Article

Mobile and kiosks: One brand's touchpoint formula

Using mobile device and kiosk features, your brand can be integrated into nearly every phase of a consumer's day.

July 29, 2014

By Kristen Gramigna

Chief Marketing Officer, BluePay

It's estimated that consumers check their mobile devices as often as every six minutes, resulting in mobile engagement that takes place at least 150 times a day. Further, a customer's mobile device is often the first thing he or she checks in the morning, and the last thing he or she consults with at night. For brands that understand how to harness such engagement frequency to form a touchpoint strategy that leverages mobile use in tandem with kiosks, there is an opportunity to integrate your brand into nearly every phase of a consumer's day. Here a few ways to develop a touchpoint formula using the best features mobile devices and kiosks have to offer.

Context is critical.Building a strong brand in a multichannel society requires meeting customers at the various moments they experience in a day though a series of touchpoints, including predicting where they are and what they'll experience — before the customer "arrives." Understanding how to make your brand contextually relevant based on ever-changing "mobile moments" in the customer experience is key. Take, for example, travelers in an airport: They will havefrequently changing needs for a mobile appbased on the moment. On the way to the airport, travelers may be most concerned with security wait times and traffic patterns. During a layover, their attention may shift to nearby restaurants or entertainment options in the airport terminal. After landing, a mobile app may provide value to the extent it can simplify the process of securing bags or checking into a hotel. When your brand puts such context to use in a way that is relevant in mobile, kiosks can be similarly structured to deepen the touchpoint strategy, whether their purpose is to process currency exchange, offer off-site hotel check in or allow a traveler to secure transportation to a final destination.

Extend the integration of a location-based experience.With the introduction of mobile geolocation technology, mobile marketers can now use suggestive selling and relevant promotions to guide customers toward appropriate products based on movement in a storefront. Kiosks can enhance a brand's strategy by acting as a "breadcrumb" path that rounds out the touchpoint experience for the consumer, providing more relevant content through the kiosk than mobile devices allow — including the potential ability to interact with a store employee through the kiosk. Additionally, kiosks that work in tandem with a customer's mobile movement can be tailored to serve customers based on predicted points in their purchase cycle. For example, while a mobile message may promote a discount for an item a customer is trying on, a kiosklocated near a dressing roommay help customers find additional sizes or color selections of the item — and tell them exactly where to find it, based on their location. As a result, the mobile and kiosks form a symbiotic touchpoint strategy that personalizes customer experience.

Mobile wallets and smart retailing.ThoughPortio Researchdata predicts mobile transaction volume will exceed $1 trillion by 2016, consumers in the United States have been slower to adopt the technology than industry insiders anticipated — despite the fact that they tend to be open to the use of other types of technology, including kiosks. (For example, one survey of customers in the United Kingdom indicated that77 percent have used in-store kiosks at least oncefor browsing and ordering in-store.) Because of this comfort, kiosks and mobile payments may present the perfect opportunity to make consumers believe in the value-added convenience of using mobile payments. By integrating the benefits of both into a customer-facing touchpoint strategy, retailers can proactively educate consumers on the benefits of contactless payment, particularly by making tablet-based mobile kiosks "traveling" point-of-sale locations — even for consumers who don't have a wallet with them in the store. As this education produces more mobile wallet "adopters," kiosks and mobile wallets can become integrated touchpoints that make contactless purchases possible without any level of human involvement by way of "smart vending machines."

Establishing brand touchpoints into your customer's life is the key to deepening relationships, and positioning your brand as an integrated part of your customer's identity. By leveraging the highly targeted and personalized marketing opportunities mobile devices and kiosks offer, you can be exactly where your customers are to solidify your place in their purchase decision.

Kristen Gramigna is Chief Marketing Officer for BluePay, a mobile credit card processing firm offering merchant account services. She has more than 15 years' experience in the bankcard industry in direct sales, sales management, marketing and also serves on its board of directors. 

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