The business landscape is becoming increasingly digital, the digital and IT solutions are dominating while interactive self-service kiosk solutions are the center point of the digital revolution. Furthermore the customers are getting extremely comfortable with mobile payments. The rise of e-Commerce and online payments is the evidence of digital dominance. Businesses located in Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and other regions of UAE knows very well that the competition is rising and it is becoming more easier and convenient to switch your service provider rather than complaining them and sticking to them until they fix the problem. This demands an out-of-the box approach to build service delivery mechanisms which are not only digital but quick and convenient. The convenience is the key to customer experience, and the customer experience is a key factor that contributes to business’s success.
Waiting in long queues, dealing with a tired and demotivated service agent could be a crucial pain point for your customers. This doesn’t mean you need more service counters, in fact you can prevent this by simply adding a few interactive self-service kiosks at your service centers. The self-service payment kiosks turns out to be the ideal solution to not only elevate customer experience but these technological marvels are proven to be a powerful catalyst to boost your operational efficiency. However, infusing the convenience of the mobile and the efficiency of the interactive self-service payment kiosk, businesses can greatly enhance customer experience at the same time boosting their operational efficiency by many folds. In this blog we will discuss how businesses can leverage the true potential of the interactive self-service kiosks by integrating them with the mobile payment options.
The Integration of Mobile Payment Options in Kiosk Systems
What is a Payment Kiosk and How Does it Works?
A payment kiosk is simply an interactive self-service kiosk with additional features to enable users to make payment either via cash, credit/debit card or via any other digital payment system, such as mobile payment options. It is a computer terminal running on standard operating systems configured to run the kiosk management application. The kiosk management application offers an interactive and intuitive user interface which allow customers to easily make payments or perform the desired task by simply following the on-screen prompts and in-built guides. Now a day’s these interactive self-service payment kiosks are popping everywhere all around the UAE, from retail stores and educational institutes to government offices, healthcare facilities and even at the airports and other mass transit stations.
See Also: What Is a Self-Service Payment Kiosk? Unveiling the Future of Transactions
A typical interactive self-service payment kiosk offers an interactive touchscreen, a bill scanner and printer, a cash acceptor, and an integrated POS. With user-friendly multi-lingual user interfaces, on-screen prompts and quicker service delivery mechanisms made the payment kiosk ideal for self-service experience.
Here is an example of interactive self-service payment kiosk operation and workflow:
- Service Selection: The users start with selecting the service or transaction, for example, bill payment, service subscription, fees, or any other payment. The menu will show all available options, which user can chose from.
- Follow On-Screen Prompts: The users can follow the on-screen prompts and instructions which will guide them through the payment process. Based upon the selection of transaction the payment process could be different.
- Checkout or Payment Process: Once the user completed the process which usually takes 2 to 3 minutes, the final step is to make the payment. The users can deposit cash or make payment through their credit/debit card. The online payment gateways and mobile-based digital payments are also common.
Sometimes the system might require to authenticate or ID the user at the bingeing. The user identification and authentication can be done via login, scanning of ID card, Emirates ID, and Passport, SMS or any other preferred medium.
See Also: The Evolution of Payment Kiosk from Cash to Digital
What is a Payment Kiosk and How Does it Works?
What is Mobile Payment and Why Integrate It with Payment Kiosk?
The mobile payments are gaining popularity since past few years, enabling users to make payment very conveniently via their smartphone and other mobile devices. This gives the rise to the services such as Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay and various other services. Moreover with the advancement of the technology and security features the mobile devices has become more secure and feature-rich, this enable customers to pay with more convenience and ease. Furthermore now a days’ banks are also offering features to enable customers to download their Credit/Debit cards in their smartphones which enable them to even user their phone in place of their Credit/Debit cards via NFC (near field communication) technology.
The traditional payment methods such as cards and cash are still widely used, however, here are some key advantages of the mobile payment which makes it ideal to integrate with your interactive self-service payment kiosk:
- More Convenience: Sometimes keeping the cash in the wallet could be problematic, people tend to forget how much cash they have or even their credit card pin code. However, the mobile payment enable users to seamlessly make transactions with instant one-touch operation.
- Elevated Security: The mobile payments are much more secure, the mobile devices store payment information in wallet using multiple layers of security, tokenization and encryption technologies however, the cash and cards are prone to theft and can be lost.
- Faster and Quicker Transactions: Forget about swiping your card, inputting keys, or carrying cash. The mobile payments offer one-touch operation which is lightning fast and enabling quicker transaction and preventing waiting queues at the kiosk.
- Business Intelligence Data: Businesses can collect valuable business intelligence data through interactive self-service payment kiosk and the mobile payment features. Data such as purchase habits, preferred payment mode and customer details help taking informed decisions.
See Also: How Can Businesses Benefit From Self-Service Payment Kiosks?
What is Mobile Payment and Why Integrate It with Payment Kiosk?
The mobile payment methods are simple to integrate and offer highest level of security. Here is how it works with interactive self-service payment kiosk:
- Near Field Communication (NFC): The NFC is one of the most modern technology, it enable two digital devices to communicate when placed in closed proximity. The payment kiosk with NFC allow users to tap their smartphone or NFC-enabled credit/debit card at a designated spot to make the payment.
- QR Code Scanning: The QR Codes are an excellent way to optimize workflows and business processes. The interactive self-service payment kiosk can show a specialized QR Code on the screen which lead users to the online payment gateway page or it can also direct them to their digital wallet payment page to quickly make the payment.
