Touchscreen technology for garden centres solves staff and skills shortages

JOY OF PLANTS and Review Systems Digital Signage Ltd have recently launched a new smaller ‘Plant Finder’ Touchscreen Kiosk to solve staff and skills shortages at garden centres.

The innovative 21-inch digital touchscreens are supplied as freestanding kiosks or wall mounted units, include Joy of Plants’ Plant Finder, and can be individually branded for each garden centre.

The new 21 inch pedestal wall mounted Touchscreen Kiosks featuring Joy of Plants' plant finderJonathan Brown, Managing Director at Review Systems Digital Signage Ltd in Preston, said: “Our new pedestal-style Plant Finder Kiosks are affordable, attractive and enticing. We recently received great feedback at Glee, with visitors calling them ‘phenomenal’ and ‘fantastic’.

“The units are very versatile – they can easily be moved to different locations in-store as garden centres change their layouts seasonally. Joy of Plants handles regular seasonal updates of new plants and new care products ensuring that the information available to staff and visiting customers is always up to date, freeing up staff to look after customers and plants.

“Any staff member can simply look up plant info to answer a customer question and if staff members are unavailable, customers can also use the units themselves. Many younger gardeners prefer to use technology to answer their questions, so a self-service info kiosk provides the kind of customer service interactivity they are familiar with.

“Until 2023 the government is offering a Corporation Tax Super-deduction to encourage businesses to invest in IT solutions. Retailers can claim 130% of the cost of touchscreen kiosks against their annual tax return. As a further encouragement we are offering an additional 15% off the price of units ordered before October 31, 2021, just quote ‘Glee2021’ with the order. So, it pays for garden centres to invest now for the 2022 season.”

The new kiosks include Joy of Plants’ Plant Finder with Care Product Recommendations so that customers and staff can look up plant information and automatically see care product recommendations for each plant.

Terri Jones, Managing Director at Joy of PlantsTerri Jones, Managing Director at Joy of Plants, explains: “We’re thrilled with the new 21-inch touchscreen kiosk that we launched at Glee. We’ve taken our first orders and expect to see the units in stores before Christmas.

“They’ll be on-hand to advise on the best houseplants and Christmas plants to suit different situations, and the appropriate care products to use to make sure those plants thrive. And come spring, staff will be able to use the Plant Finder to help customers fill their gardens with the most suitable plants for them.

“With the huge number of new gardeners in the country, the need for plant information has grown, while at the same time trade reports express concerns over lack of availability of horticulturally trained staff. Coupled with staff off work because of Covid, retailers are in a difficult position. Thanks to our Plant Finder Touchscreen Kiosks we’re able to help them bridge this gap in skilled staff. They can continue to provide first class customer service by using technology that is well suited to our new generation of gardeners. And to support customers choosing plants from the comfort of their own homes, they can use the Plant Finder on their websites too.”

Review Systems Digital Ltd was founded with the vision of producing innovative and affordable digital signage. It provides robust and scalable solutions, backed up with excellent customer service and support.

It’s passionate about digital signage and has spent over a decade developing software and hardware solutions which power a wide range of digital signage networks for Garden Centres, Pharmacies, Retail, Corporate and Education.

The company’s bespoke digital signage hardware designs are manufactured in co-operation with its garden centre partners to ensure that its hardware products provide unique pieces that are tailored to the venue and the requirements of their customer base.

The garden centre Plant Finder Kiosks, in partnership with Joy of Plants provide staff and visitors alike with an interactive and knowledge driven experience.

For further details about Review Systems Digital Signage Ltd, please visit https://www.godigitalsignage.co.uk  or call 01772 875536. You can also follow the company’s blog at https://www.godigitalsignage.co.uk/blog-1.

Joy of Plants’ mission is to make plant information easy and accessible to all. It has created a library of more than 15,300 UK garden plants and trees, and offers a platform of tools to help garden centres, retailers, growers and breeders maximise their plant sales and income.

It provides information in many forms including an Image and Text Library for ecommerce sites, Plant Finder for websites and Touchscreen Kiosks, Bed Cards and Apps.

For further details about Joy of Plants, please call 07717 532 323, visit www.joyofplants.com, follow the company on Twitter at @JoyofPlants or on LinkedIn via www.linkedin.com/company/joy-of-plants.

 

 

 

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