Kiosks changing self-service

After a long hiatus our blog is back up and running.  It had been offline or stagnate for awhile because our blogging service (Blogger) had changed their system to no longer allow blogs to be hosted externally.  And I was unable to find a way to export the posts to a new service (WordPress) before they shut off access.  So I was stuck without a way to post to the blog.

So I started blogging on our company web site at Electronic Art.  Titled “Two Bits and a Byte”,  that blog served as my kiosk blog and general Electronic Art blog on everything we do such as web application development and design, digital signage, mobile, etc.  About this time Twitter was becoming all the rage and I also started micro blogging on Twitter.  So I felt less reason to go back to my Kiosk Blog.

But recently I found a way to recapture all of my old posts going back to October 2007.  It was a very tedious and manual process but I was able to get most everything back online in this new format. However, I did loose all of the comments from many of you.  So please fire away with comments to these older postings and the new ones to come.

So I hope to be able to use this blog again now as a focused discussion on Kiosks and self service interactive.  If you are a trusted industry veteran that I know and you would like to contribute to this blog, feel free to contact me and I can set you up as a contributor.  That would help to keep the blog from being all one sided from my point of view and more vendor independent.

Have an idea for a blog post?  Share it with me and I’ll get one rolling.  I’d love to hear from you.

Welcome to Kiosk Blog.  We are revising our site to Word Press.  Please check back soon for the older archive content and new content.

The Meijer store near me has some NEC screens hung in portrait mode, but no content. They have an enclosed housing on the back for a player device and Ethernet running to the player. The content is promoting the bakery and their customer loyalty programs.

Follow up: 6/2011 – these screens were removed sometime in 2010. Likely a victim of the recession, or possibly a failed initiative and poor planning? I’d love to know the story from someone inside.

Dr Scholls kiosk at Kroger with crude out of order sign.

Sent from my BlackBerry device

This is not what you nor your customers want to see.

This was taken at a Cincinnati Kroger’s grocery location yesterday as my wife and I shopped for our once a month groceries. The deli ordering kiosk which normally sits just inside of the entry to the main store, was sitting by the shopping carts corral with this ugly but obvious sign. When your customers become so familiar with and used to the self service kiosks you implement in your store, it can be a real disappointment to them when it’s unavailable. And while no kiosk can have 100% uptime, you should at least move the kiosk out of their view when it is unavailable. Now, truth be told, I think this was temporarily set aside while they were remodeling the space it normally sits in. New floors, new drywall, new counter tops, etc. so they had good reason to have this kiosk out of commission, and there was a second kiosk closer to the deli. But I believe they could have put this near a power outlet and dropped a temporary Ethernet to it for connectivity. But maybe this is too much of an over simplification of what it would take (I don’t know their setup and networking). This would keep the customers happy, and the deli running efficiently… all of the reasons you deployed to begin with.

On a similar note, we just installed new kiosks for Krogers in a new store that hasn’t opened yet in Norwood, Cincinnati. These kiosks are for a completely different purpose in the Personal Finance section of the store. We worked with their vendor who creates a lot of their retail displays and store fixtures. They were to provide an “enclosure” around our IBM AnyPlace kiosk computer. But as of the time we brought the kiosks, connected and installed, they had not delivered the enclosures. As a matter of fact, the client had not even seen them yet. So this should be an interesting integration. We believe that we should have been engaged for the entire kiosk enclosure, software and hardware, and let that partner focus on what they do best. You know it’s bad when the client contacts us to provide a turntable type solution to this yet unseen enclosure. Shouldn’t that partner have provided that? Ah well, we will go above and beyond to ensure that this deployment goes well.

In the past we have also integrated kiosks into other grocery retailers for loyalty card systems. The kiosks are highly used and loved by the customers as a means to redeem their points and update their account information. In our initial deployment we had a problem with one of the printers not printing correctly and I was needed onsite to help troubleshoot (hardware firmware needed updating). Trust me, when you take one of the two kiosks offline even for a few minutes, the customers are not happy. They had to walk to the other entrance to use that kiosk instead, but they felt inconvenienced. And they were, but the point is that customers love self service. And when they become familiar and accustomed to using it, you need to ensure it is there for them. Don’t disappoint your customers and don’t take the easy way out. Keep that kiosk online!

