In today’s day and age, retail establishments are able to deploy instant credit kiosks in the store to ensure a much smoother transition.
Furniture, appliance, mattress and jewelry retailers rely on providing credit or financing options to customers. As a retailer, offering the correct credit options is critical for completing a sale. Without credit, potential customers may leave the store and never purchase a single item!
For years, retailers utilized the traditional pen/paper application, followed by the ‘call in the credit application’ method. This practice often leads to frustration for the customer(s) and the store. But, in today’s day and age, retail establishments can now deploy instant credit kiosks in the store to ensure a much smoother transition. What are the benefits of these convenient kiosks?
3 Reasons Retailers are Deploying Credit Application Kiosks
1. Quick & Efficient
For store associates and customers, paper applications are quite time consuming. By implementing in-store credit kiosks, the process becomes quick and easy for customers to obtain instant credit approval. Retailers are, therefore, able to be more productive with their time and the customer’s time. In addition, credit kiosks free up time in the store’s business office, because the staff will no longer be overwhelmed with credit applications. A sale will close quicker and easier. Kevin Lawrence, in his article, ‘Advantages Of Self-Service Kiosks For Furniture Financing,’ states that “retailers using [self-service kiosks] report a 20 percent increase in credit applications, a 40 percent increase in approvals, and increases of 15 percent or more in transaction size.”
2. Increase Customer Privacy
In the past, customers may have been reluctant to surrender private information in the store. According to the blog, ‘The Retail Credit Process: There Has to be a Better Way,’ it is not always an ideal situation for a customer to give up personal information, “Customers can be equally disillusioned with the [paper/pen] process. Do I really want to fill out an application and hand my personal information over to someone I don’t know? Worse yet, do I want to hand that information over to my neighbor who happens to work there? Add to that the customers who are interested, but feel their credit is marginal and don’t want to take the chance that they will be declined.” Credit kiosks allow the customer to enter, via a touchscreen, personal and pertinent information privately, such as name, address, email address, phone number, yearly income and social security number. Then, the information is sent through a secure network to the retailer’s prime lender. The process eliminates stress and costly paper applications. No paper work is generated and the personal/financial information is not stored on the kiosk. It is sent directly to a secure network.
3. Instant Approval
With the use of a credit kiosk, the application process takes a matter of minutes to execute. Once the customer’s information is entered, a decision is returned within mere seconds. Customers will know how much they have been approved for, as well as the interest rate. As Kevin Lawrence reiterates, “Self service. Privacy. Rapid decisions. No embarrassment. Higher approval rates. There’s nothing for shoppers not to like.” If the application is denied with the top lending vendors, the application will continue to make its way through a number of different lenders - until there is a match for the customer. In the unlikely event of being completely declined, customers will also be notified immediately. This eliminates the potential embarrassment of denial with a sales associate.
The customer experience is greatly enhanced when retailers choose to deploy instant credit application kiosks. They generally experience more approvals in a faster speed, which means more sales. Upon approval, the customer instantly knows the dollar amount that they can spend in the store. Sales associates are able to direct customers to available products in a specific price range. Retailers also have the opportunity to upsell, in the event that the customer receives a higher approval than originally anticipated. Kiosks can be a win-win for everyone!
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