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Leveraging kiosk analytics to enhance customer experience

World-class customer experiences go beyond delivering the expected outcome. Analytics provide a way of monitoring data from all aspects of the use of the kiosk and adapting the software and total solution to continuously improve the customer experience.

August 7, 2015

By Buck Warren, president of Meridian.

When a company is beginning to consider the viability of deploying a self-service solution in any vertical, customer experience – also known as user experience – should always be the highest consideration. Whatever the solution, whether it is ticketing, bill payment, way finding, license renewal or something else, it is vital to understand that customer experience is directly impacted by whether or not a desired outcome has been achieved. This is true in any business or organizational transaction; but in the world of interactive self-service kiosk solutions, it is paramount.

Previously, Chris Gilder talked about three steps to delivering ROI with analytics, listing collection of data, reporting of the data and analytics; but once you have gone through the important task of mining the analysis, it is crucial that step be followed by actions that improve customer experience. Therefore, if the goal of mining analytical data is to ultimately improve and enhance customer experience, the data must correlate to a desired outcome. If a self-service kiosk is in place so that users can buy tickets, for instance, the data you are after should be related to the outcome of purchasing a ticket. It is safe to assume that a customer’s experience is not good if an outcome is not achieved.  

World-class customer experiences go beyond delivering the expected outcome. A great self-service experience saves time, provides an intuitive user interface and truly engages the person using the kiosk. Analytics provide a way of monitoring data from all aspects of the use of the kiosk and adapting the software and total solution to continuously improve the customer experience.

At any business, the customer’s experience should be just as important as an end user’s experience. In other words, when collaborating with a prospective client, you should work hard to ensure that those who eventually use a self-service kiosk will have a top-tier experience. This creates a virtuous circle where the end user is happy, the deployer is happy and we are happy. Analytics is one of the most important tools to ensure that decisions to enhance customer service aren’t guesses made out of whimsy, but instead are data driven decisions based on valid information gathered during any given self-service transaction.

Great customer experience starts with achieving outcomes. Those outcomes have to be understood and then measured. Then, when something isn’t quite right, that analytical knowledge can be leveraged to change the customer experience for the better.

We will dig deeper into kiosk analytics next time as we explore data beyond the user with the use of video.

Buck Warren has worked for 20 years in the enterprise software and information technology industries. Prior to joining Meridian, he worked at CA Technologies where he held a variety of senior leadership titles.