According to a recent survey, one third of shoppers have confessed to stealing from supermarkets at the unmanned self-service checkouts. Nearly a third of Britons admitted to pinching items and placing them in their shopping bags without scanning them properly first.

Findings by watchmywallet.co.uk reveal that 30% of 5,000 customers surveyed have shoplifted from the self-service kiosks. And various canny methods are being used to dupe the machines as well as the staff including selecting cheaper fruits and vegetables, selecting ‘small’ when stating the weight size of an item, as well as simply walking off without paying.

The criminal tactics are reportedly being overlooked by staffs who override orders to keep the queues flowing. A top tip is to have a weight alarm that alerts a worker when an item has been put in the shopping bag without being scanned. And staffs need to be trained to understand the importance of ‘manning’ the self-service tills.

Now Protouch Kiosk Manager is our all-in-one software package that can fully support a kiosk network. It has the ability to securely lock down a machine using its secure browser and watch over an entire estate of kiosks through its network management application. Its comprehensive suite of services cover hosting to displaying and scheduling content through to monitoring and reporting kiosk status.

Kiosk security is particularly significant in a vast array of industries such as hospitals and doctor surgeries as well as kiosks with internet connectivity and private data collection but the main sector is banking.

What features do you need to look out for?

- Anti virus

- Spyware detection

- Session timeouts

- Encrypted sessions

These are all internal security properties but the physical security is key too!

- Ensure the unit is physically locked down with a chain or screwed into the ground.

- The interface can be moderated so people looking at the side or from behind can’t see the contents of information on the screen.

Interestingly, there are kiosk security mats on the market that recognise when a user steps on and that start page begins. The mat identifies when they walk away from the kiosk and all cookies, cache and user history is immediately wiped.

If you want to know more on how you can ensure your kiosk is safe, ‘contact us’ today.

The Australian government has already deployed a number of kiosks throughout its airports to allow Australians to return home and process their own passports through the use of a kiosk. But the scheme has proved so successful that it will be drawn-out over the next two years.

The kiosks use face-recognition technology to perform the customs and immigration checks that are conventionally conducted by customs staff. So far units have been installed in Brisbane, Cairns, Sydney, Adelaide, Darwin, Perth, and Melbourne and they involved travellers with ePassports.

Now the government aims to fund another $7.9 million over the next couple of years and according to budget papers it will save the country $11.9 million over a four-year period because fewer staff will be needed for the Customs and Border Protection Service.

Airport kiosks can help by allowing passengers to scan their ePassports as well as have their eye ID scanned but what other features can they provide?

- Check in

If travellers have no baggage to put onto the flight, they can simply check-in via a kiosk to avoid the long queues.

- Wayfinding

Airports can be very vast in space which means people can get lost. A kiosk can show vacationers where they are located in the airport and show them where everything is such as restaurants, shops and toilets.

- Internet access and printing

If a passenger has arrived at the airport and forgotten their tickets, they can simply log onto their emails via a kiosk with internet access and print them out again. It couldn’t be simpler!

Here at Protouch, we have helped Birmingham Airport introduce an express lane with our fantastic express lane kiosks.

Just check out the case study as an example of how we can help speed-line the processes and services at your airport.

Today we are discussing kiosks in theme parks and specifically how can they help? Units include various features such as payment, information, internet access and more so which of these are useful in the leisure sector?

Specific features which can prove beneficial at a theme park consist of;

- Payment

We’ve all been there; you arrive at a theme or water park, put all your belongings into a locker and then find that an hour or two later the kids want a drink or are hungry. But that means walking all the way back to your locker and getting out some cash, or alternatively carrying it with you from slide to slide with the risk of it getting wet or stolen.

However, a kiosk can help visitors with cashless payment and instead they merely wear wrist bands which are loaded with money and everything around the park is paid via the bands. A perfect example of this is the Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari in Indiana in America.

- Wayfinding

Theme parks can cover vast areas so it is common for people and children to get lost. This can be tackled by encouraging parents to keep an eye on their children, by setting up a lost and found building, and by deploying touch screens at various points in the park which offer interactive maps. They can show visitors where they are and direct them to attractions that they want to see.

- Fast track

One of the features of a kiosk is fast-track whereby customers can skip the long queues and head straight to the front of the service. This can be useful at a theme park when visitors can pay extra to avoid queuing for rides and you don’t need to employ an extra staff member to attend to these consumers because the machine can register them.

- Ticketing

Often or not, tickets for rides can be bought at the main reception at a theme park but there may be times when a visitor wants to purchase more tickets and instead of walking all the way back to the front of the park, tourists can make payments at kiosks and purchase more tickets without assistance.

Here at Protouch, we can help you deploy engaging, high quality software in your theme park to enhance the overall customer experience.

With less money available, the government as well as varying businesses are looking for new ways to cut down costs, save money and keep their head afloat above dark financial water.

So how are they doing this? Well many are turning to touch screen technology to combat the cuts. There are already many authorities that have embraced the technology and have installed kiosks in libraries, hospitals and doctor’s surgeries.

