There are certain, timeless realities of business. They aren’t opinions, they are simple facts that dictate whether your business will be profitable or not. One of these, in many industries the most important one, is that the more you spend on labor costs, the lower your profits will be.
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Labor costs, both in the creation and sale of your product, must be controlled to keep your company profitable. With the recently renewed push for higher minimum wage in the United States, wages will start rising again. Whether mandated by law or not, the current wage stagnancy is unsustainable.
The nuts and bolts of kiosks
For entrepreneurs looking at business startups in the retail market, the proliferation of kiosks is offering a way to keep costs down and increase profits. Kiosks, and kiosk software, can be customized for nearly all customer interactive positions, reducing the number of people you need to employ and increasing profits.
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Simplified and streamlined interactions make your customers and workers happier. Other benefits of adopting kiosk solutions include:
- Kiosks don’t get paid. One of the biggest expenses in a new retail business is paying for the sales staff. Rising wages will mean those labor costs are going to be an even bigger factor in the future. McDonalds garnered a lot of attention, and praise, recently when they rolled out their kiosk system across the country. Costs went down, quickly, and the fast food chain showed a remarkable 25+ percent increase in their stock prices.
- Kiosk software is becoming increasingly sophisticated. Granted, there are things that a computer program will never be able to do, but kiosk software can make it easier to run and manage retail operations, track orders, maintain stock levels and give your customers an easy, pressureless way to shop.
- It’s not just about retail. Although the changes that kiosk software is having on retail outlets is significant, it is not the only industry that kiosks are changing. Government agencies, health care trade shows, hotel and motel management, transportation and other industries have also adopted kiosk software to simplify and streamline their interaction with customers.
- Boosting efficiency while reducing costs. The majority of kiosk software applications are both expandable and customizable. Kiosk software designed to help the customer walk through the purchase process can also handle other functions. In addition to managerial functions like tracking product levels and ordering product, kiosks can be customized to help the customers file job and credit applications, set up gift registries and many other applications. As the apps are improved, new features and processes are added to your kiosk software.
The future is digital
No offense to the humanists out there, but improvements to technology have always meant that part of the population is left behind. In the early days of the last century, the makers of buggy whips were probably gnashing their teeth and pulling out their hair because ‘horseless carriages’ were ruining their industry. Culturally, they adapted and, economically, they found a different way to make a living.
The same thing is happening now.
Our society is adapting to a new paradigm of business. The cost of automating retail and customer services positions is becoming less than the cost of maintaining the tradition. Throughout history, when that has occurred, the traditional ways have been replaced. Whitney’s cotton gin, Ford’s assembly line, and other examples clearly show that costs trump tradition every time.
