These days business in Dubai and all around the UAE are adopting interactive kiosks to provide better experience to their customers. The customers also prefer to have a digital interaction rather visiting the business or organization to get a service done. Whether you are operating in service based industry, retail sector, healthcare sector or any other business sector the interactive kiosk can add value to your customer’s experience and journey. On top of that the interactive kiosks are built on a very flexible platform which enables the businesses to customize the kiosk as per their needs. Thanks to the huge investments in R&D by the multinational manufacturers the interactive kiosk industry have witnessed rapid expansion, growth and innovation in past few years. There are tons of hardware and software accessories available to integrate with interactive kiosks which enable the businesses to offer their services in a very innovative and most convenient way.
What is an Interactive Kiosk?
By definition an interactive kiosk is a computer based work station or a computer terminal that is set up in a public areas. The interactive kiosk is designed to achieve certain tasks and is made available for a large amount of users. Businesses install interactive kiosks for their customers and/or general public at public places where anyone can get easy access. However different industries utilize these interactive kiosks completely differently. Basically the interactive kiosk is a combination of the software and hardware, similar to an ordinary computer the interactive kiosk has a software running on a computing machine along with some hardware peripherals which are designed to obtain certain functionalities and features.
The main objective of having an interactive kiosk is to provide a public computer terminal which can deliver information and allow transactions. However, these days different industries are utilizing this remarkable machine in different ways to facilitate their customers and visitors. The most common example of an interactive kiosk is ATM Machine. The ATM machines provide information to the user and also enable them to make transactions, basically it is an extension of a bank counter.
See Also: Modern Technologies to Make Your Exhibition Booth Stand Out
Any self-service interactive kiosks requires a strong software along with its all hardware. The software synchronizes all the information between the kiosk and other relevant systems and central information center. The kiosk’s user interface will allow the user to perform certain tasks independently without requiring any help from the staff. Thus the self-service interactive kiosks can operate 24/7 and offer instant service delivery. Which is a great advantage and it significantly enhances the user experience. The self-service interactive kiosk software comes with an administrative control panel which enables the businesses to manage and control the information and functions of the kiosks and also provide them a deep insight of the system and customer interaction via in-built business intelligence collection modules.
What are the Popular Types of Interactive Kiosks in Dubai, UAE?
If you are living in Dubai or any part of UAE you will be familiar with interactive kiosks, whether you go to malls, do you phone top-ups, at a bank, a customer service office, retail stores, airports, medical facilities and hospitals, government offices, etc. The interactive kiosks have been integrated deeply in our society. Businesses are utilizing them for a variety of purposes. The competition is very high, the customers have too many options, if a business fails to satisfy them they will immediately switch to others. The interactive kiosks are helping business in building stronger relationships with their customers as well.
Here are some basic and most popular types of interactive kiosks:
1. Self-Service Payment Interactive Kiosks
As the name suggest the self-service payment interactive kiosks are used to do transactions. These types of kiosks can be used at any place where a customer is required to payments. The most widely used example of self-service payment interactive kiosk is the mobile top-ups kiosk, which offer users to top-up their mobile phones using an interactive touch screen interface. The users can make a variety of transaction from these kiosks, such as paying utility bills, paying for overseas and a lot more. The self-service payment interactive kiosks are also used for other applications in public places, government offices, businesses and much more. All businesses who are serving consumers or are operating at B2C business model can utilize the self-service payment interactive kiosks. The term payment interactive kiosks or payment kiosks is a very generic terminology, and it can be used for a variety of different types of the kiosks which are allowing the users to make payments through their interactive user interface.
2. Self-Service POS Interactive Kiosk
The self-service POS interactive kiosks are the kiosk used for POS or Point of Sales. The kiosks are mainly used by the retail sector. Instead of adding more counters the businesses can deploy self-service POS kiosks. The POS Interactive Self-service Terminals or POS Interactive kiosks can offer a variety of services and functionalities. Similar to any counter at a super store, grocery store or any other retail outlet the self-service POS interactive kiosk can also provide the entire check-out functionalities. The customer can check-out without standing in lines. The kiosk have in-built peripherals and hardware accessories such as Barcode Scanner and/or QR Code Scanners, weight scale, RFID, Cash or Credit/Debit Card acceptors etc. These hardware accessories accommodate the self-checkout process. The customer don’t have to wait in long lines, in addition to that the customer have more freedom and flexibility which enhances their experiences. Businesses on the other hand can have a very cost-efficient expansion solution with very low running and maintenance cost which increase their profitability.
3. Self-Service Queue System Interactive Kiosks
The queue management system is a great tool to transform the customer journey and customer experience. The self-service interactive kiosks are an essential part of a modern day queue management system. The customers can easily sign-up from the interactive kiosk. The self-service queue system interactive kiosk also provide additional information to the customers and allow them to choose for the right queue which saves a lot of time. The kiosks can also be used for more functionalities to facilitate the queuing and service delivery processes. For example, business can identify the customers using special functionalities of the self-service queue system interactive kiosk. Businesses can also enables the online payment during the sign-up process as per their requirements. The businesses can also use the touch interface for online registration and form submission, etc. and many more functionalities. The self-service queue system interactive kiosk can be customized too to accommodate certain business processes and to offer users with unconventional functionalities.
