Retailers and businesses across a diverse range of sectors with a range of applications continue to adopt self-service kiosks. While many self-service kiosks are designed and manufactured to suit indoor applications, an increasing number are being developed to cater to outdoor applications. The rise of outdoor interactive kiosks and outdoor information kiosks is significant, and they are not limited by space considerations as much as their indoor counterparts are. Therefore, there is an opportunity to deliver exceptional and innovative user experiences using outdoor interactive kiosks. Outdoor kiosks offer greater design flexibility and feature large touchscreens, which are well suited to delivering customer-focused information, ordering and payment solutions outdoors.
Since outdoor kiosks were first launched, hardware technology has advanced significantly. These technological advances have resulted in notable improvements to weatherproofing, touchscreen visibility, LED lighting, and the serviceability of outdoor interactive kiosks. This has increased the range of applications for outdoor kiosks and improved the viability of outdoor-based self-service solutions. Adopting outdoor kiosks has proved to be particularly successful for quick service restaurants (QSRs), including drive-throughs, petrol stations, theme parks, zoos, stadiums, travel hubs and shopping centres. Their ability to facilitate the delivery of exceptional self-service experiences for customers is proven and continues to fuel their popularity.
While many significant benefits are associated with adopting outdoor interactive kiosks as a self-service solution, outdoor self-service solutions do present some challenges. First and foremost, they need to be significantly more durable and able to withstand and operate in various weather conditions. In this article, we explore the key benefits of adopting outdoor interactive kiosks and review some of the challenges your business will likely encounter in delivering outdoor self-service solutions.
BENEFITS OF ADOPTING OUTDOOR INTERACTIVE KIOSKS
Adopting outdoor interactive kiosks can bring a wide range of benefits to your business and the customers that you serve. They are an effective solution for delivering exceptional self-service experiences outdoors, which provides a valuable opportunity to serve customers in new ways that are not feasible with indoor kiosks.
Discover how adopting outdoor interactive kiosks can help your business enhance the customer experience, increase sales with up-selling & cross-selling, deliver efficiency improvements, improve customer engagement and empower your customers to interact in their own way. Whichever application you adopt outdoor kiosks for, whether for pre-ordering, ordering, paying or information, you will be well placed to make the most of their many benefits by choosing the ESSENCE Outdoor kiosk.
ENHANCE THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
Every business wants to deliver an exceptional customer experience, and self-service solutions are a great way to do so. Enhanced customer experiences will help you delight your customers, earn their loyalty, and increase sales and profitability. Where traditional self-service kiosks are restricted to indoor settings, outdoor interactive kiosks are specifically designed with the durability and weatherproofing required to operate outdoors.
Being able to deliver a self-service experience can significantly enhance the customer experience. Firstly, it helps you provide 24/7 self-service, or self-service outside of your standard opening hours, as you do not necessarily require a building to be unlocked and staffed to operate. Imagine the increases in sales and profitability that can be achieved by extending your opening hours and using outdoor kiosks that can operate independently with minimal or no staffing requirements. This is especially significant for QSRs, petrol stations, and travel hubs that need services outside standard opening hours.
Outdoor kiosks are also well-placed to help your business deliver a fast, efficient, and streamlined experience. The combination of reliable, well-designed hardware and intelligent software delights every customer with a fast and hassle-free self-service solution. Adopting outdoor interactive kiosks can help reduce queues, increase customer throughput, and deliver a more efficient self-service process. This can help your business serve more customers in less time while maintaining a high-quality service.
INCREASE SALES WITH UP-SELLING & CROSS-SELLING
Increasing sales is critical to your business’s success and profitability. Intelligent outdoor kiosks offer almost endless opportunities to reliably increase sales and boost average order values in every customer interaction. Outdoor kiosks can be configured to provide personalised up-sell or cross-sell offers based on customer preferences or pre-set rules. This additional level of personalisation can increase the success rate of up-selling and cross-selling in customer transactions. Research indicates that kiosks can encourage customers to spend between 20-30% more on average, which can lead to a significant increase in sales, especially across multiple kiosks. Notable success has been achieved by QSRs that adopt interactive kiosks, with other retailers also making significant gains from the technology.
Up-selling is a proven way to increase sales and average order values and provide extra value to customers. Modern outdoor interactive kiosks effortlessly present customers with add-on options and upgrades during the checkout and payment process. They can even draw on customer data, including personal preferences, order history and sales data, to determine which up-sells are most likely to resonate with a given customer. QSRs can use kiosks in an outdoor setting to simplify the self-ordering process and present product up-sells on-screen for customers to choose from. This ensures that valuable up-selling opportunities are not missed despite the outdoor location of the kiosks. Fast food restaurants can use up-selling to promote larger drink upgrades and more premium meal options, whereas a theme park could use up-selling to sell multi-day or annual pass ticket upgrades to keen thrill seekers.
