What are the needs/requirements and concerns of the users/visitors/buyers of a shopping center?
The interactive kiosk must engage, engage, inform, and serve customers, shoppers, and visitors to provide a competitive business advantage resulting in enhanced self-service sales growth and excellent customer satisfaction. The requirements and needs of a Shopper, Visitor and Client are various and it is a tedious process to attend to their queries on an individual level. This is where an interactive kiosk can bridge the gap and ensure visitors and customers can take advantage of the best services and information. The interactive information kiosk can be designed to work in various scenarios, such as:
• Multilingual communication
o I do not speak English and the regional language
• Path-Finder/Store Locator
or How to go to Store X?
or Where is the restaurant?
or Where is the room?
or How to get to the cinema?
o What brands are available and where are they located?
o What restaurants are here and where are they located?
• Need for Information
o I need information about which movie is showing on which screen, show times and ticket availability
o I want information about the city, hotels, restaurants, hotspots and other tourist spots
o I want a price list and product catalog of company X
o I want to check the offers that are in the stores and businesses of the shopping center
o I need to see live news
o Other miscellaneous information, such as the weather in country X, currency and exchange rates, traveler’s guide, etc.
• Comments / Survey
o I want to give feedback.
o I want to congratulate the mall staff.
o I want to give you some suggestions
or I want to complain.
• Advertising
o I want to show working offers and discounts in a store,
o I want to display an interactive ad here
What are the needs/requirements and concerns of a shopping center manager/owner?
Shopping center managers and owners continue to constantly work to improve and provide the best service to their customers. With an information kiosk that can be used strategically to not only dispense information and answer inquiries, it can also be an interface to study customer behavior patterns and gain insights into them. It also provides advertising opportunities and can double as a digital signage display. Therefore, the information kiosk can not only be a source for distributing information, but also for collecting information on customer behavior and revenue sources.
How does the information/interactive kiosk help the mall users/visitors/shoppers?
Having considered the various situations and scenarios that a kiosk can serve, the solutions that the Shopping Center Administration can provide are summarized below:
• An interactive kiosk that must support multi-language support – ensures that foreign citizens and strangers have no problem accessing required information.
• Pathfinding: Interactive, animated routes from origin to destination or static maps for an overview of facilities. Helps visitors orient themselves.
• Dispensation of information:
o Relevant for the installation:
Please provide all relevant information about the facility and the mall. The information may vary from discounts and offers in different stores, restaurants, cinemas, basic products, etc. There may be a section to address the catalogs and menus of the different stores and distribution chains. There can be live flash to show the latest news from all over the world. Managers can provide information on the transportation facilities available at the mall. The kiosk can even be used to distribute company profile information and newsletters as well.
o General information about the city:
The kiosk can work as a general information kiosk that will help tourists and strangers to answer a variety of questions such as
1. Major tourist attractions, museums, galleries, city park, important buildings, etc.
2. Data on cultural and natural heritage
3. Information about the tourism agency, hotels and accommodation
4. Information about restaurants, cafeterias, discos
5. Calendar of cultural events in the city
6. Information on public transport
7. Information about emergency services, hospital, police, fire, etc.
8. Banks and exchange houses
• A feedback system
o For praise, complaints, suggestions and general comments
o Able to conduct surveys to understand customers/visitors/buyers with built-in reporting system.
• Point of sale
The kiosk can be a source of revenue by functioning as a strategically placed point of sale device that
o Allows store owners, brands, manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors and suppliers to target customers and provide them with digital information on the full range of products.
o Self-checkout allows retailers to reassign counter staff to more productive sales and customer service roles.
o The remote location of the interactive kiosks and digital signage system allows retailers to target customers more effectively by placing virtual stores in an unlimited geographic area.
o Improve the experience and loyalty of customers in the store
o Ticketing kiosks for a multiplex/movie theater can be maintained on any floor for customers to see what is going on and to pick up and purchase tickets.
• Advertising display system
o A single or dual screen kiosk can be used to display advertisements.
o Display of products in relevant categories and subcategories as static information. For example, advertisers may choose to display their content in the “Offers” or “News” categories or subcategories.
o Show ads as screen savers.
I would like to add that the information kiosk is going to change the face of the help desk and support staff in shopping malls. It provides the next step towards virtual support and on-site personnel. The interactive information kiosk has a lot of potential today as people are becoming more and more technologically inclined and want information and services at their fingertips without having to wait in long lines. The application of interactive information kiosk solution is innumerable and few areas where interactive information kiosk has been implemented successfully are: airports, museums, trade shows – events/exhibitions, educational institutions/universities, healthcare – hospitals, industry hotel – hotels, railway Stations / Bus Stations / Airports, Property Management, Real Estate, Banking, etc., to name some of the customer service sectors.