- Digital Payment Methods: The digital payment methods or mobile wallets such as Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay, etc. are the most commonly used methods to make the payments. These can be used with QR Code or directly at the interactive self-service payment kiosk which has contact-less payment enabled.
These digital payment methods enable users to quickly and effortlessly make payments at the interactive self-service payment kiosk.
See Also: Analyzing the Impact of Payment Kiosks on Consumer Behavior
Near Field Communication (NFC), QR Code and Digital Payments
Benefits of Integrating Mobile Payment Options in Kiosk Systems
The digital experience is crucial for business success in this modern day and age. Businesses who failed to upgrade as per current market trends tend to lose their loyal customer base. Integrating mobile payment options with interactive self-service payment kiosks offers various benefits for both customers and businesses as well.
For Customers:
- Quicker Service Deliver: The mobile payment integration can significantly expedite the transactions, minimizing the wait time for the customers in queue at the payment kiosk.
- Contact-less Payment: Considering the increasing health-concerns, the contact-less payments can offer a piece of mind to your customers who are more health-conscious.
- Improved Security: The mobile payment methods offer better and improved security comparing to traditional cash handling or taking a risk to expose credit/debit card information.
- Loyalty Program Integration: The digital wallets and popular mobile payment service providers allow integrating loyalty program which enable customers to redeem loyalty points directly at the interactive self-service payment kiosk while making the payments.
For Businesses:
- Reduced Operational Cost: The mobile payment options with the payment kiosk systems prevent the need of handling cash and associated cost for security and other relevant operational needs which can greatly reduce the overall operational cost.
- Quicker Service Delivery: The interactive self-service payment kiosk are a great way to enhance and improve customer experience. The seamless payment via mobile payment options can greatly reduce customer efforts ensuring quicker service delivery.
- Catering to Customer Needs: The contactless payments and digital customer experience are gaining huge popularity since past few years and are a great way to cater to customers who prefer contact-less, cash-less and digital payment methods.
- Business Intelligence Data: Businesses can collect valuable business intelligence data which can help them understand customer behavior, their purchase habits, trends and other valuable analytical data which help taking informed and data-driven decisions.
The integration of mobile payment options is not only effective in offering convenience and elevated customer experience but it also offer a multitude of benefits for the businesses and help them overcoming various challenges which are commonly associated with traditional payment methods.
See Also: How to Choose a Right Self-Service Payment Kiosk for your Business?
Benefits of Integrating Mobile Payment Options in Kiosk Systems
How to Ensure Highest Security of Payment Kiosk Systems with Mobile Payment Options?
Both the customers and the businesses are well aware of the increasing security concerns hence ensuring the highest level of security is essential to build trust and to sustain business reputation in the long term. Here are some key aspects to consider while integrating the mobile payment options with the interactive self-service payment kiosk systems:
For Customers:
- Choose Only Reputable Apps: It is crucial to ensure you are downloading the mobile wallet from a reputable service provider and from their official website or app store.
- Enable Available Device Security: Utilize the in-built security features with your digital wallet such as fingerprint scanner, facial recognition, or two factor authentication.
- Closely Monitor Transactions: The digital wallets users must closely monitor their transaction history to be able to identify any suspicious activity.
- Promptly Report Issues and Concerns: It is important to quickly report any unauthorized transaction or over-charged transaction to wallet service provider, bank and authorities.
For Businesses:
- Security Compliance: It is crucial to ensure your kiosk management system, software, server application and integrated applications are fully compliance with security standards dictated by the industry or the local authorities.
- Biometrics Authentication: The biometric authentication is a very convenient and most secure way to authenticate or identify your customers. Using fingerprint scanners, IRIS scanners and Facial Recognition can significantly boost the security.
- Physical Security Features: Adding physical security features such as strong kiosk frame, preventive measures for skimming devices, CCTV security system monitoring and anti-theft and anti-vandalism features can greatly improve the security.
- Up-to-date Application and Software Stack: It is extremely important to ensure you are using up-to-date software stack and ensure your software, operating system, firewalls and other protective applications are always up-to-date.
Ensuring the highest level of security and protection is crucial to gain customer’s trust. Even one slight breach in the customer data or payment management system could have catastrophic impact on your business reputation and could easily repel your customers.
See Also: How Payment Kiosks and Secure Transactions are Improving Customer Experience
How to Ensure Highest Security of Payment Kiosk Systems with Mobile Payment Options?
Conclusion
The integration of mobile payment options in the interactive self-service payment kiosk system can greatly enhance customer experience and it also offer great many benefits for the business as well. Businesses can effectively streamline their operations and workflows to minimize the customer wait time while enhancing customer experience and reducing the customer efforts. The digital payments options and interactive self-service payment kiosks also help businesses collect valuable business intelligence data which helps management taking informed decisions. Deploying the interactive self-service payment kiosk at the customer service centers can greatly optimize the operational efficiency while catering to the customers’ need who prefer self-service instead of traditional service methods.
In this modern business landscape where the competition is very high and the customers tend to switch easily even after a single negative experience, it is crucial to ensure your customers have satisfactory experience every time they interact with your interactive self-service kiosk systems. Businesses from all industry sectors are adopting to customized payment kiosks to offer superior customer experience and to boost operational efficiency. It is also a great tool to optimize cost and can be great way to reach out to the extended audience as well.
In this blog we have discussed how mobile payment options can be integrated with the self-service payment kiosk systems. If you want to learn more about the subject or if you want our help to build and deploy a customized self-service payment kiosk with integrated mobile payment options, please feel free to contact us through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.