The Frankfurt airport in Germany has Nespresso Coffee kiosks. They brew coffee.

The canteen at Copenhagen Business School in Denmark has a self-checkout system. It tells how much I should pay.

The Max, a fast food restaurant in Stockholm, Sweden, has a do-it-yourself kiosk stand. It receives orders.

A hotel in Oslo, Norway, has a self service kiosk reception. Doors open only when reservation information is entered.

Indeed, self service kiosks are everywhere in Europe. They benefit managers and customers. Managers lower labor cost and customers avoid unnecessary relationships companies hoped for. 

However, self service kiosks have two weaknesses. Gretchen Gavett elaborated them in his article titled How Self-Service Kiosks Are Changing Customer Behavior.

… Technology lacks flexibility. When we’re interacting with a person and we’re having trouble understanding something, the person can adjust to us. If we’re having a misunderstanding, they can help clarify it. Technology really can’t do either of these things.

… A person has the ability to delight us or disappoint us. It’s really hard for a technology to ever delight, however, because it’s standardized and is built on a set of rules. But it is possible for technologies to disappoint us.

I have met a good example about how to overcome the above mentioned two weaknesses. This is Neal’s Yard Dairy, a cheese store at the Borough market in London, UK. In this store, customers should talk to the person over the counter to buy cheese. While having conversation with another human being over the counter, they learn what to buy and are relieved or excited. Only people can educate AND delight us at the same time. Kiosks cannot.

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Reference

Gavett, G. (2015). How self-service kiosks are changing customer behavior. Harvard Business Review, 3(1), 1-6.