Update: Weeks later my wife and I returned to do our weekly shopping (yes, we are trying to eat at home more often) and found to my delight that the staff had taken off the hand written note and put the kiosk back online! They had even improved the signage and branding on and around the kiosk. Nice job! The original location of the kiosk has been replaced with an in store clinic which may be a new trend in additional services being provided by grocers to enable customers to perform many tasks with one visit, ensuring customer loyalty and foot traffic. This explains why the kiosk was in transition and temporarily offline. My preference would be to not have any kiosk, than the one with the “out of order” note taped to it. Consumers need to know that systems are always working to build trust.

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The KioskCom Self Service Expo show last week was really good. We were nervous going into it because of the economy.  We wondered if

customers would come out to the show. We were happy to see a great turn out by VP’s and decision makers with real projects in hand. In years past you would see multiple team members from a brand attend, perhaps marketing folks, IT staff and VP’s. Kind of a “design by committee” mentality. But this year, they seemed to not need to bring the whole committee out, just the decision makers, which all of the vendors appreciated. We met with folks from Motorolla, Ikea, Target, Ceasars Palace, Delta, American Airlines and many more.

Our booth showcased the new Lobstr application on a 37″ touch screen, the new Zebra Kiosk Print Station with our “Hike & Bike” kiosk concept, as well as our demo kiosk of various past customer implementations. Our partners at 5Point also showcased Lobstr on their newest enclosure for Interactive Digital Signage (IDS) Platform, the Concierge. Our app looked so cool on their 40″ screens that we are considering partnering with them to have this as our default hardware option for Lobstr. More to come on that soon.

Our booth chotsky was a full pack of Orbit gum. I figured it was better than most of the squeeze balls and pens given out by many vendors.

And also the obvious reason which is that I was tired of talking to people with bad breath. Hmmm, I think Orbit just found their next commercial idea! Now if only I could brand the packaging with my company information it would have been perfect.

The educational break out sessions and tech talks were a big hit with attendees. DT Research gave a session on “Interactive Digital Merchandising: Expanding brand and product impact and creating customer engagement.” which is a topic we can get behind. Andrew Fischer did a great job in this session. Another session was titled “Return on Message – Optimizing your digital signage network for success. ” which was giving by Keith Kelson who is the Chairman of the Content Best Practices committee of the Digital Signage Association along with Roger Sanford of the MediaTile company. Return on Message (ROM) is the new buzzword in our industry and a methodology that provides standards based processes to guide companies through complex variables that must be considered for a successful digital signage deployment. This also showcased many of the best practices laid out by the association in the past years.

Speaking of the DSA (Digital Signage Association) of which I sit on the advisory board: we had our board meeting the night before the show at the M resort just south of the strip. This new Casino / Hotel was only 62 days old and our board members were treated to a behind the scenes tour of the facility and the technology used by their vice president of information technology, Rob Willis. I doubt I will ever get to see the NOC and security areas of another Casino in my lifetime, it was very interesting to see and learn about how they operate and how they use Digital Signage for both customer facing areas of the facility and also employee facing messages. I appreciate the hospitality of Rob Willis and the M Resort in Las Vegas. During this meeting we did a review of several committees, discussed goals, events and recapped the

past year’s success. I am now the chairman of the PR & Marketing committee for the Digital Signage Association. We have some good people on the committee already, so I’m excited about working with them to help promote the association, drive awareness and education, and help increase membership of the DSA.

As for new technology, there was a lot of the same hardware at the show that has been seen before. I got a sneak peak at a new product from MicroVision which is a Pico Projector (ultra small projector) about the size of an Iphone. Useful in our industry for some small digital signage applications for rear projection, etc. However the brightness and resolution are the only current drawbacks I could see. This may be addressed in the second and third generations of this unique laser projector called ShowWX. See their site for a preview and watch for it to be launched later this year. The projector is unique because of an ultra tiny red, blue & green laser that allows the image to be in focus at any distance.  It was really nice, but the first generation will likely be a consumer model. They are interested in finding new products they could embed the engine into, such as a cell phone, or other device.

We enjoyed the opportunities to talk with many customers about their projects, hardware or software needs and to explain to them once again, that no… we are not THAT Electronic Arts company in California. The “S” at the end of their name is short for dollar signs and no, our firm does not make games for the Playstation or Nintendo. You have to love our name, but the similarities do make it confusing. I’m pretty sure the lady at the Paris Casino was treating me really good because she thought that was our company when she saw my shirt. For a free drink… I didn’t correct her.