However, more states and regions are looking to the machinery and the use of self-service is spreading.

What areas of government can a kiosk help?

- Transport

- Job centres

- Education (schools, colleges and universities)

- Healthcare (hospital, doctor, dental)

- Councils

- Emergency services (police, fire services)

Functions include:

- Wayfinding (in hospitals and libraries)

- Information (in job centres and councils)

- Ordering/booking (in leisure centres, prescriptions, books at school)

- Check in (at doctors, hospital)

- Feedback and help (great for all public services)

- Internet (ideal for education establishments)

- Receipt printing (in transport and councils)

And how can the technology help the government better their services for the public?

- Reduce waiting times

- Improve staff efficiency

- Enhance customer power and need for independence

- Streamline payment processes

- Cut administration costs

Further examples of government services which can benefit from deploying touch screen technology consist of jails, to help the inmates pay their own bail money; as insightful platform to raise awareness to people on how to help the environment; as well as the legal sector in courts.

And kiosks can also aid politics. It seems that the affairs of the state are getting involved too to encourage more people to vote. Many citizens are doing their part for politics and voting via an e-kiosk. Populations can cast their vote at kiosks deployed at various spots across a city.

According to the Self-Service Future Trends 2011 report, produced by the Digital Screenmedia Association, the Government industry will benefit 5.4% from self-service in the next five years.

For more information on how a touch screen kiosk can help a railway station etc., look no further than Protouch.

What is key is that you use the technology to its maximum capability to achieve success but having poor software, the wrong features or deploying it in an inconvenient location can all result in a let-down. Here are some imaginary scenarios Protouch has created that you should avoid to make the most from your touch screen installation.

Location

Picture the scene; a woman walks up to a kiosk in her doctors surgery to input her private medical details to order a subscription but the placement of the unit means that everyone sitting at the side can see the information on screen. Fitting the kiosk in a corner, away from prying eyes will increase privacy for patients and give them self-assurance of using the software.

Features

Envisage the setting; a traveller goes to use a self-service kiosk to check-in and print out their plane tickets to find that the printing feature is not available; or that the internet is poor. It is important that the sole purpose of the machine is functional to improve customer experience. It is pointless to have a super slow printer if this is one of the main reasons to deploying the technology because this will only boost long waiting times and queues, as well as frustrate your consumers.

Numbers

How many kiosks do you need? Deploying one kiosk for example in a shopping centre is useless because consumers will have to trek from one side to the other just to use the machine. And if it includes way finding features then this is inane due to the fact that it is not accessible easily. Logically work out how many units you need to reap the benefits; an office may only require one kiosk but a hotel will need several.

Appearance

They often say “don’t judge a book by its cover” but often or not as a society we do. First impressions count and it is reported that as humans, we make up our mind about something or someone in the first 30 seconds of meeting them. How does this relate to touch screen kiosks? Well a consumer will determine whether or not they will use the machine in the first instant so it is imperative that it looks appealing, is easy-to-use, and gives the customer confidence to use it again.

Some industry experts claim that a simple screen with a small number of buttons is most engaging.

Help

The whole point of deploying touch screen technology is to give consumers the power of independence and self-service. It reduces staff numbers and gives them the chance to carry our more skilled tasks rather than menial jobs. However, as with anything, there are times that help is needed. Not everyone will understand how to use the kiosk and often or not someone will require help.

But if there is none present and if the kiosk doesn’t feature any help information; this will only aggravate your consumers more at their lack of know-how. Make sure a help feature is available with adequate browsing and searching features if the person is looking for something but doesn’t exactly know the right terminology.

The retail sector is one industry that will always thrive but it has to change its ways to stay afloat in the current economic climate. High street stores are suffering due to the World Wide Web but a recent survey has found that brick-and-mortar stores are still important to 90% of shoppers. So what are consumers’ needs that your business can provide?

A new study by Local Corporation, an e-tailing group and online local media company, revealed that almost two out of three shoppers use at least one device to research and make transactions while shopping and 28% use two devices at a time.

More than 1,000 consumers were surveyed on their shopping behaviours and it showed a growing trend of mobile devices and self-service machinery usage when researching and purchasing products. Around 60% confessed to researching products several times a month using a mobile device so imagine the possibilities if they were exploring your services/products…

Further findings from the study consist of:

- 46% of shoppers check out prices on a store’s site and 42% check the inventory before visiting.

- 47% of consumers search for local information about the store they want to visit

- 1 in 3 shoppers has made at least one purchase via their mobile device over the past six months.

Self-service kiosks can encourage consumers to shop in-store to give them the control and convenience that they are craving. If they are using mobile devices to browse and influence their shopping activities, let them do it in-store with a touch screen that has internet access.

Let them rate your products in-store and publish reviews and have access to vouchers to boost customer loyalty. What is more, printing features can enable them to print out receipts.

