Digital Signage Can Extend Your Sales Success

"Just what do you think you're doing, Dave?" Thoseyards.
words, made famous by the artificially intelligentAt Randy Dean Construction in Wichita, another
computer HAL 9000 in Stanley Kubrick's "2001: Ainteractive digital signage system using a Keywest
Space Odyssey" resound in my ears every time ITechnology digital signage controller, a touch-screen
think about the topic of this week's article: virtualsensor interface from ELO and a 32in flat panel LCD
assistants.greets potential buyers as they enter a model home.
For those of you too young to recall, HAL was theWhile Randy Dean's sales agent can answer the
artificially intelligent computer aboard Discovery in thequestions of one buyer, the interactive digital signage
film that attended to the myriad of details requiringsystem can take other prospective buyers on full
oversight as the ship's crew made its way to Jupiter.360-degree virtual tours of all Randy Dean homes,
Its seemingly omnipresent red camera lens monitoredaccess and print floor plans, examine the builder's
all ship activity.home inventory and access the company's Web site
With HAL's words still fresh in my memory, even-all without taking the sales agent away from the
after all of these years, it is with a bit of personalprospective buyer.
trepidation that I will discuss how digital signage canOut-of-home media specialist DSX Media in Wichita
be used to add a virtual assistant to any sales ordesigned and delivered both systems, including
marketing process. But don't worry, with this sort ofcreating digital signage content, interactive branching
application there's no danger of getting sucked outand delivering digital signage hardware and software,
into the cold recesses of space.touch-screen controller and flat panel LCD screen. In
As in "2001," the concept behind a virtual assistant isthe case of Randy Dean Construction, DSX Media
simple: make a complex process simple andalso sold advertising contracts to aligned businesses
manageable through the use of an efficient,like mortgage bankers and title companies so their
"intelligent" computer. Putting that concept intocommercial messages could be interwoven into a
practice here on earth is helping two Wichita, KS,loop of content that plays till the screen is touched.
area businesses extend their sales and marketingWhile the specifics of both applications differ, they
efforts and better serve their customers whileshare the concept of using interactive digital signage
freeing up personnel for other critical tasks.-a hybrid of digital kiosk technology and conventional
At Walnut Valley Garden Center in Andover, KS,linear digital signage pages- to boost both businesses'
outside Wichita, an elaborate, interactive digitalsales by in essence projecting the presence of a
signage setup helps customers determine how muchvirtual sales assistant to answer many of the
product they'll need for a given landscaping or gardenquestions consumers typically ask. Doing so elevates
project by combining maps from Google Earth, adigital signage to a new plateau, somewhere far
digital signage controller from Keywest Technologybeyond the role of an electronic equivalent of a
and an Orion touch-screen LCD panel with a dataprinted sign, where it becomes an integral part of an
base of landscaping products that the store carriesorchestrated sales process.
and their recommended coverage area.Like all analogies, the one between the virtual
Customers simply type in their names and addressesassistants in Wichita and HAL eventually falls apart.
when using the system, and a map of their individualWhile the garden center and homebuilder applications
property is summoned from Google Earth. Byrely on some pretty specialized data bases to create
touching the screen to define the boundaries of theircontent on the fly that's relevant to shoppers,
project, customers trigger a computer to determineneither uses artificial intelligence like the fictional HAL.
the types of products to use and how much they'llStill, the similarity in human-computer interaction,
need. For instance, by designating an area on theconjures up that all-seeing red camera lens in my
map, they can learn what type of fertilizer they needmind's eye.
for their lawn and how much to buy.Which brings me back to where I started this article:
For those who are new to gardening, the system"Just what do you think you're doing, Dave?" Unlike
cycles through digital signage presentations"2001's" astronaut Dave Bowman, who disconnected
encouraging them to touch the screen to select onethe technology, my answer is to turn you on to the
of 12 different types of gardens. After settling on apossibilities of using interactive digital signage to
design, the system allows customers to interact andcreate virtual assistants like the ones at Randy Dean
tells them exactly what's needed -including plants,Construction and Walnut Valley Garden Center to
mulch and rocks- to build a similar garden in theirboost your sales success.