kiosk estate management
be able to cover installations, warranty
packages and technical services, as well
as provide consultancy around issues
such as customer care. And it can provide
additional support such as helpdesk, a
technical telephone service, and technical
staff for demonstrating how the systems
work to staff.
Most particularly, this is also a flexible
business resource that allows companies
to respond rapidly to changing market
conditions, scaling operations up or down
as needed without affecting service levels.
It releases valuable technical resources
for high-end development work, which
also means kiosk integrators can direct
capital at their core business and free
up management time to concentrate on
running and growing the company.
Customer relations
This is all very well, but how does
outsourcing your customer-facing
activity impact on the relationship you
22 KIOSK solutions
have with your customers? Well, if
anything, it should enhance it. A good
technical outsource team will provide a
manufacturer-authorised and accredited
service, predicated on delivering the
‘first time fix’ which is desirable for cost
efficiency and reputational reasons.
There is also a need to consider that
around half of the modern service call,
whether maintenance or installation,
is managing the customer not the
technology, educating the user on
the best use of the systems they are
operating, hence the need for technical
staff demonstrations, and taking any
uncertainty out of the equation.
In other words, product servicing
is about people, and every service call
should be treated as a ‘moment of truth’
that can either add value, or seriously
damage a product/company in an instant.
In terms of pre- or after-sales activity,
it’s more than just fixing the kit – it’s also
how you go about it. An experienced,
professional service engineer will
understand this. They can act as the
eyes and ears of a company, capable of
spotting trouble brewing, and (perhaps
equally importantly) identifying new
business opportunities.
Before entering into an outsourced
relationship, you need to ask searching
questions. You have to ensure that there
are agreements in place to protect your
business. Senior management has to buy
in to the process from the host company,
and secondly you need a dedicated
project manager to sift out the devil in
the detail not only for ‘Go Live’, but on
an on-going basis too. Outsourcing can
fail when the contract is signed and the
host sits back. Experience has taught us
that you’ve got to keep communicating,
feeding back and refining. Things change
and changes need to be factored in, and
of course the process must evolve in
order to move on.
One of the trends in outsourcing
is that hosts shouldn’t outsource
entire functions – there needs to be
an experienced core staff at the host
who can manage the relationship on
an on going basis. That said, wherever
possible, companies should be looking
for ‘borderless collaboration’ with their
outsourcing partner(s).
As take-up for digital signage and
kiosk solutions accelerates, customer
service will become an increasingly
important management issue because
of the rising number of installations,
and the need to maintain those units
already in the field. Smaller, in-house
teams could get swamped. Should that
happen, companies will have two options:
investing and scaling up the team or
choosing the more flexible option of
outsourcing. n