Chapter #9 - Take Me to the Pilot

Marie VanDrisse is back with the next chapter of her kiosk development story. In case you happened to miss 'em, you can check out the previous chapters here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Chapter #9 - Take Me to the Pilot

The real world is unpredictable. No matter how much you test your kiosks before deploying them, there's always the potential for unforeseen design defects to come up while in operation. The last thing you want is to have to invest a great deal of money and time in order to fix a bunch of kiosks out in the field. By creating a pilot program, you can put your kiosk design to the test of the real world and make any adjustments before launching a full-scale roll out.

Running a pilot kiosk program is a lot like baiting a fishing hook. If there are fish, you will at least have some hits on the line or even catch a few if you're really giving them something they want or like. However, if you still have bait on the hook at the end of the day, you didn't have to waste an entire jar of worms before realizing that you need to make some changes to your bait.

The biggest advantage of a pilot program is obvious: if there's something wrong with the kiosk that wasn't detected on the designer's desk or shop floor, the pilot's real world experience allows you to make adjustments before a full roll out is ordered. Changes can be difficult to make on location, but in limiting the number of kiosks in the field, changes become less expensive to carry out.

Ultimately, the pilot program gives you the opportunity to learn important lessons during its deployment that may affect the overall customer experience. It then allows you to tweak the design in a more cost-effective manner in order to make it something that meets your wants and needs in the actual operating environment. That way, when you dive into a full-scale roll out, you can be assured that your kiosks will work for you.


-- Marie VanDrisse (Connect with me on LinkedIn.)