Lodi’s new kiosks a hit with customers
It’s been a month since the new payment kiosks were installed at the city’s finance department, and Deputy City Manager Andrew Keys is happy to report that the kiosks are paying off.
“The kiosks have been very well received. There has been a significant usage by our customers,” Keys said.
The kiosks were installed on May 10 and became available to the public on May 12. Since then, there have been over 1,500 transactions on the kiosks, which offer a simple way for customers to pay their utility bills. Customers can use their last names or account numbers to pull up their accounts and use cash or a credit card to pay their bill without speaking to a customer service representative. There is no cost for using the kiosk and payments are processed the same day.
“On our busiest days the kiosks do more transactions than a customer service rep, so it’s actually better in terms of keeping our lines shorter because we have additional resources now,” Keys said.
The kiosks have significantly reduced wait times, Keys said. The average transaction time per payment is about 40 seconds for a credit card and 87 seconds for cash compared to the three minutes a customer would spend completing a transaction with a customer service representative.
Keys said that usage is also picking up on the weekends and after hours now that customers are becoming more familiar with the kiosks and word about their availability begins to spread.
“All and all, it’s been a really good program,” he said.
One kiosk is located in the lobby and is available for use during normal business hours while another is located just outside the entrance of the department on the Elm Street side and is available for use 24 hours a day.
Keys said he has gotten a lot of positive feedback and comments from customers expressing how convenient the kiosks are for paying their bills, and noted that kiosks have proven to be very beneficial to Spanish-speaking customers.
“The kiosk does have Spanish translation so they are able to do the transaction using the language they prefer,” he said.
Even the customers that don’t use the kiosks have given him positive feedback by expressing that they don’t have to wait as long to speak to a customer service representative because most people are using the kiosks, Keys said.
While things have gone smoothly for the most part, there has been one issue with the new kiosks.
“We have noticed that sometimes with common last names where a person lives in an apartment or on a street where other people have the same last name, the last name does not work,” Keys said. “The customer has to try again using their first name, and then that will pull up the account even though the screen will tell them to use their last name. It’s just a quirk in the search.”