4. Self-Service Sign-Up Interactive Kiosks
The self-service sign-up interactive kiosks are usually slightly larger with medium size touch screen display and very common for exhibitions, events, seminars, etc. sign-up and registration processes. The self-service sign-up interactive kiosks have a very simple user interface and some basic hardware accessories which enables the user to sign-up and register by filling in the forms and providing all information through the interactive kiosk. The users can fill-in registration forms, they can scan their Emirates ID card, Passport or any other additional document which is required for the sign-up process. Some businesses also charge registration fee which can also be paid through the kiosk either by integration of the cash acceptor or any other digital payment gateway such as bank POS (for credit/debit cards), digital payment methods and pre-paid cards. For medium and large sized venues the registration and sign-up is a difficult task, it requires the visitors to stand in long queues and businesses would also have to deploy additional staff for the process. However with the self-service sign-up interactive kiosks the visitors and guests can do the registration and sign-up independently and fairly quickly. Which not only make customer experience better but also save a lot of cost of commissioning extra employees.
5. Self-Service Food Ordering Interactive Kiosks
These days almost all popular fast food services in UAE and popular restaurants are offering self-service food ordering interactive kiosks. Studies have shown that it not only increases the sale but it greatly improves the customer experience too. Most of the time during the lunch breaks or dinner times the food courts, fast food restaurants and such businesses are always full. Adding more counters or expanding the physical space could be very expensive and in some cases might not be possible at all. In such cases placing self-service food ordering interactive kiosks not only help the business to accommodate more customers but it also reduce the customer churn rate. Moreover the trends since past few years have shown us that the customers who are ordering from a self-service interactive kiosk are tend to place bigger orders. The business can also suggest additional items during the purchase process which could also encourage the customers to add more to their order. The self-service food ordering interactive kiosks have great ROI and can easily increase the business’s profitability and revenue.
6. Self-Service Hotel Reception Interactive Kiosk
The self-service hotel reception interactive kiosks are widely used in hospitality industry worldwide and are also gaining popularity in Dubai and all across the UAE since past few years. For hospitality and hoteling industry the main concern is the customer experience and customer satisfaction. The customers don’t like to wait at the reception, instead they want to get served instantly. Similarly for the checkout process the customers want to do it as quickly as possible. The self-service hotel reception interactive kiosks enables the customer/guests to check-in and check-out without any wait time or without any help from the staff. The customer can easily identify themselves by inputting their booking number or any other method of identification can also be used. The self-service hotel reception interactive kiosk can also offer additional features such as passport scan and/or document scan, barcode/QR code scanning, etc. Such features can be used to enhance to facilitate the check-in and check-out process. The software is also capable of integrating with hotel management ERP or PMS (property management system) or any other third party tool via secure web services to ensure the data synchronization and data sharing between the central information center and all other relevant systems.
7. Self-Service Car Rental Interactive Kiosk
The car rental, limousine and taxi services are widely adopting to self-service car rental interactive kiosks. The main reason is to provide the customer a better experience and instant service delivery. The self-service car rental interactive kiosks also provide a business a chance to expand quickly at lower costs. The interactive kiosk based solutions also enables the businesses to reach out to the markets and locations where they can’t establish a full branch, or where they don’t want to setup a branch. For example for car rental, taxi and limousine service providers opening up a booth or acquiring a small commercial space could be very expensive and it also requires full-time employees which further increase the initial and running cost. However the self-service car rental interactive kiosk can be placed at airports, shopping malls, universities, collages, schools, public places, bus stations and such places. The kiosk doesn’t take much space and its running and maintenance cost is also very low. This provide the business a chance to easily acquire new customers and allow them a presence in unexplored markets. The self-service car rental interactive kiosk can be equipped with online and digital payments as well as cash and other hardware peripherals can also be integrated to meet the needs of registration and/or booking.
8. Self-Service Student Enrollment Interactive Kiosks
The self-service student enrollment interactive kiosks are used by the universities, collages, schools and other educational institutions. The main objective is to provide the students and parents a quicker service delivery with the basic student enrollment, admission and information related tasks. Usually for such tasks there are long queues and crowd forms which is not only difficult for the visitors but is also hard to manage for the staff. Especially the students who need to enroll for the semesters or need any other information from the admission department or want to print transcripts or reports, etc. can come directly to the self-service student enrollment interactive kiosk and avail the service and information. The online payment facility can also be integrated in the kiosk to facilitate the fee submission. Moreover the students and parents can also perform other tasks and avail services which are offered by the institution. The self-service student enrollment interactive kiosks are a great tool to enhance user experience. The educational institutions can also save a lot of cost of additional employees and resources by these kiosks.