I was at the Digital Signage Expo in Feb. 2009 and enjoyed meeting some of the Target staff. Chris Borek joined the Digital Signage Association’s advisory board which I sit on and participated in lively discussions on the topics of the association, it’s goals, social networking, and more. I must admit I did not get to hear him give his public talks on digital signage at the show. But I did get to talk to one of his co-workers at their booth who is actually in charge of online ad purchasing ( I think that’s what she told me).

I was amazed to learn from her that Target’s idea of an in-store digital signage network is as simple as the tv screens they have in the electronics department. That’s it. They’ll distribute their marketing messages to those 20 screens on the one wall and that is all they think should be done. The initiative is called “Channel Red”. I asked her why they wouldn’t put signs throughout the rest of the store and the response was that they had done research and determined that people wanted the store kept cleaner, simpler, no messaging. Hmmm, when did that ever stop any advertiser from putting their message out?

I suggested that the expo floor showed many good examples of tasteful and less “in your face” examples of good retail digital signage. Surely they could tastefully integrate it in select locations. Perhaps keep the messaging simpler than most video and commercial digital signage content that seems to be the norm. After awhile it makes your eyes bleed! I suggested that it could at least give them the economy and efficiency of replacing printed signage that has to be designed, printed, distributed, installed, etc. every time they want to change the message. Electronic distribution across stores / departments / particular end caps, makes a lot of sense over time and is greener in some regards to the above process. I got a blank stare with a nice smile… nope. They don’t want to do that.

I discussed the obvious success of Walmart’s in-store network where they charge brands to advertise on screen. It’s a big revenue generator for Walmart and the brands. I know a brand that saw a huge increase in sales at Walmart each time they used Walmart TV. They loved it, and the consumers obviously used it too which drove sales in store. Walmart TV is selectively placed throughout the store.  Albeit a bit high in the rafters. But no, they didn’t want to be like Walmart. Well, okay. They had me there… Walmart is fast becoming one of the most hated retailers by many consumers. Love / hate, but mostly hate. So I can understand that response.

I really don’t get how they expect to effectively use digital signage to talk to moms in the children’s clothing isle when she is not likely going to be walking through the electronics isle first? How do you let me know about the benefits of a fiber product in the pharmacy area if the tv screens are on the other side of the building. I came for fiber, not a new HDTV! I’m not going over there. I really don’t get this viewpoint. In their media program flyer they claim that you can “help your brand come to life within feet of your product”. Yeah, if you’re selling cameras or Ipods maybe. They claim 70 million target guests can be reached, but I’d like to know how many guest actually walk past those screens.

This is an attempt at something I’ve been preaching for years. I believe that retailers have an opportunity that most are missing. Instore networks where the store controls the hardware and network and provides the platform for the brands to advertise. Digital signage in-store is perfect for this but so is an interactive network such as a standardized kiosk platform that a brand could pay to use for 2 months. The IBM AnyPlace hardware is an ideal platform for quick setup in the cosmetic’s isle or moved next month to the home goods section. A standard platform on any shelving system, would enable the IT department to be able to manage the network efficiently and then they could dictate to the brands and agencies what the specs would be (screen resolution, touch/no touch, sound, day part, etc) Many convenient store, pharmacy and quickserve retail should build their own network and lease it out to the advertisers who so want to be in front of the consumer when they are making that purchasing decision.

Now, let me just clarify: I like Chris and his team. Great people. I like the Target brand and shop there regularly. (Target: don’t cancel my shopper card because of this post… please!) And I’m not trying to bring any darts down on them from our community. I’d just like to start a discussion on this topic. Perhaps they have something we can all learn from. Maybe they are totally guessing or are hamstrung by corporate old school staff? But if I don’t post my thoughts here, we’ll never know. Am I the only one who disagrees with their strategy on digital signage? Comment below and lets start the discussion. Challenge me or challenge Target, but join in the discussion.

As I traveled home from a ski trip to Whistler BC Canada the other day, I took note of the self service technology used in the airports. Airports are the largest consumer of kiosks, digital signage and vending that I’ve come across. Some more than others, obviously. I noticed in the Cincinnati airport, the same kiosks and digital signage exists that I’ve discussed previously, and they are still not 100% functional. But they’ve taken the time to add another item (before fixing the previous) and that is an Internet enabled payphone.

