then redistribute it or present it for certain useful purposes and objectives in mind. For example, we usually notice an information touch screen kiosk in libraries where it provides a complete catalogue and also interactive features to navigate to certain categories or search for a book, etc. Another example is most often seen in big malls, outlets and retail stores where the kiosk automatically collects the data and information and provide them for customers such as popular products, today’s sales and offers, functionality to find a product and/or a full product/price catalogue. The information touch screen kiosks not only improve the sales but also help the customers. The customer experience can be improved a lot by using such gadgets and the businesses who have installed the information kiosks are also reporting a good improvement in the sales.

Although it may sound complex it is fairly simple and easy to set up an information touch screen kiosk system. It comes with a hardware and a software component, the major labour is done on the software side, which communicates with other information systems and databases of the business and as per pre-defined protocols, it processes all the information and produces results. Of course, all the process is automatic and once the system is commissioned it doesn’t even require any manual update. However in some cases when automation is not possible due to certain technological limitation, even then our information touch screen kiosk can be monitored and controlled remotely, which provides very easy content and information management.

See More: Shifting of business process on interactive kiosk dubai

4. Self-Service Interactive Touch Screen Kiosk

Self-Service Interactive Touch Screen Kiosk

Self-service interactive touch screen kiosks have been deployed in a huge number in Dubai and are the quantity is still growing. There is no distinguishing that only a particular industry or sector is using them, in fact, all types and sizes of businesses, corporations, offices, government sectors, hospitals, educational institutions, banks, hospitality sector, food industry, retail sector and everything else in between is utilizing the self-service interactive touch screen kiosks to improve their services, ensure customer satisfaction and for low-cost expansion.

There is a variety of software and hardware features that can be augmented in self-service interactive touch screen kiosks with an endless number of applications. For example, in the educational sector, universities and institutes are automating the student registration processes. In the Hospitality industry the booking, reservation and packages can be selected and bought through the online payment methods via a self-service interactive touch screen kiosk. In the retail industry, self-checkout terminals have been introduced using these kiosks. Customer signups, paperless registration, customer feedback, digital services and much more can be offered. There is an endless number of application of self-service interactive touch screen kiosks.

There are so many hardware options available for these kiosks, for example, Emirates ID Card Reader, QR Code Scanner, Printer, Receipt Printer, Passport Scanner, POS, Cash Depositing, Customer Support Center Integrations, RFID Scanners, NFC and much more. The software also allows integration, data sharing and synchronization with other corporate systems such as ERPs, CRMs, Inventory Management System, Digital Payment Systems and much more. Which even further enhances the capabilities of self-service interactive touch screen kiosks.

See More: 7 Features of Self Service Kiosks

5. Way Finding Touch Screen Kiosks

Way Finding Touch Screen Kiosks

The wayfinding touch screen kiosks are also a great example of the kiosk revolution. In Dubai, especially in malls, you will notice such kiosks. The wayfinding touch screen kiosks can be used in various environments such as in shopping malls, government offices, large facilities, educational institutions and universities, hospitals, campuses, metro stations, bus stations, airports, theme parks, etc. and all those large facilities who are hosting guests and visitors. The wayfinding touch screen kiosks usually have a huge touch screen and a powerful software engine that allows the system to cater to 3D Maps, Virtual Tours, Information and Details to the visitors and customers. The users can easily search using an on-screen keyboard and also lookup in the directory and catalogues. Another great advantage of wayfinding touch screen kiosk is that it can also be used for marketing and advertising purposes. The large screen allows enough space to play multi-media content along with the Maps and navigational functionalities.

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

Conclusion

In this blog, we have covered 5 types of touch screen kiosks. There are so many more sub-classifications but overall all the kiosks are divided into these major categories. No matter how small or big you are or what industry you are operating in. The touch screen kiosks could help you sustain your existing customers by providing those digital services, reducing the service delivery and wait time and reaching out to unexplored markets. As the market researches are suggesting and the statistical data is also projecting that the touch screen kiosk industry is about to get doubled in the coming years. This suggests the overall market trend. If you are operating in Dubai or any other part of UAE, you must have to be on top of your competitors. You should be the one who offers innovation and convenience before anyone else does. Touch screen kiosks with their less initial cost, low operational cost and very low maintenance cost can be a great companion for the businesses who are seeking expansion and cost cuts at the same time. RSI Concepts is a leading touch screen kiosk provider in Dubai and UAE. We are specialized in customized self-service interactive kiosks and digital signage. We can help you with achieving your goals. Feel free to contact us through the below comment box or reach us out from our Contact Us page.

