The Benefits of a School Kiosk System on University Campus
Modern universities use school kiosk systems to connect students, faculty, and staff, while providing fast, convenient access to information, goods and services. Strategically located around large and small campuses, these self-attended waystations support campus life in many ways while providing a digital commons and central repository of services and information.
Available in multiple configurations and mounting options, school kiosk systems support indoor and outdoor use, and an array of peripherals, including receipt printers, barcode scanners, cameras, and contact and contactless credit card readers. With growing demand for university kiosks and campus security in higher education, self-attended solutions are improving the campus experience in so many ways, including these five examples:
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1. Cafeterias, Coffee Shops, or Cafes
A school kiosk system will significantly reduce wait times at campus food service venues by freeing staff to focus on food preparation and order fulfillment. Food courts, coffee shops, cafeterias, and dining halls, are all subject to peak traffic times when they serve large numbers of students, staff, and visitors in a short period. These self-attended solutions display menu items and nutritional information and can relay customer orders directly to kitchen printers. When integrated with a university kiosk system, kiosks display loyalty program and student meal plan balances in real time and offer multiple checkout options.
2. Bookstores
University kiosks provide students and staff with fast, convenient access to required reading lists and textbook inventories, saving bookstore owners time, labor, and money. By displaying the exact location of books in the store and enabling users to order out-of-stock items, kiosks reduce burdens on bookstore staff and improve the customer experience. In addition to viewing class reading lists and inventory statuses, students can access fast, simple self-checkout methods that support multiple payment options, including their prepaid bookstore accounts. Additionally, students can view real-time loyalty points and bookstore account balances and apply points and credits to new orders.
3. Informational Displays
University kiosks serve as wayfinding stations that help students, staff and visitors find their way around campuses and locate buildings, class schedules, campus updates and last-minute calendar changes. These digital directories are especially useful when placed in large campuses that can be challenging for visitors, classmates and newcomers to navigate. Even people who are familiar with campus layouts will regularly turn to school kiosk systems to locate buildings and classes, stay up to date on school announcements and event calendars, and get real-time information on school breaks, cancellations, rescheduled events and relocated classes.
4. Guest Services
University kiosks, when integrated with printers, barcode scanners and credit card readers, enable on-campus guests to check in, check out and print guest badges that display identifying information, meeting details, and approximate duration of each visit. These kiosks provide a fast, enjoyable guest experience and enhance security by notifying campus officials of check-ins and checkouts and campus visitor contact details and whereabouts. Self-service capabilities improve efficiencies by reducing repetitive, time-consuming manual tasks such as badge printing, guest check-in, badge collection and checkout procedures.
5. Parking
University kiosks in parking lots improve traffic flow by enabling campus visitors to prepay for their assigned parking without going to a service desk or searching for an attendant. Parking kiosks are a valuable asset for a school kiosk system that can help school administrators collect revenue without needing to hire and train dedicated staff. These kiosks operate at all times, capturing revenue and safeguarding unattended environments with built-in oversight capabilities that notify campus security of vehicles parked on the campus. Ruggedized tablets are recommended, with water resistant outer frames, built to withstand repeated outdoor use.
University kiosks clearly offer multiple benefits to colleges and universities. These flexible, adaptable systems provide fast meals, frictionless check-ins, trouble-free parking, on-site monitoring, campus navigation, building directories, community announcements, and more. Best of all, no two university kiosk systems are identical; each is designed to fit a school’s unique ecosystem, environment and user requirements.
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