For those who bemoan the growing ubiquity of self-service kiosks, now is the time to brace yourself. The number of transactions service providers will shunt through these systems will triple in the next four years. Transactions at self-service kiosks will surpass $607bn this year in North America, according to a recently released study by the IHL Group. By 2012, that number will have reached more than $1.7tr.
Much of this trend is fueled by service providers who like the cost-benefit ratio of installing a kiosk, says Greg Buzek, president of the IHL Group. However, besides dollar savings, he says, these companies also insist they deliver customer satisfaction gains.
He points to another IHL study as illustration; it showed that airlines such as Southwest, Northwest and Delta claim that as much as 70 percent of all passengers prefer to use these kiosks for check-in.
Source: CRM Buyer, http://crmbuyer.com