It was a nice hardware form factor, and the interface was okay, but really the design of it was from 10 years ago. The unit is produced by a company called Super Pay Phone. As I walked up to it, I noticed it had a Windows message onscreen (a big no no). It had evidently recently applied an automatic Windows update and was waiting on if the PC wanted a reboot. I touched the “reboot” button and the unit shut down and went through it’s start up process. There are many reasons why this is bad including allowing hackers to see your OS (to know how to penetrate it), and during the start up they system gives all kinds of other pertinent information to the hacker, including the option to get into the BIOS (should be password protected with a unique password). This unit is obviously not completely PCI compliant. All of this could be fixed simply by changing the auto windows update method to only update late at night (3am) and automatically reboot. Or, not apply updates at all, and allow a network administrator to apply updates.

Years ago we priced similar units for Cincinnati Bell who was thinking of replacing all of their traditional payphones with Internet enabled devices. At the time, they just couldn’t justify replacing a $300-$600 dollar device with a $3500 device (times thousands). Now, you can hardly find any payphones on the street, and only occasionally inside. But the smaller start ups such as Smart Pay Phones may take away the Bell presence in this marketplace, and quickly. It will be interesting to see the rate of adoption of these smart devices that provide greater service than a traditional pay phone. A small company trying to grow a market and network can pay for the devices with advertising and keeping costs low (compared to Bell’s often expensive overhead) with leasing of hardware, and internet access.

I think the hardware is pretty nice, but a few tweaks to interface and security would make this much better. I’d love to know what kind of usage it gets, I doubt it is much. Those few travelers who don’t have a cell phone or those who are interested in the “gadget” aspect of the phone will enjoy it, but I frankly would not be likely to use it. What about you? Would you use a device such as this when travelling? How about around your home town? Leave a comment below.

I attended the NRF show (National Retail Federation - NRF.com) in New York last week at the Javitz center to see what was new and interesting in the Retail world. It was predominately point of sale hardware and related services, and only partially about retail experience, and customer self service (which is my main interests). While attendance seemed a bit down at the show, exhibitors told me that at least the quality of leads they had were still good.

One interesting thing I saw was from our partner at Zebra Printers. We’ve integrated Zebra printers into many kiosks, and they are widely used in Retail and industry. Now they have a new off the shelf kiosk print station that incorporates a thermal receipt printer with a mount to hold an all-in-one kiosk such as the IBM Anyplace you see in the photo. This is a great product that should catch on quickly. It allows firms like ours to sell a common solution (kiosk and printer) at a low cost and pre-engineered solution. It can mount to a wall, pole mount, or table top mount as seen here. Although our contact tells us the table top was done just for the show and not part of the solution, I’m sure it could be acquired if desired. It could also have custom graphics applied to it for an extra branding opportunity, but comes in standard retail grey standard. I give this product two thumbs up and we plan to start offering it to our customers.

Another interesting solution I saw at NRF was the “Scent Air” booth. They bring the nose into the overall kiosk experience. Or any retail experience for that matter. The majority of their customers are retailers who inject a scent into their retail space. But here they were showing a unique way of integrating it into an interactive experience. As part of their booth, they have a VW bus and touch screens built into the side of it. You can choose which sent you want to smell, and it blows a burst of that scent out a pair of holes on either side of the screen. It was really dead on, chocolate, lavender, cookies, there were up to 1500 different aromas available. In the back window of the bus you could see the apparatus that held the scent canisters and delivered it to the vents. Really great booth concept, and makes you think of lots of ways to incorporate the sense of smell into your retail experience. This could make an up sell much easier to the consumer, and shows that the experience at kiosks or digital signage can be much bigger than the touch, audio or sense of vision.

Provision had their 3D kiosks at the show again. We first saw these last year at KioskCom and they are pretty cool. This year they have incorporated the ability to touch the hologram and click it to interact. The technology is still in its infancy but they should have a revision out by the time of this posting. http://www.provision3dmedia.com/ The example at the show gave you different products to view in 3D, and when you touched one it would print out a coupon for that particular product. The folks at Bank of America are interested in this technology. I assume because one great way to use it could be through the front window of a retailer. Imagine standing outside of a closed retail shop and interacting with a hologram projected through the glass, enabling you to browse the store catalog. Fun and engaging!

