Blog

I've got my eyes on you, kiosk: analytics and location

When it comes to analytics, you also have to consider the critical topic of location. You need to follow your customer's footsteps to deliver a truly successful kiosk deployment.

October 5, 2015 by Chris Gilder — Founder/CEO, Meridian

As we shared recently, visual analytics provide powerful insights into user engagement and targeting of more relevant messaging to improve customer experience and results for companies.  

In this post, we will make the connection to how robust analytics provide insights into the initial location placement, achieving successful results and even the potential need to move the kiosk to optimize service and results. The three topic areas we will cover follow:

• Initial Location: go where the traffic is … follow the footsteps
• Counts, demographics and better targeting: visual analytics and adaptive messaging
• Tales from the field: when analytics can tell you when and why to move your kiosk

The initial location of your kiosk can be pretty straightforward– and you should have a solid baseline of success - if you follow the location principle of placing the kiosk or digital signage where the largest number of people, including your target audience will pass by or congregate.

Existing internal data can inform decisions on where to place kiosks in stores, businesses, common areas in a public location etc. If you do not have that information, a self-service solution provider armed with best practices and analytics from a large number of deployments should be able to provide guidance on initial kiosk placement.  Then the usage and real fun begins …

There is power in knowing the proximity, demographics and counts of people in the area of the kiosk. Traffic and engagement patterns also vary by time of day. The adaptive learning of the visual and user touch analytics take all these factors and more into account and allow for more targeted messages to the kiosk users. More relevant ads and messaging result and lead to a better experience, higher conversions and better ROI.

The initial location of your kiosk may always be ideal and deliver great services for your customers and meet your business objectives. Armed with data and visual analytics, companies can test locations and positions, such as at store entrances to capture store counts including demographics and maximize kiosk value. BUT unexpected challenges may arise … stuff happens.

Have you ever had your kiosk moved or blocked by events or construction temporarily or for longer periods of time? If your kiosk was strategically placed in an ideal location and then unexpectedly moved or obstructed, your traffic and engagement results can drop dramatically and you'd be flying blind. And you would potentially draw the wrong conclusion if you rely only on a "spreadsheet" view. In addition to remote monitoring and management software, you would ideally be able to see what was causing the drop in results using camera / visual analytics.

Direct General Auto Insurance experienced such an unexpected set of circumstances. After successfully locating its innovative and industry-disrupting policy quote /approval / payment kiosks in an ideal mall location with results that exceeded expectations, Direct Auto saw a significant, sudden and mysterious drop in traffic – both general audience and engaged users. The company was able to detect the problem analytics software, equipped with camera analytics.

What did happen? Someone at the mall had simply moved the kiosk in order to create a car display area, and worse yet they had pushed the kiosk to a spot facing a wall - adding insult to the injury. The Direct Auto team saw this and immediately dispatched team members to move the kiosk back to an ideal, customer-facing location. This was critical in quickly reacting and preserving maximum advertising impressions, customer use, quotes and sales.

Targeted and easily customized ads … remote monitoring and management … robust analytics that should include visual insights … help you take location, location, location to an even higher level of relevance and results. Make sure you incorporate all of those capabilities so you can experience these best practices while delivering great customer experiences.

About Chris Gilder

---

Chris Gilder, CEO and founder of Meridian Kiosks, brings more than 20 years of entrepreneurial successes to the senior management team. Meridian has been recognized as a leader in the self-service kiosk industry and an innovator with the development of the Self Service Technology Center in partnership with Intel, HP, Microsoft, Zebra Technologies and Storm.

Connect with Chris: