Automation and touch screens go hand-in-hand. From point of sales systems at self-serve checkouts to instant customer feedback systems, touch screens fuel a lot of customer-facing automation trends. Touch screens are often labelled as intuitive, meaning that anyone can figure out how to use a touch screen with little to no instruction.

This article serves as a quick primer for companies looking to integrate touch screens into customer service automation. We’ll look at what intuitive really means, where touch screens can be employed successfully, and how to keep security at the forefront of information technology automation:

The Myth of Intuitive Hardware

Imagine an empty room with a keyboard and monitor. On the screen, there’s a word processor. Someone with no knowledge of computers and a bit of curiosity is likely to be able to figure out how to type –  the keys they press directly correspond to the letters that appear on screen. They might, on the other hand, be surprised at the functionality of the enter or shift keys. You might be tempted to call the keyboard intuitive.

Now, imagine this exact same setup, but with nothing that processes words. You could type random letters all day, and nothing would happen. Does that mean the keyboard is useless? Absolutely not! You could still Alt-F4 out of programs, Ctrl-Tab through browser tabs, or Ctrl-Alt-Delete to reach your Task Manager (assuming you’re running a Windows OS). Is any of that intuitive? Absolutely not – you’d need to experiment for a long time with key combinations or be explicitly taught the functions of those combinations.

The same logic applies to touch screens. It’s tempting to call them intuitive – touch something to interact with it. A bit of examination brings about a number of questions, however. Where can you touch to interact? What does touching to interact with the screen actually do? 

You need to make the software you’re using with the touch screen work well with touch screen technologies. That means clearly highlighting fields that can be interacted with through touch – the use of borders is a good idea. You should also avoid using interactables that can be touched multiple times for different effects. For example, instead of having one box that can be touched several times for “good, bad, or neutral” in a customer feedback program, have that box separated into multiple boxes, of which the client can choose one.

You’ll also want to keep in mind that not all screens are touch screens. That means if you want your customer to interact with your screen, you’ll need to alert them of the fact that it is a touch screen – “Touch here to start” works wonderfully. The touch screen can be used for customer feedback for hospitality, banking and several other industries using intuitive softwares & apps. 

Touch Screens & Interactive Software

Touch screens, then, are best used in circumstances where softwares is largely visual –  in other words, where clients can simply press what they want. It could be an app on mobile or any interactive visual interface like a bank’s self service. That’s why you’ll see them so often in retail stores or for customer feedback – anything you want is easily represented through images. Interactive softwares makes the user experience rich and seamless.

When considering the use of touch screens, try to limit the number of fields that need to be filled, and whenever possible, break things down into categories with simple images that can be pressed. The less a customer needs to type, the better – typing on touch screens is not as easy as typing with keyboards. Avoid usernames and passwords. Keep a search function available on all screens, but make it small, and keep it toward the top corners.

In summation, touch screens are best used in places where categories can be created neatly, where visual elements are commonly used, and where typing is required only minimally. Governments, retail stores and banks etc. are making use of interactive softwares and apps for providing self service options for users. For e.g. banks are leveraging automation and touch screen self service options for availing services like travel card, KYC documents etc.

Touch Screens and Security

There’s actually a lot to discuss here, but this will only be a brief look at security. First, make sure to keep hand sanitizer near all of your touch screens, and have someone wipe them down regularly; this will help prevent the spread of disease. 

Some areas are still being profoundly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. In these regions, it can be advisable to limit or completely eliminate the use of touchscreens by customers. In spaces where touchscreens are the primary vehicle for customers to transact (like self-checkouts), put notices on your website and near the touchscreens about how the touchscreens are cleaned (and how often). You may also opt to have employees operate the touchscreens in lieu of customers.

Your touch screens are likely to be connected to the Internet. The risks of using public Wi-Fi for this connection are massive – public Wi-Fi is highly insecure and you could give malicious actors access to your customer service automation tech. As you know, bad things can happen – at the very least, trolls are going to mess with your touch screen. Make sure you have highly secured software for accessing sensitive data, secured IT protocols in place, and consider not connecting your touch screen to the Internet if the data is entirely for internal use.

Kreyon Systems is building automation and software products for companies to deliver business services for their customers. If you need any assistance or have queries for us, please contact us.

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The strength of the team lies in what it can accomplish together. The team’s productivity, efficiency and execution are the fundamental blocks for the success of a company. Leaders are on the lookout for tools that can help them to improve the performance of their teams. Wasting too much time on meetings, working inefficiently, ego tussles between team members, excessive time on mobile, poor communication, outdated data, and uninspired individuals are all indicators of poor productivity. Here is a look at 10 ways to improve your team’s productivity:

1. Set Clear Expectations:

It is important to set clear expectations from the team, define goals for each member. Define their work clearly in measurable milestones with deadlines and expected quality of work. Every team member must have clarity on what they need to accomplish.

2. Agile Meetings:

Meetings are one of the top time stealers for teams. Very often teams spend a lot of time discussing things that rarely translate into action. Long meetings are highly counterproductive. Meetings without clear action plan are waste of time. The agile methodology recommends short stand up meetings that can set the tone for the work. Early morning meetings that can set the agenda for work, define the action plan and deliverables are important for team’s productivity.

3. Inspired towards their Mission:

Great teams are dedicated to the core. They work on their craft & take pride in what they do. They go out of the way to ensure what they deliver is nothing short of the very best. The great teams are not only extremely focused on the task at hand, but also know the bigger picture. They know what they are aspiring to achieve. They are inspired towards their work and are on a mission.

4. Tools to Organise Work:

The total number of hours worked for a particular task, details of the project work, documents, time spent on meetings, hours spent on client calls etc are all very important to gauge the performance of an individual & the team. It is hard to manage work without efficient and state of the art technological solutions. The best teams work on tools that make their job easier. Tools that can help them organise their work, make them more efficient and ultimately improve the quality of their work are extremely crucial for productivity.

5. Prioritise like Crazy:

Work is endless. A successful team knows the art of prioritising the deliverables to create maximum impact. The deliverables keep changing as per the dynamic business needs. Hence it is very important to reassess the importance of work on regular basis, schedule things to cover the most important and urgent needs for the projects.

6. Efficient Time Management:

Efficiency time management is the most important skill for achieving project milestones. The key is to understand the most critical elements & the time it takes to reach the milestones. The time logged for tasks can be analysed to calculate the milestones for tasks. The historical data for similar tasks can serve as a benchmark to set the expectations right.

7. Autonomy:

The team members should have the autonomy to execute things for their day to day tasks. Micromanagement doesn’t help to develop a great team. Highly productive teams achieve more working together. They trust, give responsibility and back every member to deliver. The individuals in the team are empowered with choices and decisions to execute their tasks.

8. Quick Feedback:

It is important for the team to have feedback on their deliverables when they are working on it. Quick feedback is essential for improving the quality of the deliverables. An open feedback system helps the team to explore ways to do things better. An objective feedback with relevant pointers and resources can go a long way in helping the team to achieve its goals.

9. Distraction Free Work Environment:

We are living in a world of ever growing distractions. Focus is hard. With the mobile internet and smart phones, the attention spans of people have taken a beating. But the top teams know how to zone in and do top quality work. The top teams create a working culture that maximises communication, but minimises distractions.

10. Constant Learning & Improvement:

The digital age requires everyone to be a quick learner. Teams that constantly seek ways to improve are the teams that deliver outstanding results. Constant learning, sharing information and improving one’s craft are essential traits of successful teams. The time invested in learning and upgrading skills is crucial to the progress of the team.

Teams today are empowered with digital tools and can achieve more in less time. The efficiency of execution and effectiveness of work can shape the destinies of companies. The performance of the team, its efficiency and quality of work dictates the outcomes of the products/services they are working on. Great teams often raise the bar and create compelling products/services that shape the future.

Kreyon Systems is on the look out for talented professionals to join our team. Whether you are an experienced candidate or a fresher, you can be part of an exciting team building world class software solutions. Explore great career opportunities & jobs in jabalpur. Our current vacancies for software developers & UI developer jobs.

