From providing information to helping your customers make purchases more efficiently, kiosks can have numerous benefits for businesses of all types.
While most kiosk-related press focuses on the use of touchscreen kiosks in foodservice — by fast food chains, in particular — kiosks are becoming increasingly popular in the world of retail, by both big-box stores and smaller retail chains.
When used effectively, kiosks can help your customers shop more efficiently, increase the total amount spent by each customer in your store and produce a measurable return on investment in both the short and long term.
Have you considered using touchscreen kiosks as part of your retail business? Below, we’ve listed four ways that you can use retail kiosks to improve customer experience, free up your existing retail staff and run your retail business more successfully than ever before.
Use kiosks to answer “big” customer questions
One of the most effective ways to use interactive kiosks is to focus on answering “big” customer questions. These are questions that relate to categories of products (for example, bug sprays or diapers) rather than specific brands and models.
By focusing on answering big questions using interactive kiosks, you can quickly and efficiently guide customers towards specific areas of your retail store. Once they arrive at the right area, your staff can take over and lead them to the specific product they’re searching for.
This strategy improves efficiency and enhances the customer experience by letting your staff focus on answering specific questions and addressing specific needs, all while eliminating the simple issues that can easily be answered using a kiosk.
Add self-checkout kiosks to increase efficiency
In some retail environments, self-checkout kiosks can have a measurable positive effect on the speed at which customers can make purchases, all while helping you reduce staffing costs and use your existing employees more effectively.
Self-checkout kiosks are most effective for retail businesses that sell inexpensive items, such as supermarkets and grocery stores. Because customers can quickly scan and buy multiple items, there’s less of a need for you to maintain a large staffing team.
The end result is a smarter, more efficient business that speeds up shopping for customers and helps you improve your business’s margins by managing a smaller, more focused retail service and checkout staff team.
Install category kiosks in your big-box retail store
Do you run a large retail store with several sections? If so, installing sections for each section or category of goods is a great way to make navigating your store and finding specific products an easier process for your customers.
It’s far from uncommon for customers to get lost in a maze of aisles and product displays while searching for specific items. To improve navigation, try adding a kiosk with a list of products and their respective locations to each area of your store.
Coupled with an informational kiosk at the main entrance to your store, category kiosks can be extremely helpful for guiding customers around your store and allowing them to quickly locate specific products.
Speed up customer service using ticketing kiosks
If you run a large retail business, you’ll inevitably have customers returning goods, requesting help and approaching your service staff with a variety of concerns, questions and requests.
Ticketing kiosks are widely used in banking and utility businesses to sort customers into queues, allowing your team to provide better service. When used in retail, ticketing kiosks let you gain an extra level of control when your customers are queueing up to receive help.
From bill payments to returns, try adding touchscreen kiosks to your retail stores with a variety of options for customers. The orderly queueing makes managing the customer service side of your business easier than ever before, helping your team work as efficiently as possible.
