It seems like kiosks are showing up more and more in everyday consumer experiences. Actions such as printing your boarding pass at an airport or searching the directory of a mall have been taken over by the growth of digital kiosks.
Did you know you can take surveys at some of the latest mobile kiosks? Often placed near the exit of retail stores, these mobile kiosk surveys are displays with an embedded device for consumers to take a programmed questionnaire. The idea is for a customer to answer questions about their in-store experience right on their way out.
In this blog post, our mobile kiosk survey company will discuss the advantages, disadvantages, and an example of organizations using this type of methodology.
Curious what a mobile kiosk survey is and if it is something your business should use? Learn about the pros and cons from our market research experts below.
How can Mobile Kiosk Surveys be Used?
The best way to explain a use for mobile kiosk surveys is with an example. A consumer buys a drink at Starbucks and notices an attention-grabbing kiosk by the door.
Upon further inspection, he/she sees messaging exclaiming he/she would be entered to win a $100 Starbucks gift card by taking a 2-minute survey on a mounted iPad. He/she easily takes the survey on a mobile kiosk by answering some questions about the product he/she ordered, service he/she received, and cleanliness of the cafe.
If a couple hundred other customers take the kiosk survey over the span of a week, Starbucks now has access to direct data and feedback from their customers, immediately after or before they make a purchase.
What are the Advantages of a Mobile Kiosk Survey?
If you are considering kiosk surveys, it must mean you would like to conduct market research at a location level. The other obvious choice here is to utilize intercept interviews. Intercept surveys are similar to kiosk surveys, but feature an actual interviewer who administers the survey. A key advantage of kiosk surveys however, are they are more cost-effective than in-person intercept interviews.
Another positive aspect of mobile kiosk surveys is the respondent experience. These standalone kiosks allow respondents to participate without pressure. After discovering the kiosk, a customer can simply run through the survey and leave without the need for any instructions or setup.
Kiosk surveys may also be a good choice because, unlike online surveys, they don't depend on an internet connection. This means surveys conducted on a mobile kiosk can be set up for an entire day at a storefront with out a network connection. Locations with spotty Wi-Fi, no available Internet, or where many people are competing for the same Internet access (malls, concerts, sporting games, etc.) all most benefit from this ability.
One of the biggest advantages is capturing real-time feedback from customers. The kiosk survey is presented while the in-store experience is still top-of-mind. As soon as a customer leaves the store, their perception of the experience is at risk of being altered by other events throughout their day.
Lastly, on the back end of an analysis, kiosk survey data offers unique opportunities with the specified locations. If kiosks were set up in 5 different stores across a city, the data could be compared and benchmarked for each location. This would be a guaranteed approach to obtaining responses in stores with multiple branches and locations.
What are the Disadvantages of a Mobile Kiosk Survey?
With the advantages of kiosk surveys come the disadvantages, as well. One negative aspect to consider is the unsupervised access to the survey. Here you would need to look out for people taking the survey that did not truly have an in-store experience. The promise of a reward for taking the survey may lure some irrelevant respondents or respondents taking the survey multiple time. While you could have a attendant next to the kiosk, it would defeat the purpose of an automated survey platform.
Another downside of kiosk surveys is that you can't control the number of people taking the survey. Because it is a passive experience in the store, the majority of customers may walk right past the mobile kiosk without ever noticing there is a survey programmed within it. This unpredictability makes it difficult to increase response rates without additional kiosk locations.
The kiosk survey is also dependent on the correct functioning of the device. With the survey being administered on a single device, there is a risk of technical problems interrupting fieldwork.
Some potential issues include:
- A dead battery
- The survey application freezing
- Touch screen malfunctions
With a variety of different technical implications, our mobile kiosk survey company recommends a backup device be necessary to ensure success.
Lastly, there is an inherent bias to respondents in a particular location. The respondents who take the survey will be likely influenced by the demographics of the surrounding area of the store. This may not be a significant factor in the data, but it may be worth exploring multiple kiosk locations to minimize the single location effect.
Contact Drive Research
Drive Research is a market research company located in Syracuse, NY. Our experts have the know-how to set up and administer a kiosk survey for your business anywhere in the U.S. Our survey platform has a detailed kiosk mode to seamlessly survey respondents.
Interested in learning more about our market research services? Reach out through any of the four ways below.
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