Outdoor interactive kiosks are particularly adept at cross-selling as intelligent technology can present relevant cross-sell opportunities to customers based on their personal preferences, customer insights and common product combinations. For example, a QSR can present a chips cross-sell to customers who order a burger or wrap, and a petrol station coffee shop can offer customers who order a cappuccino the option to add a croissant in the morning during the breakfast period. This can also facilitate the creation of product bundles based on a customer’s current product selection to increase average order values further. The use of this technology is particularly effective in an outdoor setting where customers are not able to interact as closely with employees. Cross-selling can work just as well for non-food items, by promoting fast queue passes at theme parks, guidebooks at zoos, tickets for other events at stadiums and ticket upgrades at travel hubs.
DELIVER EFFICIENCY IMPROVEMENTS
Significant efficiency improvements can be made to your customer experience with innovative outdoor kiosks. It is often possible to make multiple efficiency gains that also deliver cost savings by installing self-service kiosks within an outdoor setting. Installing kiosks outdoors can, in the first instance, encourage customers who may have come into your business to order, to place an order outside. This can not only result in a better, faster ordering experience, but it also helps the business to serve a higher volume of customers more efficiently. The kiosks can accurately take customer orders while your employees focus on serving customers inside and preparing orders.
It is also often possible to redeploy employees responsible for taking pre-orders, orders, and payments to other business areas where they can be more effective and have a more significant impact. For example, at a zoo, employees who would be staffing ticket sales kiosks can be redeployed to customer service or customer guide/host roles that will enhance the overall visitor experience. Meanwhile, the ticket sales role can be completed by strategically positioned outdoor interactive kiosks at the zoo entrance.
Outdoor kiosks that are focused on providing information can also deliver efficiency gains. They can provide key information that your business needs to communicate to customers in a clear, accessible and intelligent way, which can reduce the volume of queries that employees handle. Outdoor information kiosks can provide waypoint information, interactive maps, event information and interactive timetables to customers. They lend themselves particularly well to serving leisure destinations, including theme parks, zoos, stadiums, and shopping centres, but they are also useful for large motorway petrol stations with extensive footprints and complex site layouts.
Outdoor self-service solutions can also help create more efficient and error-free processes for your business. Whether you deploy outdoor kiosks for pre-ordering, ordering, or payments, they have a proven capability for creating clear, easy-to-follow, and accessible ways for customers to interact with your business. The more effective your outdoor kiosks are at reducing errors in key customer processes, the more significant the cost savings and efficiency gains can be.
IMPROVE CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT
Self-service kiosks are a common feature in many retailers and serve not only as a pre-ordering, ordering and payment solution but also as an effective promotional and engagement point for customers. How many times have you used a self-service kiosk and noticed a compelling ad for additional products and services? They really are almost everywhere, and they often catch the attention of customers at the perfect moment, when they are ready to buy.
Outdoor interactive kiosks are particularly well placed to increase customer engagement, primarily due to their outdoor setting, which increases the visibility of promotional content far beyond your key customer base. Outdoor kiosks are more likely to attract attention from people passing by and engage them, which then advertises your business to a much wider group of potential customers. Whether your business looks to showcase its products or services or tailored dynamic content, there is a significant opportunity to engage both existing and potential customers.
The most effective way to increase customer engagement is by facilitating easy interaction with your outdoor kiosks. While the touchscreen is at the heart of this, there are many other ways to interact, including QR codes, barcodes and intelligent mobile apps. Many businesses use QR codes to facilitate their loyalty and reward schemes successfully, and they can work exceptionally well with outdoor self-service kiosks equipped with a reliable barcode scanner, as it can allow customers to collect loyalty rewards without having to enter long codes or login details on-screen. This can be particularly useful for QSRs, petrol stations and theme parks, where maintaining customer flow is critical to preventing long queues and a poor customer experience.
EMPOWER YOUR CUSTOMERS
Many customers love interacting in their own way, and self-service solutions are a proven way to empower them to do so. According to research by PlayUSA, as many as 4 in 5 customers have a preference for using self-service kiosks. While the reasons why they are preferred vary, a significant number value a faster and more streamlined customer experience, with others finding that they cater to their specific accessibility needs more easily than a traditional service counter can.
Outdoor digital kiosks are just as good at empowering customers to interact in their own way as their indoor counterparts. Many support contact-free interactions using mobile payments, NFC, QR codes and voice recognition technology. This helps provide an inclusive user experience that caters to a broad customer base, including those with accessibility needs that may otherwise have felt excluded from your business. Some outdoor kiosks also provide a multi-lingual user experience, where customers can switch to a different language and enjoy a smooth and hassle-free user experience.
As providing an accessible and inclusive user experience to all types of customers becomes increasingly important, adopting outdoor kiosks can help your business serve a broad range of customers with ease. Delivering an accessible user experience can also help your business serve customers with specific accessibility needs, which increases your customer base and provides an opportunity to further increase sales and profitability.
