Article

Some old kiosk ideas get a second look

A few years ago, many kiosks were deployed ahead of their time.before the technology or the consumer was ready. Now that the hardware is better and cheaper and the public is more accepting, some abandoned concepts are being dusted off and tried again.

August 1, 2004 by

If you're like me, every time you let someone know you're involved with the kiosk industry, the conversation quickly turns to two or three great ideas for kiosks. The person usually says something like, "You know, you could use those things to provide information on (fill in the blank)" or "I bet you could use them to sell (fill in the blank)".

Having been in this business for some time, I've seen a lot of programs go through pilots and either become very successful relatively quickly or fail miserably after just a few months. So when someone tells me about their "New Idea," I usually follow up with, "Oh, a company in New Jersey tried that around 1995 and it wasn't well received", or "That idea has been very popular in Europe but not in the US".

I've always had a bias that just because something was tried and it failed, the idea isn't worth investigating again. But a few recent developments have made me question my bias.
Hilton Hotels launched a kiosk self-service check-in and check-out project seven years ago with the help of IBM and American Express. The bulky kiosks were "less than stellar," according to Robert Machen, Hilton vice-president of customer-facing technology. "Guests weren't really there (with the concept)," he said. "We like to say that we were ahead of our time."

But Hilton execs didn't let that one bad experience sour them on kiosks, and they are ready to try again. Machen said the second project is "part of a plan to make the company more competitive with other hotels and to meet expectations of customers who have grown used to self-service kiosks in retail and at airports".

Over the next year, 100 kiosks will make their way to 45 of Hilton's North American properties. The machines allow guests to check themselves in and out of the hotel, and provide a message system, weather and news information, and guest options to upgrade to executive-class rooms or take advantage of company promotions. Hilton boasts of giving each guest a warm and friendly welcome, but the company apparently believes they prefer speed over hospitality when it comes to checking in.

What's old is new again. ElectroCom Guard's QuikPost, circa 1994, reborn as the IBM Automated Postal Center.

A story from the Juneau Empire reports that customers who want to avoid the line at the Mendenhall (Alaska) post office can use a new automated kiosk to mail packages and letters, buy stamps and perform other functions, just as ATMs allow users to conduct multiple banking transactions. The Board of Governors approved funding to develop 2,500 of the kiosks, which are called Automated Postal Centers. Last year, the $80 million contract went to IBM. Even my post office in Rochester has one.

Reading the article and studying the unit in Rochester, I was reminded of a machine developed around 1994 for the postal service by ElectroCom Guard. The Guard unit was called the Quick Post, and while it looked different from the APC, it performed many of the same functions but also had a very complex re-circulating bill acceptor. Apparently, like Hilton Hotels, the USPS never gave up on the concept of deploying kiosks in its lobbies.

All these recycled ideas make me wonder what other abandoned kiosk programs merit review. As the cost of hardware needed to run a kiosk declines, and as the cost of the labor the kiosk replaces increases, many programs that were once great ideas but not economically viable may now be practical. And as hardware reliability has improved, a kiosk that was too expensive to maintain a few years ago may now be able to function economically.

Kiosks that were once too large to place now can be found in smaller packages that take up very little floor space. These are just a few reasons to think about programs that made sense when they were launched, but didn.t quite measure up for one reason or another.

So the next time a new acquaintance shares an idea, I'm going to have to think twice before telling him it's already been done.