The good folks at Comm-Works had a fun virtual experience at their booth. You could put on a virtual 3D face mask and drive a fun race car video game. The whole time you are sitting in a real race car seat with steering wheel, brake and gas pedals. I wrecked that car a few times before I could get the hang of it, but imagine a branded experience such as the Tide race car and brand placement along the race track.

If you attended the NRF show, what other fun and interesting items caught your eye? Add your comments below.

That is the question that was posed to exhibitors of the recent KioskCom show in October by Mark Freed of JD Events, the show promoter. It was a good question and there is often a blurring of the line between the two. Historically, Digital signage was on LCD or Plasma panels and mounted high on a wall, while Kiosks were various computer screens from 8 to 19 inches in size and were usually touch screen interactive. But these days with LCD technology that has become cheaper and more common place, and the use of touch overlays that are capable of being used on 42 to 60 inch screens… you will now often find that digital signage is interactive, and essentially a very large screen kiosk. Or is it?

Digital signage can be interactive, and I think that is what determines what you “title” your project. Digital signage management tools often limit the amount of full programmable interaction you can create to accomplish your goals. After all, the main difference between kiosk management software and digital signage management software is that DS tools allow for scheduling of content into predefined zones or templates. A kiosk application is not expecting “scheduled content” and the way that information is laid out on screen can be most anything imaginable. So if you are running a system with a digital management tool you should think of your application as “digital signage” or perhaps “interactive digital signage”. If you are using a kiosk management tool… well… it could be a kiosk… you could also be simple digital signage. It’s confusing, I know… even for those of us in the industry, the lines between them are grey.

Some digital signage management tools such as Scala are highly programmable, and allow for integration of Javascript, VbScript or Python scripting to extend the dynamic content from a database. Not all management tools allow for this level of robust flexibility, most are much simpler and yet I’d hesitate to use Scala tools for a kiosk project. Scala is also dramatically more expensive than simpler digital signage management tools, which means that it is often used for enterprise level signage.

As for the initial question: “When is a project Digital Signage and when is it a Kiosk?”… the show made it a contest for exhibitors to come up with an interesting answer. Below are some of those answers. The winner was Dr. Robert DeVargas, CFO of Eternal Interactive, LLC who made his answer a bit of prose which I enjoy:

Thanks Dr. DeVargas for a good quippy response. Below are some of the other responses:

“Digital Signage is a Kiosk when it’s message contains a call to action that can be immediately acted upon by interacting with the same sign.”
Jeff Brinson Presentation Concepts Corporation

Kiosks and digital signage share the same mandate of attracting, engaging and communicating with today’s hi-tech consumer offering everyone universal and ubiquitous access to the benefits of the digital economy. This new culture of fast paced individuals who manage their lifestyle through technology, who seek communication through integration and networking, who want to stay connected, empowered, inspired, who thrive in social networks, gaming and chat rooms, who have created a “digital fortress” against traditionalism have indeed spawned the age of the kiosk and digital signage as a means of meeting their unique needs for digital engagement in the public sector.

Doug B Matatall
President
iPhoenix Corporation

When is a kiosk digital signage? When you see it hanging 10 feet off the ground where you can’t touch it. (good for physical security concerns, bad for interactivity).

Tim Burke (author of this blog)
President of Electronic Art

Q: When Is A Kiosk Digital Signage?
A: A kiosk is digital signage when it is networked to other kiosks and large-format displays, and showcases digital content in any form. Additionally, a kiosk qualifies as digital signage if it is tightly integrated with, and strategically complements, a digital out-of-home media network, regardless of its size, placement, or environment. Finally, if consumers can’t tell the difference, and respond positively to displayed content, then the kiosk is digital signage. Today, marketers do not need to choose one or the other. Rather, cost-effective kiosk and digital signage applications may be seamlessly deployed side-by-side, and work closely together to stimulate consumer behavior.

- Ian McKenzie, Chief Executive Officer
Dynamax Technologies.

‘When you can attach a ROI and you know what channel the sale came from”.

Lou Boudreau
National Accounts Manager
SkyMall Corporate Office

What do you think? Share your comment below and give us your opinion.