Kiosks have become an integral part of our daily interaction, be it at retail stores, hotels, restaurants, airports or malls. While kiosks are designed to make your transactions and service easy there are times when these machines go out of order in funny ways. Here are some of the funniest kiosk failures that might occur and simple ways to avoid them.

Eternal “Processing” Loop

You’re at some stand ready to buy or order something, but the display is stuck on “Processing”. You can’t get the machine to do anything and you just stand there like a jackass with everyone else while the wheel spins. I’ve seen customers stay and wait, or walk away without knowing if they were charged.

This will happen generally due to the network or processing power. If the connection between the kiosk and the backend system is weak, it causes the machine not being able to complete the transaction.

How to Avoid It:

• Implement regular software updates to ensure optimal performance.
• Monitor the network connection and set alert to solve the issues before they impact the customer experiences. It is important that you let your monitoring systems do their job and provide you with alerts.
• Set up the kiosk to let the user know automatically if it is delayed and if they want to try again or need help.

Accidental Karaoke Kiosk

One time, for instance, a Kiosk located at the food court started playing music by itself. People who stepped in eagerly waiting to make some orders instead faced some piece of equipment blasting karaoke with multiple loud songs. Whereas some individuals found this to be fun, for a good number of people, this caused a lot of confusion and delays.

Such a malfunction is characteristic of a poorly installed sound system or a media player. For this instance, it appears as if there was a system installed which played music in the background but had ill-mannered controls where it was played at inappropriate intervals.

How to Avoid It:

• Make sure that all the sound settings are in the correct position before any installation takes place.
• Make sure that the system is regularly assessed in order to avoid unnecessary problems later on.
• Do not activate audio functions unless doing so is entirely needed, thus the chances of mistakes being made will be less.

Touchscreen “Ghosts”

The kiosk, from which you are trying to make a purchase, selects items for you before you even put your finger on the screen. Welcome to the world of phantom touches! No input has been given yet the machine registers some hence this problem is faced by the user as well, and these are some funny situations when a customer sits and watches as the machine takes over the decisions.

Phantom touches are mostly due to the presence of dirt or moisture on the surface of the screen or the screen itself may have a fault. A screen exhibits sensitivity and when it is lost, certain antisocial elements may be interpreted as commands.

How to Avoid It:

• Wipe the screen at least once a day to ensure that dirt and other issues do not overtake its sensitivity.
• As with the previous reasons, it is also essential to repair the touchscreen when appropriate because malfunctions may appear.
• Choose durability of the screens without compromising quality

Inverted Screen Kiosk

Navigation kiosks installed in a mall in one scenario had their contents displayed upside down. Users tried to wrap their heads around maps, while some tilted their heads, and some others grappled in vain upon reading the upside-down letters. While some good laughs came from this, it also was quite naturally annoying to anybody who was in need of directions.

This incident is normally associated with an incorrect software configuration or a bug in the course of a system update. Kiosks use specific display settings, and when these are set up incorrectly they tend to rotate the display.

How to avoid It:

• Software upgrade or any other changes to kiosk systems should always be followed up by testing.
• Put adhesive reset buttons that require only a single click to fix simple issues like rotation of the screen.
• Provide the kiosk with options that permit movement and reposition of the screen in the event that it is necessary.

The Kiosk That Talked ‘Alien’
There was one self-service kiosk in an airport that went ahead and started talking in a very strange language. Other travelers stood a side astonished in an attempt to understand the machine. Some went as far as to say it was a kiosk that was attempting to talk to aliens. Others went beyond that to be simply angry with the fact that a language barrier existed.
This is a problem that occurs most of the time due to a mistake in a language setting. However, if something goes wrong, such as system bugs or poor configuration, the kiosk might revert to a language that is not used by the intended users, making the kiosk unusable.

How to avoid it:

• Ensure that the language management system is accurately configured and lock these so that inadvertent changes are not made.
• Make the language selection easy and intuitive so that people do not have trouble switching to their language of choice.
• Make sure that latest software updates have been downloaded and installed usually with out of sequence bugs regarding language settings.

Key Takeaways:

In most cases, functional failures of the kiosk can cause amusing and interesting instances and events, however, they are the issues that most customers would rather not experience as well as inconvenience the general flow of operations. Concerning how these hiccups can be prevented, all the above will take effective maintenance, appropriate settings and constant vigilance. Companies and other organizations that use kiosks need to change their perception regarding kiosks and consider them as critical assets that contribute to enhancing customer satisfaction and therefore the according to an archaic regime should not be accepted.
Such entertaining disgraces can be learned from and some preventable actions can be taken so that no customer kiosk that works shifts into a disgrace and results in a bad mood for clients’ business.