Chapter #1 - The Importance of Planning for Your Kiosk Program

Imagine you've just been assigned manager for your company's kiosk project. If you're like most employees given this task, you may lack the experience in setting up a successful kiosk program. Also like most, you may not have even known what a kiosk was until your management team started to talk about it.

But now you're the kiosk manager. Whether you work for a retailer, private firm, restaurant or consumer goods company, your main goal is to build a box that will encourage customers to walk up to this environment and purchase product, all the while providing a good value. Maybe the bar has been set even higher to build market share and become the leader in your industry.

First thing is not to panic. The kiosk market is full of professionals, like F.C. Dadson, that can answer your questions or get you in touch with network partners that will help you set up your kiosk program.

Before setting up your first meeting with your in-house team or an outside vendor, you should do some research on the market. There are plenty of sources online. Even just taking a walk through your local mall can be beneficial as you can see some kiosks up close and chat with the kiosk operators about the pros and cons of their kiosk programs, what all went into putting together their kiosks and the long-term maintenance involved.

As part of this research process, you should also be thinking about

• What the main purpose of the kiosk is
• What kinds of products/services you are going to offer and how many
• What type of functions the employees will need to complete within the kiosk
• What kinds of locations are most ideal
• What the timeframe is for getting your first kiosk in place
• How you will go about putting the program together

Kiosk designers can give you thousands of looks with thousands of options for what can go into your kiosks. Without the answers to the above thoughts, you'll easily eat up a large amount of your timeline just getting to a finished design. I would recommend communicating upfront with your designer/manufacturer about how you imagine your kiosk looking, what functionality it needs and the types of locations you plan to enter.

I also recommend being upfront about your timeframe for the project and the date you want to install the first kiosk. Consider every aspect of the kiosk rollout, including negotiating mall leases, securing permitting, and producing, shipping and installing the kiosk at the location. Write everything down and plot out a timeline from when you want to install the kiosk and work backwards. This will determine if you have allocated the proper amount of time and if you have a realistic start date in mind. Many people make the mistake of skipping this step in the planning process and end up paying unnecessary rent because their lease has started but they have no kiosk in place.

Setting goals and establishing timeframes are just two pieces of the planning puzzle. Stay tuned next month for Chapter #2, where I'll divulge perhaps the most important piece - how to budget for your kiosk project.

-Marie VanDrisse (For more about me, visit my LinkedIn page.)