Introduction
Coindrum Limited, a kiosk start-up firm based in Ireland, has made it easy and reliable for travelers and shoppers to dispose of their coins and redeem benefits immediately. Today, Coindrum kiosks are installed in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Belgium, Germany, Italy, and the United Arab Emirates. Meet the company’s entrepreneur, Lukas Decker, and learn about how he overcame the typical challenges that kiosk operators face to grow his business on an international level.
Coindrum Kiosk Integrated with CPI Coin Solution
Building a Successful Kiosk Business
It was 2012 when Decker first brought his business concept, “Making Coins Count,” to life. The start-up company, Coindrum, deployed its self-service kiosks at airports where travelers can dispose remaining coins in foreign currencies. The coins get converted into special vouchers printed by the kiosk. Customers, in turn, are able to use the vouchers at duty-free shops in the airport.
“Airport passengers love using Coindrum, as their leftover coins have no value to them once they depart. Not only is this inconvenience addressed but their vouchers also include extra free credit to shop in duty free,” mentioned Decker in his interview with the Irish Times. The Coindrum kiosks are a great solution to a customer pain point common to anyone who has traveled with foreign currency. This smart, extremely successful business concept has won them the Best Technology Innovation award at DFNI Charity Ball in 2018.
“No more counting, sorting and rolling of coins for customers. For retailers we offer best–in-class technology with a beautiful design,” answered Decker regarding the top benefits of the Coindrum kiosks.
Indeed, the kiosk offers full efficiency and the chance to drive sales and foot traffic, thanks to its large basket sizes and free coin supplies. Coindrum also offers a compelling advertising package to airport and high-street retailers, thanks to the kiosk’s 42’’ digital advertising screens and custom functionality, such as loyalty programs or newsletter sign-ups. “There is no feasible manual alternative to offering the service the kiosk performs. Mixed bulk coin counting has to be automated,” stated Decker.
Kiosk Features
✔ Coin tray to regulate flow of coins and remove small debris and dirt
✔ 42 inch digital signage screen for in store promotion and commercialisation opportunities
✔ Different locks to access vault and kiosks peripherals to increase security
✔ Design allows for future upgrades to barcode scanner, RFID reader, and chip & pin
✔ Secure coin vault including wheels and handles for easy transport
✔ The software interface designed to be completely dynamic in both look and feel, as well as functionality
✔ All information is reported back to ensure the maximum uptime for the kiosk
The question that naturally arises next is “how?” – if the automation of the mixed bulk coins counting is a must, how should it look and what are the key factors to be considered when choosing the right coin automation technology?
Uptime Is the Key Success Factor of Self-service Kiosks
One of the key concerns that Decker considered was ensuring the uptime of the kiosk. Uptime, as industry insiders know, indicates the time that a kiosk is fully functioning without any operational troubles. In short, it is a measure of the kiosk’s reliability used in the industry. On the other hand, the term downtime refers to the inability of a system to execute as designed. “Uptime has a direct impact on customer reliability of the kiosk in use. The kiosk may be in the state of malfunction, while you may not even notice. This can greatly harm your trust and reputation to customers, while also significantly reducing the revenues in return to both airports and operators,” mentions Alan Cracknell, the EMEA Sales Representative at CPI.
As more and more self-service kiosks and automated payment systems emerge in the retail and financial services industries, maximizing the kiosk uptime has been a top objective for every kiosk facilitator. Decker prioritizes this too.
“Uptime and debris handling were the major concern I had in mind, when I was looking to add the new coin handling solution to the Coindrum kiosks,” states Decker.
Kiosks are designed to accept leftover coins; however, many times dust and debris that piles over time will also enter. This may cause the kiosk to become unresponsive by blocking the coin’s pathways and disrupting the flow of coin processing.
The Coindrum team has prevented the potential risks of debris by installing CPI coin deposit solutions. The CPI coin deposit solution is a self-cleaning unit, which contributes to improvement of kiosk uptime and debris handling with its several debris-handling mechanisms. First, the perforated coin input tray allows small debris to fall into an ejection chute. Then, an automatic “arm” sweep of the input module gets rid of dust and debris. Lastly, the foreign object ejection hole handles remaining debris prior to the coins being deposited into the coin safe.
A Single Kiosk Doing It All: Depositing, Sorting, and Ensuring Seamless Integration
Another factor that affects the uptime of the kiosk is the seamless integration. It requires multiple coin depositing and sorting tools to function well as a stand-alone unit. As well as easily integrating with other peripherals within the kiosk. This may be challenging to some beginning operators who are looking for an easy and simple kiosk to be installed with a smaller footprint. Cracknell explains that “when considering different coin deposit solutions in the market, it is worth investigating the option that provides both deposit and sort functionality at the same time.” The coin depositing and sorting unit that does both can greatly help the OEMs ease the process of integration, while also saving the space inside the kiosk.
“During development of the Coindrum kiosk, we tested a range of bulk coin handling solutions before selecting the coin deposit solution from CPI and designing the kiosk around their solution. The CPI coin deposit solution was chosen based on its impressive speed & reliability whilst maintaining a form factor that could be easily integrated,” stated the OEM partner of Coindrum.
Earlier this year, CPI and Coindrum exhibited at the Retail Expo Show to promote coin solutions to clients in the retail space. “At CPI, we are always looking to bring the best-practices and the expertise that the OEM partners, kiosk operators, and cash solution providers like us have to one table,” states Cracknell. “We’ve been supporting the OEMs with integration documentation, design and CAD files, and final field testing.”
CPI has also provided the OEM partners with a sample of the product, as well as detailed design and technical information, simplifying the integration process. “The integration support received from CPI has been second to none, there was always someone on hand to offer support and guidance, and the guides offered where informative and useful. This level of support has enabled us to develop a control that can offer a full suite of options with their coin deposit units,” mentioned the OEM partner.
“CPI is a great partner to Coindrum, their experience & scale are a great fit for our ambition,” stated Decker.
Self-service businesses are growing rapidly and automated kiosks can be found at every customer touchpoint in retail and financial services. Increasing trust and reliability for customers with maximized uptime would be a smart move for a kiosk operator who is trying to grow.
Benefits of CPI Coin Deposit
✔ Self-cleaning unit for debris
✔ Process bulk coins Fast – increasing uptime
✔ Replacement parts
✔ Security
✔ Exclusive Support & Collaboration with OEM/Operator
✔ Single Unit doing it all