Further features are specific to the retail industry and therefore can benefit supermarkets, departments, shopping malls, post offices and phone stores. Functions include;

- Payment

- Ordering

- Wayfinding

- Internet

- Product information

- Loyalty (gift voucher, promotional)

- Queue busting

Contact Protouch.co.uk today to see how we can help you install touch screen technology in your retail business.

Or check out our retail case study on Kiddicare by clicking here. Our kiosk solution improved Kiddicare’s in-store offerings to customers visiting its new store by allowing them to purchase individual brand merchandise via the kiosk. Since the deployment, they have expanded with more kiosks being installed and all checkout queues have been reduced so the staff can cater to the customers more enhancing their experience.

In contrast, the amount of DVD and Blu-Ray rentals via touch screen kiosks has grown by an astonishing 28%. According to the Vice President of Home Entertainment at Rentrak, David Paiko, the major growth area for disc rentals in Q4 last year was the kiosk channel.

Consumers have many choices when it comes to renting videos for both digital and physical media but a kiosk can help by giving the independence of being able to rent without the aid of a human. This fundamental reason is why touch screen technology is becoming more and more popular because consumers’ needs have evolved with the present times and many now prefer to use machinery rather than be interrupted by staff personnel.

In more news about kiosks and DVD rentals, it has emerged that Redbox are becoming even more dominant in the kiosk DVD rental market. The only company that posed any kind of threat to Redbox was NCR and since Redbox has bought the NCR Blockbuster Express network of DVD kiosks, it can be suggested that there is no longer a threat to the company.

Renting movies from a kiosk in a retail outlet is just one of many features of the touch screen technology. And various sectors, not just retail, can reap the advantages by deploying a touch screen unit in their business premises.

If you want to change the way your company operates then one thing you should consider is getting some kiosks fitted in your company from the likes of www.protouch.co.uk.

For any consumers in the UK who are looking to print photos which are on their smart phones, they may soon be able to print straight from their phone thanks to Near Field Communications (NFC).

According to a post at the NFC Times, the Fujifilm group in the UK are planning to introduce NFC technologies into its SmartPix photo kiosks so that consumers with a smartphone that has NFC technology can quite simply walk up to one of the touch screen kiosks, wave their handset at it and then begin printing the photos.

In the post, it said that Fujifilm is working with UK based Near Field Solutions in order to develop the “Tap ‘n’ Print” service on the SmartPix kiosks which will be located at various places like supermarkets, camera shops and other retail locations.

Initially the plan was to deploy 3,500 units, starting in May, and there are already plans in place to expand the project throughout the rest of Europe.

Android enabled smartphones and also BlackBerry handsets that enable NFC have got applications available already and these apps will enable the owner of the handset to quickly pair their phone with the printer and choose which photo or photos they would like to be printed from their handset.

There are a number of companies like Barclays, who are starting to use NFC. It can be used for things like paying for something on your card.

Printing and ticketing are just a few of the many features of a touch screen kiosk; and if you would like to get a kiosk fitted in your company you should pay a visit to Protouch and check out our extensive range of touch screen technology.

Many companies are struggling financially, especially with the current state of the economy, so if you find that your business is finding it hard right now then you should look around at the different things that could improve your customers’ experience and reduce staffing costs.

One thing which can help improve the fortunes of various businesses around the world is touch screen technology. Whether it’s a touch screen kiosk or a touch screen monitor that you fit in your business, you will undoubtedly begin to see an improvement in what your company is bringing in. The return on investment is considerable so by investing now you will reap the benefits in the long-run.

The first step to getting the right kiosk fitted in your company is choosing the right kiosk for your business. There are a number of self-service models of kiosks and they all have different levels of functionality. They also range in price but can be a great benefit to a company.

But what do you need your kiosk for? This will determine your decision when choosing a kiosk. Do you need to help your consumers navigate around the store? Do you want to make it easier for your guests to check themselves into your hotel? Do you want to display informative information in the town’s local tourist centre? Whatever you need a kiosk for will alter which machine is best for you.

Here are the various features available, which ones do you need?

- Payment (cashless)

- Ordering

- Information

- Product browser

- Internet

- Way finder

- Shop online

- Ticketing

- Check-in

- Booking (registration)

- Fast track (queue busting)

- Gift voucher

- Loyalty

- Help

- Feedback

All of the touchscreen digital kiosks that are to be installed in the cemetery are meant to print out maps of all of the graveside locations, helping people to find what they’re looking for a lot quicker. The Gothenburg City Council members have approved $10,000 for the cemetery kiosks to be fitted and they have also granted another $10,000 for next year’s budget.

A board member for the cemetery has said that the public are going to have full access to the kiosks, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The board member has also said that the families or family member of the deceased will also have the ability to put pictures or even obituaries on the kiosks for a small fee.

This would also turn the kiosk into a source of revenue for the city and the more popular it becomes, the more kiosks could be put up around the other graveyards in the City thus leading to more money that the city will be able to bring in.

You can get a touch screen kiosk fitted in your business, whether it is to accept payment or simply navigate the consumers. There are many different kinds of units that you can look at getting if you visit Protouch and check out their extensive range of products.