Read More: What are the best devices to be used for Customer Feedback?
9. Self-Service HR Interactive Kiosks
Self-service HR interactive kiosks are very useful for the HR purposes. The kiosk is fully integrated with the HRMS (Human Resource Management System) and it can offer a variety of HR services through the interactive touch screen based user interface. The businesses can utilize the self-service HR interactive kiosks to boost the efficiency of the HR department and to improve the employee experience. The self-service HR interactive kiosks can offer excellent employee experience, convenience and a huge cost cut in the HR expenses. The digitalization of the HR services eliminates the need of manual work which requires a lot of human resource as well as other resources. The digitalization also make the entire system agile and very accurate, it almost eliminates the human errors and paper work. The businesses can offer HR services for 24/7 at the most convenient location for the employees. Especially the employee who work off-desk and at remote sites can utilize the self-service HR interactive kiosk to get easy access to the HR services. The HR department can focus more on their primary tasks and be very helpful in improving the performance and operational capabilities of the entire business.
Read More: Shifting of business process on interactive kiosk Dubai
10. Self-Service Information Interactive Kiosk
The self-service information kiosks are usually a medium sized interactive signage. The touch screen allows the user to explore and surf through the available information. These kiosks are very popular in the retail and service sectors. The businesses can provide instant access to well-organized information which are useful for the customers. Usually such kiosks are placed at the entrances or in the waiting areas where customers and visitors can acquire relevant information. The kiosks are also very helpful in improving the customer experience. For example a business is offering eight different services, each service required a different registration process. The registration process require certain information, if the business start providing the information through their information centers which usually have limited number of agents/server, the customer will have to wait for a long time to access the required information. And if the customers wait in the long queues to reach to the service counter and then they are being told that they are missing some documents or some information which are mandatory for the registration process it will completely ruin their experience. That is why the information kiosks are widely used in Dubai and all around the UAE.
Read More: List of Customized Interactive Kiosks Designed by RSI Concepts
11. Self-Service Way Finding Interactive Kiosks
The self-service way finding interactive kiosks are commonly used at facilities with large spaces and multiple levels. Especially in shopping malls and big offices and customer service centers where a different customers are being served at different locations or a single service delivery require a customers to walk through the large indoor space. The self-service way finding interactive kiosks are also very common for outdoor locations and venues such as parks, exhibitions and fairs, etc. The way finding kiosk can provide a variety of information along with the navigation and other useful information. The shopping malls intensively used these types of kiosks for advertisements and marketing purposes. Whenever a user reached to the self-service way finding interactive kiosks they see a 2D or 3D map of the facility and a pointer points out their location. They can also search for their destination and can check various routes to reach there. For example in case of a shopping mall the self-service way finding interactive kiosk can also provide the contact details of the shop or outlet the user wants to find. The malls can also advertise offers by their tenants and other marketing materials. The self-service way finding interactive kiosk can be great marketing tool along with assisting the visitors and improving their experience.
See Also: What is wayfinding software and why is it important?
Read More: Why Interactive Self-service Kiosks are the Ultimate Customer Experience Transformation Tool?
12. Self-Service Customized Interactive Kiosks
The self-service customized interactive kiosks are tailor-made to serve particular purpose. For example a business wants to offer a particular service or functionality which is not available in the regular types they can customize the self-service interactive kiosk to achieve their required functionalities. Each business is different from the other and have distinct approach and methodologies. Sometimes these distinguishing features make the business successful. Hence the business will have to maintain these certain traits throughout their all communication channels and mediums. For such scenarios the customized self-service interactive kiosks can offer a great efficiency and accuracy. The businesses can not only customize the hardware but the software too. The user interface and each and every functionality can be customized to offer the same unique customer experience associated with the brand. The unified customer experience on all communication channels makes customer interaction easier and it also build trust. There are tons of hardware and software accessories which can be integrated to achieve superior customer experience and ultimate operational efficiency of the self-service interactive kiosk.
Read More: 10 Useful Features of Interactive Kiosks
Conclusion
The interactive kiosks are a digital computing machine with ability to interact with its users. This is also known as self-service. The self-service interactive kiosks are based on two major components the software and the hardware. The hardware includes a touch screen and some other peripherals and the software is the computer program which provides a user interface where user can perform certain tasks and the backend or administrative control panel for the administration purposes. The self-service interactive kiosks are widely used in all sectors in Dubai and all around the UAE. They are easy to develop, cost-efficient and require very low maintenance. The businesses are commissioning the interactive kiosk based solution for two major reasons one is customer experience and customer satisfaction and the other is quick and low-cost expansion. There are so many different types of self-service interactive kiosks available in the market, the most popular in Dubai and all around the UAE are listed above. Moreover the leading interactive kiosk vendors in Dubai such as RSI Concepts offers a fully customizable solution to further maximize the efficiency of the system and to offer unconventional features. If you need more help or want to implement a self-service interactive kiosk solution feel free to reach us out through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.
Check out this: Cons of Manual/Handwritten Customer Feedback