CHALLENGES OF ADOPTING OUTDOOR DIGITAL KIOSKS
While outdoor digital kiosks have the potential to bring many significant benefits to your business, they do raise some challenges. Many of these challenges directly relate to the outdoor environment that they operate in, including withstanding challenging weather conditions, maintaining kiosk security and facilitating easy maintenance.
WITHSTANDING CHALLENGING WEATHER CONDITIONS
Outdoor digital kiosks are required to operate outdoors in a wide range of weather conditions. From cold and hot weather to rain and ice, each weather condition presents its challenges, as many hardware components do not favour operating in extreme temperatures. Extremely cold or hot temperatures can impact touchscreen usability and cause potential hardware issues, varying from slow performance to breakdown. Hot weather can also cause component overheating, resulting in component failure and the inevitable downtime and disruption associated with kiosk repairs. Meanwhile, rain and ice can also present issues should water enter key components and cause major damage.
Fortunately, our very own outdoor interactive kiosks, the ESSENCE Outdoor Kiosk, are built to withstand challenging weather conditions. The ESSENCE Outdoor has a proprietary climate management system that maintains a consistent operating temperature for key hardware components in all seasons. The climate management system protects internal components and helps them to maintain peak performance in all weathers. It can even withstand an ambient temperature of up to 40˚C, which makes it suitable for almost every climate.
The ESSENCE Outdoor also boasts a durable and weather-proof exterior, which removes the need for any separate structure to protect it against the elements. This gives you the freedom to locate your outdoor kiosk wherever you want, even if space is an issue. We have also developed an ESSENCE Outdoor kiosk that features a roof with lighting, which can provide your customers with some protection from the elements.
MAINTAINING KIOSK SECURITY
Security is a common challenge for all types of self-service kiosks, particularly for outdoor kiosks, as they are much more exposed and vulnerable. Security risks, including theft and vandalism, are important to consider and can be guarded against with proportionate preventive measures. Outdoor kiosks that feature a robust enclosure and adequate lighting and are covered by security cameras are best able to counter security risks and reduce the frequency of issues.
The ESSENCE Outdoor has a robust and strong enclosure that helps to protect the valuable hardware components inside the kiosk. As these components, including the PC, are the most significant target in theft incidents, protecting them within a strong enclosure is the best way to defend against them. The optional roof available for the ESSENCE Outdoor can also be beneficial in terms of kiosk security, as the additional lighting can act as a deterrent for those seeking to steal or vandalise the kiosk. The lighting will make anyone who attacks the kiosk significantly more visible to passers-by while also improving visibility for any security cameras in place to guard your outdoor kiosks.
FACILITATING EASY MAINTENANCE
Every self-service kiosk requires a combination of proactive and reactive maintenance, but not every outdoor kiosk is easily accessible for engineers and technicians. Device downtime becomes longer when outdoor kiosks are difficult to access, and components are challenging to repair/replace. This can negatively impact the customer experience and result in the loss of valuable sales for your business. The importance of easy maintenance for your outdoor kiosk should not be underestimated.
Our ESSENCE Outdoor Kiosk has been designed to make regular maintenance and repairs easy and hassle-free. The kiosk provides easy frontal access to key hardware components, so routine maintenance and repairs are fast, and downtime for your business is minimised. The ESSENCE’s intelligent design houses key components in separate sections that can easily slide out for repair, replacement and upgrades. Its component-based design also facilitates easy hardware swapping, a much more cost-effective way to maintain your kiosks, so they continue delivering a great user experience to customers.
DELIVER EXCEPTIONAL SELF-SERVICE OUTSIDE WITH THE ESSENCE OUTDOOR KIOSK
Delivering exceptional self-service outdoors is made possible with our innovative ESSENCE Outdoor kiosk. The ESSENCE Outdoor has been designed for a wide range of applications and is well suited to QSRs, petrol stations, theme parks, zoos, stadiums, travel hubs and shopping centres looking to deliver exceptional self-service experiences to their customers. It combines durable hardware components with a durable and robust enclosure that protects your kiosk from the elements and maintains security. Whether you are looking for an outdoor kiosk for pre-ordering, ordering, payments or information, the ESSENCE Outdoor can do it all. It boasts smart LED lighting & signage, a large and bright responsive touchscreen, easy service access, an in-built climate management system, and additional lighting options.
Why not find out how the ESSENCE Outdoor interactive kiosk can help your business realise the many benefits associated with adopting an outdoor self-service solution, from enhancing the customer experience and increasing sales with up-selling & cross-selling through to delivering efficiency improvements and improving customer engagement? Discover the ESSENCE Outdoor today and download our dedicated datasheet.
We have been creating innovative self-service and checkout solutions for established retailers and businesses since 1969. Our award-winning design team creates innovative self-service kiosks that deliver exceptional customer experiences, improved efficiency and increased sales. Modern yet functional design is at the heart of everything we do, and our design proficiency has been recognised with multiple Red Dot Design awards.
Complete our contact form or email us to discuss how ESSENCE Outdoor can deliver exceptional self-service outdoor experiences for your business.
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