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Measuring the performance of companies requires proactive insights into ever changing data. These performance metrics are indicators of how the company is doing. However, businesses struggle to get the right data at the right time. More often than not, delay of information results in loss of performance. What companies need is proactive and actionable information at the earliest, so that the corrective measures can be taken to improve things. Business intelligence systems and automation tools are the key to an indepth understanding of the underlying processes of the company. The executives need to know the most important data patterns emerging from their business for measuring performance. The following is an indicative list of the 25 metrics for measuring performance of companies:

1. Total Revenue:

The total revenue generated by the company every month/quarter/year should be measured in clear terms. Companies also track & measure Revenue per day. The difference between your targets and actual revenue can provide key pointers on the improvement areas. The revenue parameters by regions, products and teams etc are important for analysis too.

2. Average Customer Acquisition Cost:

The customer acquisition costs are the sum total of all the marketing and employee expenses for winning a customer. The average customer acquisition cost is the ratio of customer acquisition expenses over total customers acquired in a given time period. A break-up of the costs in terms of percentage can also help your business to figure out the cost effectiveness. Example: The average cost of acquiring a customer in 2016 is 2,500$, it was 2,200$ in 2015.

3. Conversion Funnel:

The conversion funnel may include details for the total number of qualified leads, proposals delivered, negotiations in progress, & open opportunities in a given time period. The percentage of deals won versus lost is helpful for evaluating the performance of the sales teams. The conversion funnel analysis for months, their conversion ratios and overall value are important for targets.

4. Total Number of Customers & their lifetime value:

The total number of customers and their lifetime values is an important indicator for the direction of business. The forecasting of the lifetime value is based on customer’s current deals, retention rates and probabilistic estimates for future purchases. The idea is to find out the most valuable customers for a business based on these parameters. The number of customers gained or lost is an indicator on how the company is doing.

5. Customer Attrition Rate:

The customer attrition rate is the loss of customers for a business. The customer attrition rate is very important for the overall success of a company. The cost of acquiring a new customer is higher than retaining an existing one. The higher customer attrition rates are usually an indicator that the business is not serving its customers well. The management can take proactive measures, send surveys and interact with customers to gauge customer satisfaction levels for improving customer retention.

6. Average Time for Closing a deal:

The shelf life for products/services is as small as it has ever been. It is important for sales teams to be effective and close out deals quickly. How fast your team closes deals? How many days it takes to negotiate contracts with your clients? Which factor can fast track closure of deals? And many such answers can be uncovered with the right tools. Example: the average time for closing a deal in 2016 was 31 days, in 2015 it was 35 days.

7. Outstanding balance payments by Customers:

Top management and executives need to track the outstanding balance payments by customers. Huge outstanding balance payments can cause operational issues for enterprises. An automated list of outstanding balance payments for the current month or quarter can be sent to the executive team can be sent for fast tracking things. The action item for non payment can also be taken by them in case of no response by clients.

8. Procurement costs:

What are the procurement costs on monthly basis? What equipments need to be purchased? The procurement costs for business must be tracked closely. The current and fixed asset costs operational and capital expenses can have a significant impact on the bottom line for a company. You can stay on top of your procurement costs using a good supply chain management system.

9. Staff Retention & turnover:

What are the costs for replacing your staff members? What percentage of your staff is retained every year? The staff retention and turnover statistics are important for managing projects successfully. The staff retention is an important metric for gauging confidence and long term prospects for the business. For e.g. staff retention rate for 2016 was 93%, in 2015 it was 88%.

10. Staff Performance & time:

What is the average rating of your staff? What is the average number of hours they are spending on projects & tasks? The staff performance metrics are the basis on which policy decisions can be based. The decisions for downsizing can be taken based on performance measures. Managers are constantly driving to push for better staff performance and automated performance analysis is good for consistency. HRMS and payroll solutions can provide detailed metrics on performance of employees.

11. Marketing Expenses & ROI:

How much does your company spend for Marketing? What channels are involved for promotions? What is the effective ROI & Conversions from your marketing efforts? The marketing expenses spend analysis and effective ROI from different channels can help a company to fine tune the message to its customers. For every 10,000$ spent on marketing, how many customers does the company acquire?

