Article

KiosksEurope day two delves into customer relationships

One viewpoint is that kiosks are not a marketplace, but a business application. The kiosk is one tool companies use in delivering services to customers.

February 4, 2004

Editor's note: This is the third in a series of articles covering KiosksEurope 2003. Warner is customer relations manager for Working Solutions. Working Solutions, which has been in business for 11 years, specializes in the human-machine interface.

DUBLIN, Ireland -- Day two of the kiosk event here last month kicked off with Robert Porter of the Euro Kiosk Network, who looked at how a quality organization should operate and deal with customers. This theme ran throughout the presentations.

Porter addressed the pillars of customer service, and how important it is for companies to internalize this concept.

Soft, hard issues

A following panel discussion featured players from the software, hardware and peripherals segments of the industry, and gave attendees an opportunity to ask questions about these areas.

The panel featured Paul Wardman of Devlin on the peripherals side; Dermott Butler of Key Technologies, a kiosk manufacturer; and Martin Harrison of Kudos, Tim Daw of Netshift and Dr. Matthew Wood of Kal -- all software providers.

The speakers tackled issues including the importance of selecting best-of-breed components, finding value in software, the view that software is critical to success, and management and measurement of kiosks via remote management.

One interesting viewpoint was that kiosks are not a marketplace, but a business application. The kiosk is but one tool for companies to use in delivering services to an individual customer.

The hardware discussion featured the fact that most related kiosk failures are caused by external factors such as plugs being removed or card readers jamming. That is why regular maintenance is vital to ensure continued success of a project.

Back to the Future(Store)

Show attendees got a look at Europe's FutureStore project and its use of informational kiosks.

The retail industry is undergoing radical change. A study showed the top three drivers for change include shopper demand for more service and information, difficulty sustaining brand identity and value proposition in mature and saturated markets, and rapid evolution and adoption of new technologies.

The FutureStore concept involves 40 partners across all aspects of store operations. Those affecting self-service technology include a smart loyalty and payment card, personal shopping assistants, intelligent scales, smart self-checkouts, in-store information points and digital media networks.

The project uses kiosks to provide in-store information at various points around the store and for specific departments. These units are color-coded by department, and allow customers to access product information, recipe ideas, suggestions and basic brand information. Data is centrally managed so both structured and unstructured data can be compared and used by the store.

Retail redux

Hansjorg Bausch of Kaufhof Warenhaus AG spoke about the implementation of kiosks at Kaufhof. The retailer has deployed more than 350 Wincor-Nixdorf kiosks in 150 stores. The kiosks administer multimedia applications including wedding registry, music listings and loyalty programs.

The kiosk program has a number of objectives, including:

Strengthening customer loyalty
• Creating added value
• Generating additional sales
• Supporting employees in-store
• Strengthening retail brands.

Bausch offered insight into Kaufhof's previous forays into kiosks, when the company deployed single units with multiple applications loaded.

He said customers had little recognition for the value of the kiosks and the lack of consistency in unit design lead to low usage figures. By dedicating individual kiosks to single applications, the usage figures are much higher, he said. The project has also won a 2003 award from the DMM.

Pack it up

Thomas Ogilvie of Deutsche Post Ag (DHL) talked about usage of self-service technology in the parcel-delivery market. He explained that kiosks can be used to solve business problems as long as the problems and issues have been clearly defined.

In describing DHL's use of the PACKstation, Ogilvie pointed to changes in the last mile of parcel delivery. Increased customer mobility, the increased use of mobile phones and the Internet, and changing work patterns have led customers to want new ways of tracking their shipments.

The PACKstation lets DHL touch customers 24/7 using self-service locations. With sites already underway and a predicted rollout to other areas in Germany next year, the PACKstation is already delivering value for money to DHL, as well as producing growth in the German direct mail/order industry, according to Ogilvie.

BT and `killer apps'

Andy Green of British Telecom gave a presentation on the BT Multimedia roll out and how this led BT into the kiosk industry as a major player. In fact, BT is more than a deployer of units. The provider is set to become a major supplier of kiosk technology to customers.

BT is using its Web phones to achieve the goal of becoming customers' first choice for location-based services on the move. The phones are also rejuvenating existing payphone real estate, providing online access to unconnected people, showing existing Internet users how they can get more out of the Internet, and offering communications channels that complement other fixed and mobile devices.

Green explored work done with London marketing.com to use the Webphones to promote tourism in London and provide access to services provided by londontown.com.

Green said BT is always looking for "killer applications," such as a Web camera system to allow people to send pictures and videos via e-mail.

ATM-kiosk convergence

Day two closed with a presentation from Dr. Matthew Wood, who looked at the ATM and kiosk convergence issue, as well as some of the projects with which KAL has been involved.

KAL has more than 11,000 deployments worldwide and over 75 different solutions. Examples include cash machines and cash appliances, check cashing, statement printing, bill payment and Web transactions.

Wood believes that the kiosk market is recovering and supports predictions of $150 million in sales in Europe in 2005.

Wood stressed that the kiosk industry can learn from the ATM business. The main message was that a kiosk needs to concentrate on a core objective and ensure that it performs tasks as well as it can - something ATMS do with cash.

Companies need to develop a clear business case, decide on the core purpose of the unit and how money will be made. They need to decide if the unit will be revenue generating or cost cutting. KAL focuses on transactional kiosks.

Wood said his company accepts the fact that the public still has concerns about using machines involving money payment. He said the main success factors are software, software and software. He noted that ATM software is robust, self-reliant, secure, remotely monitored and thoroughbred for its purpose. He also lauded the fact that ATM software vendors support specific standards.

[Editor's note: Info Touch Technologies became Tio Networks in April 2006.]