So you want to buy a bill payment kiosk?
Bill Payment kiosks are becoming increasingly popular. If you walk into the offices of any utility company, the chances are they will have a self-service kiosk that will allow you to pay your bill. But, it’s not just billers who are keen on these; many businesses are going freelance and can actually take commission from utility companies who will authorise them to collect payment on their behalf.
A guide to setting up as a self-service Bill Payment kiosk operator
So the business case is certainly not a problem, but how do you get started and what do you need?
Who are you collecting for?
This may sound obvious, but you can’t start collecting bill payments until you have someone to collect for! Of course if you are a utility company or some other billing company then you may want to collect on your own behalf, but if you are setting up a business specifically to pay bills then you need a contract with a biller to perform this service.
The most successful kiosks will have a number of different billing options. For the consumer, it’s all about convenience, so to be able to pay your cell phone, electricity and water bill in the same location is pretty attractive. Sign up as many billers as you can to get the best return on your kiosk investment.
Database
A great bill payment kiosk will allow users to check their balance and perform other account maintenance functions, but in order to do this you need to be linked directly to a billing database. A good accounting database will usually have a mature API, which offers easy integration between your kiosk and the database. Genkiosk developers are experts in database integration and can ensure that the communication back and forth between kiosk and database is smooth and accurate.
Location
Next you need to think about where you are going to site your kiosk. If you are a retailer or own some other public location, then the problem is an easy one. If not you will need to form a strategic relationship with a prime location and work out how to pay for the floor space. Revenue sharing is a popular option, but may actually lead to you losing a bigger chunk of cash than you expected. Make sure you have accurate revenue projections before making a commitment
Hardware
Making a hardware purchase is an important decision, when you are just getting started, the costs may seem small, but once you are buying kiosks in batches of 50 a little makes a big difference. Don’t compromise on quality as you may end up paying for it in repeated engineer visits. Genkiosk maintain strategic partnerships with many hardware suppliers located around the world. Please ask our sales team to source a hardware quotation if required. (Please note: GWD do not seek to make a profit from hardware sales, but simply act as a conduit between customer and supplier, this relationship is of benefit as it ends up being an integrated solution (software & hardware) which cuts down on leg work for you).
User Experience
Now it’s time to think about making a first class piece of software that will wow your users; this is where Genkiosk comes in. The Genkiosk development team work closely with you to ensure your customers get the experience you expect. We collaborate on design of the UI and the process flow as well as integrating the hardware peripherals and hooking into the database API. At the end of the process you have a piece of software our company can be proud of!
Estate Management
So your kiosks are finally deployed and are performing brilliantly, if anything, it is all going too well and it’s a nightmare to stay on top of it all. If you are thinking of hiring more staff to keep control of your kiosk estate, then think again… Genkiosk kiosk management system is used to keep control of your kiosk estate through reporting, fault monitoring, content control and much more. Genkiosk lets you manage your estate from the comfort of your own HQ..