12. Revenue per Employee:

The revenue per employee is an indicator of the efficiency  with which employees are utilised. It is expressed as the total revenue of the company divided by the active employees. The higher the revenue per employee, the more confidence the company generates for its stakeholders. For e.g. the average revenue per employee is 55,000$ in 2016. It was 53,000$ in 2015.

13. Profit per Employee:

The profit per employee is another metric that defines the efficiency of a company. It is expressed as the total profit of the company after taxes divided by the active employees. The profit per employee is indicative of the promise and potential in the business. A higher profit per employee is a positive sign for the growth of a company. It also means that the company has a strong niche.

14. Working Capital:

The financial health of a company needs to be measured proactively. The working capital is expressed as current Assets – current liabilities. The working capital ratio is the current assets/current liabilities indicate whether the company can cover its short term borrowings. When this ratio is below 1, it indicates negative working capital. Anything over 2 indicates that the company is not investing excess assets.

15. Average cost per employee:

What is the average cost per employee for your organisation? How much does it cost to replace your existing employees? The cost to company for employees is important for planning its operations. The employee costs, benefits and compensation are one of the major expenses for companies.

16. Total Customer Complaints:

The service levels of a company are extremely important for customer retention & cross selling opportunities. The total number of customer complaints is an indicator of the defects and quality of products/services by the company. A very high number of complaints is typically a red alarm for the management.

17. Average response time:

What is the average response time for customer complaints? A customer problem needs to be addressed within the shortest window of time. The management can track customer escalations and measure the first response time for customer complaints. This is an important metric for customer satisfaction levels. Typically businesses want to respond to their customers within minutes today.

18. Average resolution time:

The customer satisfaction levels are directly proportional to the quality of the services they receive. Top executives are always looking at the customer metrics with utmost care. The average resolution time for customer complaints is probably the most important metric in winning them. The average time for resolving customer complaints was 1.31 days in 2016; it was 1.5 days in 2015.

19. Average Customer Rating:

What is the average customer rating from your clients? How happy are your customers? The delighted customers for a business are its greatest assets. The average rating for a business is an important parameter for evaluating the services provided to the customers. Companies are aspiring for excellent ratings these days in an increasingly competitive environment.

20. Average Cost to fix a customer complaint:

The cost to fix customer escalations can be high. Companies need to be able to trace the defects in their products/services at the earliest stage for controlling costs. Tracking bugs at the earliest stage is important. The later the bug is discovered, the more it costs the company to fix it. Not only does it jeopardise the reputation of a business, but businesses also incurs heavy cost to fix customer issues. The average cost for fixing a customer complaint involves the support team, the engineering team & the customer representatives etc. Example: Average cost to fix a customer issue is 721$ in 2016, it was 650$ in 2015.

21. Response Rate for positions:

The growth of a company depends on how well it manages to attract talent individuals. A company typically wants to have a high number of applicants for its vacancies. The response rate is measured as the ratio of number of open vacancies/total number of applicants x 100. Companies need to track the response rate for building a stellar team.

22. Net Promoter Score:

How many customers will recommend your business to their friends & family? Net Promoter score is calculated on a scale of 0-10. The customers are classified as detractors, passives and promoters. The score breakdowns
a) 0-6: Detractors
b) 7-8: Passives
c) 9-10: Promoters

Net promoter score = (Number of promoters-Number of Detractors)/(Total Responses) X 100

Say a response of 100 customers received 30 responses from Detractors, 10 from Passives and 60 from Promoters. NPS=(60-30)/100 x 100. NPS is 30, which is positive for your business. NPS can also be negative, which implies unhappy customers.

23. Total number of customer projects or orders:

What is the number of current projects your company is handling? What is the number of client orders that are pending? How many projects can your company take up at a given point of time for ensuring optimised delivery? All these metrics are required for successful execution of the projects. Ideally the numbers shouldn’t be too high or too low. These numbers need to be monitored and information should be available to the executives’ realtime for seamless operations.

24. Cost for operations & Facilities:

What are the costs for operations and facilities for your business on monthly basis? What are the ongoing maintenance expenses and expenditures required for your business to operate smoothly? All these costs and their projects are important for having the right Working Capital. Very high overhead expenses can be detrimental to the long term health of a business. An analysis of the costs and their parameters should be monitored regularly for operational efficiency.