Check this out: What is the difference in iPad Kiosk and a standard kiosk

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Role of Customer Feedback in Retaining Hard Earned Customers

Posted on February 24, 2021 by admin

Role-of-Customer-Feedback-in-Retaining-Hard-Earned-Customers

The role of customer feedback in retaining hard-earned customers is often overlooked by most businesses in the UAE and almost all around the world. The truth is most of the time businesses only focus and invest in methods and marketing methods to get new customers. Although you might have good customer relationship management and good service delivery mechanisms, you still need to listen to your customers. It is very important for businesses to retain their existing customers if they want steady growth. For example, fifty new customers per month or even daily it depends upon your organization’s size, and you are also loosing let say, twenty customers, then your growth is only thirty customers per day or per month or any reference of time.

But if somehow you got succeeded to retain all existing customers then for that time frame your growth will be one hundred per cent equal to your new sales. Customer Feedback plays a vital role in retaining the existing customers and it also provides vital business intelligence to further improve your products and services, which will definitely boost your overall growth.

What is Customer Feedback?

What-is-Customer-Feedback

First of all, you need to understand what is customer feedback? Well, the answer is very simple, whatever question you will ask your customer, the answer will be your customer’s feedback. You can request your customers to suggest or opine on your products, services, or a segment of your business or the entire brand. There are multiple types of feedbacks and multiple stages when feedback can be collected. For example, when a customer makes a purchase, you can ask them about their experience, after 3 months or so you can ask them about the performance of the product or service they bought from you. You can request feedback when a customer availed a service from your service center or customer support office. It could be anything, and it could be anytime.

See Also: Overcoming Challenges in Implementing Customer Feedback Systems

Although I am saying it could be anytime, or anything, but there are certain criteria to prepare your questionnaire and also when to present it. You cannot request a customer to opine about their experience at one of your customer service center three months ago. They might not remember sufficient details after this long.

How to Collect Customer Feedback?

How-to-Collect-Customer-Feedback

There are so many different methods and techniques to collect feedbacks some are old some are new, but all were set to encourage as many customers as possible to give feedback and suggestions. Basically, most of the time if a customer is either happy or unhappy they do not want to take the time to provide feedback or do a survey or any such thing. Even if when businesses ask their customers, only slightly more than half of them will answer the questionnaire. There are certain methods which are most popular all around the world. Here are some examples:

  1. Surveys conducted by staff at the branch
  2. Phone Calls
  3. Online Surveys via
    1. Emails (General/Marketing and Transactional)
    2. SMS
    3. Social Media
    4. Website
  4. Customer Feedback Systems
    1. Interactive Kiosks
    2. Tablet Kiosks/Stands
  5. Smartphone Applications
  6. Score Board Surveys or Customer Happiness Meter
  7. Online Suggestion Boards
  8. Online Reviews and Ratings

There are different innovative and high-tech solutions to collect customer feedback. There is no thumb rule or only one certified method of collecting feedback that can work for all. Different industries and different businesses require different customer feedback solutions. The main objective is to collect as many feedbacks as possible in a form that can help the management to gather actionable data.

See Also: The Role of Customer Feedback Systems in Improving Business Performance

In order to achieve your objectives you first have to understand what type of audience you have and what method will be more encouraging for your customers to attempt a survey or do feedback. Then multiple methods can be implemented simultaneously to increase the data collection. But your customer who has already given their feedback from one channel should not receive the requests to do the same feedback from other channels. Your all channels’ feedback should converge in a single information center or database, and the final outcome should provide the details important for your business. For example, you should know:

  1. How was your customer’s experience at the branch?
  2. How satisfied they are with your products and services?
  3. What else can be offered to improve the product/service quality?
  4. How more likely they are to suggest you to their family and friends?

These are just some of the very fundamental customer feedback questions, which all businesses want to know. Apart from that, you can also build a strategy to collect segmented feedback. The segmented feedback collection is also experimented with by many businesses and they are getting good results. For example, in their first visit to your customer service center, you can ask them about their experience at the branch. The next time or after a few days later you can ask them about the product or service they are using.

The chances of getting feedback from the same person on the same subject with a different topic are very high. Of course, you can ask a few questions at the same time, but the response rate to single question feedback is way too higher than multi-question feedback or survey. Multiple feedback collection methods can be utilized with innovative ideas and the latest technologies to collect more customer feedback data which can help the management to take future decisions.

See Also: Aramex Customer Feedback Interactive Kiosk

How Customer Feedback Can Help Retaining Hard Earned Customers?

How-Customer-Feedback-Can-Help-Retaining-Hard-Earned-Customers

Customer feedback can help businesses to retain hard-earned customers. No matter how big or small you are or to what industry you belong, you must have to listen to your customers very closely to understand what is making them happy about your brand and what is annoying them about your brand. This is very important, it is an estimate that almost 30% to 40% of the customers switched to other options if they don’t receive good services. And if they are unhappy it is an estimate that almost 60% to 70% talk about their bad experience with their colleagues, family and friends.

