In fiercely competitive banking and quick-service restaurant (QSR) environments, being brave enough to embrace innovation is often the best (or only) way to stay ahead. Helping your clients make the case for technology investment to the business is therefore an important early step in any project. But when it's a brand-new approach that hasn't been tried or proven in the organization before, it can be hard to win over the skeptics.
Self-service kiosks are a case in point. In businesses that haven't used them before, introducing them could appear complicated and expensive to the uninitiated finance or business unit executive. To get them on board, you'll need to work with your champions to explore and highlight the ways in which this investment will generate strong return, and positively impact the bottom line. The potential benefits of kiosks are wide-ranging, and the ones that resonate most for your client's organization will depend on their own business challenges and environment. Let's explore how self-service kiosks could deliver real value to QSRs and banks that the business will be excited about.
Drive Revenue and Market Expansion
The first, and perhaps most powerful, argument for implementing self-service kiosks is their potential to boost revenue. QSRs that have implemented kiosks for food ordering, for example, report a 15-30 percent average check increase2, as the customer is given more choice and control over their experience. For banks, many of which are under pressure to reduce their brick-and-mortar footprint, kiosks offer the opportunity to gain access to customers in new locations without the need to invest in all the expensive overhead involved in opening a physical branch.
Boost Customer Experience
Any QSR manager knows that the faster they can move customers through their restaurant, the better. It provides a more streamlined and satisfying experience for the customer while also increasing the QSR's potential profit. This is important in busy bank branches as well, as is the need to deliver secure, purposeful, and efficient services. Kiosks support fast, automated order taking and fulfilment, or self-service banking. This allows customers to move through the purchase and transaction processes more quickly, while also helping QSRs and banks improve their customer engagement.
"Rising adoption of interactive systems in the BFSI and retail sectors in emerging markets of Asia Pacific, Latin America, and MEA are expected to emerge as major growth drivers of the market over the forecast period. Increased preference to shop without the need for interacting with sales representatives is anticipated to drive the market further. Many banks are turning the lack of digitally advanced banking infrastructure, especially across rural areas, in emerging regions to their advantage by employing cost-effective solutions, such as kiosks, to expand their operations and effectively serve a larger consumer base."
Increase Cross-Selling
The intelligent systems that power self-service kiosks can make proactive suggestions to customers about additional products or services that would work best with their current choices or circumstances. For example, customers paying a bill using a banking kiosk may be offered additional perks, such as services via mobile app or an upgrade to a credit card with a higher spending limit. Meanwhile, in a QSR, customers ordering a meal may be offered beverage or dessert options that complement it.
Streamline Inventory Management
Kiosks make it possible to dynamically change what's on offer to the customer depending on availability – or lack thereof – of a particular product or service. Say your QSR has over-ordered a particular menu item: simply update the kiosks to promote the item on special offer while customers are considering their orders. If something has run out, it is equally simple to take it off the menu and avoid disappointing customers. In banking, changes to interest or exchange rates can be immediately rolled out across all branches and kiosk sites, ensuring consistency in the services that customers receive.
Improve Resourcing and Boost Overall Efficiency
Help your clients free up their most valuable resource – their onsite staff – to focus on the most value-driving aspects of their role by using kiosks to handle the routine and transactional interactions like order management in a QSR, or simple transactions like ‘check my account balances' in a bank. Kiosks can help triage customers as they arrive at a branch, enabling them to get served sooner, and avoid unnecessary waiting making the most effective use of their valuable time. Meanwhile, employees freed from the routine tasks can spend more time proactively engaging customers.
Keep Customers and Company Data Safe
A common concern when implementing any new technology that handles customer and transaction data is security. QSRs handling thousands of payments a day, and banks that hold huge volumes of highly sensitive data about their customers, can't take risks. Selecting kiosk technologies with built-in security features and remote management capabilities to enable immediate, universal application of patches and updates, can help address this requirement.
These are just a few examples of how investment in technology innovation like smart kiosks can help drive a digital transformation that will delight customers and bring a positive impact to the bottom line. Work with your clients to uncover the potential for kiosks to be game changing for their business.