6th Annual Kiosk Benchmark Study: An NCR White Paper

Approximately 11,200 email invitations were sent out to readers of RIS News, Hospitality Technology and Vertical Systems Reseller. Of these, 442 respondents entered the online survey. As in previous years, we divided respondents into those who had current or planned self service kiosk deployments and those with no plans for kiosks. Only current or planned self service kiosk deployers were invited to complete the entire survey.

Respondents were asked to select their primary business activity, job function and company size. Of those with current or planned deployments, 41% came from retail, 39% from hospitality/foodservice/lodging, 9% from consumer goods, and 11% from ‘other’. Job function was primarily corporate management (32%), MIS/IS management (22%), and sales/marketing/promotion management (14%).

Company sizes remained relatively small, with 28% estimating annual sales revenues between one to 49 million and 12% less than one million. However, 16% selected one to nine billion, and 5% over ten billion, so larger companies are seeing the potential of kiosks as well.

Companies with no plans to deploy kiosks were asked about their reasons and their previous kiosk experience (if any). As in last year’s study, the number one reason remains ‘needed application doesn’t exist’, but just 27% chose this option, as opposed to 40% last year. ‘No budget’ remained the second biggest choice, with 26% both this year and last, but the notion that ‘kiosks are impersonal and reduce the level of customer service’ has gone from 22% last year to just 12% this year. This shows the changes that are taking place both in the numbers of available kiosk applications and in the overall perception of kiosks and their place in the service sector.

We investigated the relative penetration of kiosks in the different verticals by cross tabulating the responses. Retail has 49% already installed, and 35% in the process of installing, 33% planning to install within 12 months, and 30% planning within 24 months. For hospitality, just 30% have already installed, with the numbers climbing to 53% currently in the process of installing, 44% planning to install within 12 months, and 57% planning within the next 24 months. As our data indicates, retail is the established kiosk market, with more growth expected in hospitality. We will continue to track this development in next year’s study to see if hospitality overtakes retail as the burgeoning market for kiosks.