This could have a huge impact on your sales, reputation and brand identity. For example, research has been published by Business Insider [businessinsider.com] which concludes that it requires almost 12 good customer experiences to only negate the impact of one bad customer experience! This is huge, and it is extremely important that you listen to your customers, know how they think about your brand, what do they like and what is not appreciated by them.

Customer feedback can help businesses:

  1. Building Customer Loyalty
  2. Building a Positive Reputation
  3. Improved Customer Experience
  4. Improved Products and Services
  5. Taking Precise and Calculated Data-Driven Decisions

In order to retain your hard-earned customers, building a loyal customer base is very important. You can only win your customers loyalty if you will be able to understand their needs, demands, and overall behavior towards your products and services. Once you attain that your customers will start adding up to your efforts of building a positive reputation of your business and brand.

Customer experience always plays an extremely important role in any business’s success. Especially in the UAE where the competition is very high, there are so many options available to every customer. The customer experience will determine whether you will be able to sustain them and keep growing at a steady pace, or you will end up in a downward spiral? In order to understand the customer experience the best way is to take their feedback. This feedback will not only help you improving customer experience but it will also help you improve your products and services too.

See Also: Leveraging Customer Feedback System for Business Growth

There are two types of feedback, either it will be positive or either it will be negative. Here are the two types of customer feedback and their importance:

1. Negative Customer Feedback and Bad Customer Experience

Negative-Customer-Feedback-and-Bad-Customer-Experience

We always discuss in our blog posts and we also suggest to our customers that negative feedbacks are extremely important even more important than positive feedback. An unhappy customer is a potential risk. The chances of getting them away from your business are very high. Once they went away to a competitor they will most likely start suggesting their colleagues, family and friends join them. On top of that, there is a chance of negative publicity, they could comment on your social media, or share their experience on their social media or whatnot. Which could further amplify the intensity of negative publicity. It is very important that you prioritize them, listen to them and try to resolve their issues on urgent bases.

That is not all, from their bad experience you can also learn vital information about your deficiencies and the areas where you being a business or brand and your staff lags behind. Their feedback is critical to understand what went wrong and what has to be done in order to prevent such scenarios to happen again. This will help you retain your existing customers and when you manage to convert an unhappy customer to a happy customer they will definitely cause you positive publicity. This will not only make you more popular among your existing customers but it will also help you acquire more customers.

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

2. Positive Feedback and Good Customer Experience

Positive-Feedback-and-Good-Customer-Experience

Like I said the negative customer feedback is very important but that doesn’t mean you don’t need positive customer feedback. Positive customer feedback always helps to promote your good image and results in more business. Collect and utilize your positive feedbacks too to further improve the areas which are more popular. Positive feedback doesn’t mean you are delivery a 100% perfect product or service, it will be always a part of the service or a particular feature or a particular trait that your customers will be going to like the most.

This will also help you identify the features and aspects of your products and services which are not receiving much positive feedback despite being part of a very popular product or service. Such aspects can be further scrutinized and improved. So, no matter if it is positive feedback or negative feedback, it will go to help you in improving your products and services and in retaining your hard-earned customers.

See Also: 5 new techniques to collect customer feedback

Conclusion

In the UAE the competition is very high, the customers are very demanding and they have too many alternatives. In such an environment maintaining steady growth is a bit more difficult. More competition means higher quality, higher quality means higher expectations. The customers always expect the highest level of the quality of any product or service they are purchasing. Which makes it even more difficult to keep them happy. Customer feedback can help you by providing very precise first-hand data and business intelligence. Which could help the decision-makers to take actions to improve the product or service quality and to establish future strategies.

The customer feedback will also help you understand the current market trends and ever-changing demands of your customers. There are so many different methods to collect customer feedback, businesses can choose any one of them or a combination of multiple mediums and platform to collect feedback, the main objective is to get as much feedback as possible. To improve your customer experience, products and services and build a positive brand reputation. Which will not only help you retain your hard-earned customers but it will also help you gain more new customers.

No matter if the feedback is positive or negative, collected through the happiness meter to gathered from an online survey all types of feedbacks and all methods of customer feedback collection have their benefits and utilization. The data will help businesses to understand their customers better. The management can easily and confidently make decisions, plan strategies, to improve their customers’ experience. Which will not only help them retain their existing customers but eventually it will help them building up a good brand image and getting more new customers.

See Also: What are Benefits of Integration of HRMS with Self-service Kiosks?

See Also: Best Practices for Collecting and Analyzing Customer Feedback

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