Kiosk-based feedback: How it works and why it’s so effective
In this, evermore, digital world, getting feedback usually boils down to sending survey requests by email and responding to pop-up survey windows when browsing the Web. Then, there are the all too familiar people with a clipboard and pencil in hand (or tablet), approaching passersby on the street. In more recent years, however, a new and somewhat different form of surveying has come on to the scene and one that stands a good chance of becoming the most effective – feedback kiosks.
These kiosks, as their name would suggest, are digital stands with a touchscreen tablet mounted on top, and placed in various strategic locations where people can input their feedback about a particular subject. Even if these feedback kiosks aren’t reinventing the wheel, as it were, they have some key benefits over all the other forms of gathering customer feedback.
Here’s how kiosk-based feedback works and why it’s so effective in capturing what your customers think.
They Are Non-Intrusive
Depending on the nature of your business, and the relationship you want to have with your customers, it is not always a good idea to interrupt people as they go about their day to ask them for their feedback. People are generally more inclined to speak the truth if they don’t feel like they are being watched or inconvenienced.
In-the-Moment Feedback
Unlike emails or pop-ups, kiosks allow for customer feedback to be at the point of transaction. Kiosk surveys dramatically increase the accuracy of the feedback collected. People tend to forget those in-the-moment feelings they experienced while they were being serviced or when they were interacting with your product. Readily available opportunity to provide feedback coupled with kiosks being in the environment the customer experience occurs is a recipe for authentic insights.
Better Response Rates
Another advantage of kiosk-based surveys is that they have better response rates. By placing them in “bottleneck” areas such as close to the entrance or where queues usually form, people will be more inclined to answer your questions than if they had to do so later in the day or days later. Kiosks are a visual beacon to customers that say, “We value your input,” and it encourages a culture of continuous feedback.
Easy to Implement
Last but not least, is the advantage that kiosks are easy to implement, requiring little to no maintenance in the process. As Wi-Fi becomes more and more reliable, kiosks can be placed with ease in any location on campus or at your business to provide realtime feedback. Without the need to hardwire equipment, today’s kiosks are cloud-based making it ridiculously efficient and cost-effective to implement.
Here is How You Can Create an Effective Kiosk Survey
Sold on kiosk-based surveys? Here are several ways you can find success with this effective customer survey method right now.
Don’t Make it Too Long – The significant advantage of feedback kiosks is that they provide a seamless experience for the customer. With this in mind, you should keep your survey as short as possible – three to four questions plus comments. Otherwise, people will be less inclined to answer. As a general rule of thumb, the questionnaire should not take more than one to two minutes to complete from start to finish.
Don’t Make it Too Complicated – Similar to the point above, your survey should ask fundamental questions that provide equally simple responses from which to choose from. One such example could be something along the lines of “From a scale of 1 to 10, how likely are you to recommend our services to friends or family?”
Don’t Ask for More Than One Open-Ended Response – You should design your questions in a way to tap into your client’s immediate and unfiltered sense about your product or service. The quicker someone can respond, the better. Too many open-ended textbox questions can create a bottleneck at a kiosk because they require far too long to complete. The last thing you want is your customer to have a great experience but then become annoyed by the survey experience. Instead, offer a single open-ended question as a problem description or suggestion.
Include a Visible Call to Action Signage – As obvious as a kiosk might be, don’t assume your customers know what you want them to do with it. Along with the kiosk itself, be sure to include visible signage that clearly invites customers to provide their feedback at the kiosk stations.
Final Thoughts
Kiosks are an appealing and interactive way to collect feedback from your customers. Not only are they easy to use and highly customizable, but they also look great wherever you place them. More importantly, however, is the fact that these kiosks will provide you with invaluable realtime feedback that gives you the necessary information to improve your business, operations, or offerings and, ultimately, increase profits. With a well-implemented customer experience strategy, opportunities are endless.