25. Profit or Loss:

The aim of a business is to maximize the value for all its stakeholders. Be it clients, staff, investors or shareholders. The monthly run rate for a business and calculation of profits or losses is important for staying on track. The profit or loss figures are metrics that the executive team needs to track closely. All parameters resulting in profit or loss should be outlined and suggestive actions be recommended through regular reports & software solutions.

BPA tool is one of the most important requirements for managing a company today. These tools are not only tuned to provide a visual summary of key performance indicators, but also changes graphs and information according to priorities of business. Static reports and data is now passé, executives need to know the most crucial elements of their business as soon as they can. Also, the key information is now sent to executives based on emerging patterns. The executives don’t need to login to the system looking for details. The dynamic correlation of data to business goals, identification and corrective measures for negative trends should be sent to the executives by the system proactively.

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Supply chain management is one of the key processes to achieve an organisation’s business objectives. For some industries, it is the most important facet around which the key operations revolve. The complexity of dealing with key personnel, supply & demand of assets increases with the growth of a company. Dealing with them in the most efficient manner to maximise utilisation of resources, reduce time lag between demand & supply & ultimately having accurate data to predict things can generate tremendous value for a company.  All this can be done with automation of your supply chain management. The introduction of IT can help an organisation to benchmark its SCM with best practices tailored to their needs. A good supply chain management will ensure the following:

1. Realtime Inventory status & Asset utilisation :

It is imperative to have a realtime status of inventory items before any procurement is done. A good SCM implementation will ensure that there are no unutilised resources. The procurement takes into account what exists in the inventory & accordingly new items are purchased.

2. Reduce time lag between demand & Supply :

In large organisations, significant time is taken to complete the procurement process. The requests are routed to the procurement managers, which may involve several approvals before the purchase is finalised. At times when there is a critical requirement, an automated SCM reduces the time lag required for the purchase. The lifecycle of procurement is simplified leading to quicker availability of key items.

3. Collaboration with Vendors :

The vendors are an integral part of the SCM. A system that can automate the functionality where vendors can submit quotations, send shipment information & also replace any faulty inventory makes the procurement very efficient.

4. Predictive analysis & proactive alerts for items :

The demand & supply of items is not linear in most organisations. For e.g. in an ecommerce portal, there may be peak demands during special offers, it is difficult to manage the demand of the items without predictive algorithms. These are designed to predict loads during peak seasons or times leading to optimised inventory to meet peak demands.

5. Vendor rating & performance management :

Vendor rating & performance management helps to improve the product quality & track the received items in an organisation. If a vendor delays the delivery of the items or doesn’t meet the quality guidelines then the same can be tracked. The performance evaluation of vendors helps in enforcing quality checks for the goods, reduces delay & helps in strict adherence to terms & conditions in the contract.

6. Track all steps & status of procurement :

Automation of SCM processes leads to better outcomes & predictable results. Right from the time, an inventory item is requested to the point it is delivered and alloted to an employee. All the intermediate steps involved from the time a request for quotation is sent to the vendors, quotation submission by vendors, comparison of quotations, creating purchase order, finalising payment terms & accepting the delivery of goods. The whole process from procure to pay is optimised with digitisation of SCM.

7. Cost Reduction :

The procurement costs can be tracked & monitored for an organisation. Excess inventory & unutilised assets are reported to the management with proactive alerts. Any discrepancy in cost, deliverables or product quality can be immediately notified to the concerned authorities with a good SCM solution. There is significant reduction of cost & improvement in asset utilisation. Analytics & business intelligence software also help in figuring out any anomalies.

The supply chain management solution is the key to operational efficiency of a company. Choosing the right partner for implementation of SCM solution can enable an organisation to uncover hidden opportunities, improve service efficiency, optimize inventory and increase transparency. A good SCM also acts as a growth engine for meeting the business objectives of an organisation.

Kreyon Systems is an IT company with industry leading supply chain management for real estate, aviation, retail & other industries. If you need an SCM solution, please contact us.

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