Self-service kiosks: Bane or boon?

It's not easy to find something to like about air travel these days - the industry, after all, has the lowest customer satisfaction ratings in the economy - but Gail Bower, president of Bower & Co. Consulting, has: the self-service kiosks that just about every airline now uses to handle automated tasks.

They are easy to use and they keep the lines down to a minimum, she commented. And they are smart - a trait Bower experienced firsthand on a recent trip to Florida. "I had to catch a connection to get to my destination, and the airline's kiosk only printed out one boarding pass," she told CRM Buyer.

She thought it had made a mistake and was resigning herself to a wait in line and possible complications at the desk. "Then one of the attendants told me that the boarding pass was good for both flights - that the kiosk automatically booked me through."

For Bower - and indeed, most of us who use these kiosks in airports, hotels, grocery stores and retail chains - this incident illustrates the reasons why we both love and hate self-service kiosks: When they work as planned, they are a happy convenience. When they don't work, they become the focal point for all that is wrong with customer service.

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