Kiosks are best known for providing self-service ordering and checkout options in retail and hospitality. But there’s an argument to say that the most common (or at least the most broadly applicable) use for kiosks is as information points. From airports to libraries, office complexes to hospitals, transport hubs to museums and other leisure attractions, [...]
It was Alan Turing, code-breaking war hero, computer science pioneer and all-around mathematical genius, who gave one of the earliest versions of the much-recycled “the machines are taking over” quote. It was during a pretty obscure lecture given in 1951 that Turing suggested that humanity would “at some stage… have to expect the machines to [...]
In our last blog, we tackled the issue of the high shrink rates being reported at supermarket self-checkout points, as customers supposedly take advantage of ‘weak’ security. Our perspective is that the weakness isn’t something inherent in the technology, but rather in the way it is being deployed, without the kind of checks appropriate to [...]
Ask people where they use self-service kiosks, the most common answer you will get is likely to be supermarket checkouts or fast food restaurants. Make a list of the top 10 answers, and we wouldn’t be surprised if they were all examples of indoor settings. But that doesn’t mean kiosks are for indoors only. In [...]
Self-service kiosks are having a transformational impact across customer-facing industries. Much of the buzz is focused on retail and the quick-service restaurant (QSR) sector. But that hardly scratches the surface of where kiosks are being used to reimagine the customer experience. Hotels, airports, cinemas, leisure attractions - you can also add more service-oriented sectors like [...]
Customer feedback has become a familiar feature of the digital world. Buy something online, visit a website, download an app, you’ll often be asked to leave a review or share whether you were satisfied with the experience (or otherwise). There’s good reason for this. According to Zendesk, online customer reviews influence 88% of consumer buying [...]
Are we heading towards a cashless economy? Certainly, when you look at the growth in digital payments over the past decade or so, you can understand why a lot of people believe cash will become obsolete. And sooner rather than later. In 2010, more than half of all payments made in the UK were in [...]
Self-service ordering points changed the face of the quick-service restaurant (QSR) sector. Now we could be on the verge of another revolution. And it’s all thanks to voice-recognition AI - the kind of technology that lets you control your Alexa or Google Home devices without a screen, just by the power of your voice alone. [...]
Self-service is part of the modern world we live in. Whether it’s scanning items at a supermarket self-checkout aisle, or browsing through an online knowledgebase to find out how to resolve an issue with a digital service, we’re all used to the ‘DIY’ approach these days. But what do we think of all this, really? [...]
No retailer expects every customer to be happy with every item they purchase. But a worrying rise in the number of returns is causing businesses all sorts of headaches. And with Christmas just around the corner, many retailers are bracing themselves for a post-festive season avalanche of returned gifts, posing considerable logistical challenges, adding unwanted [...]
