At Your (Self-) Service
A recent article on MSN.com tells of the rise of self-service checkouts and kiosks. If you listen to the marketing people–and somebody’s got to be listening to them, given that everything from gas stations to doctors’ offices now offers self-service–this improves service, speeds transactions, builds brand loyalty, and saves money.
Oh, really? In no particular order, let’s take this point-by-point.
Builds brand loyalty? Only if you’re afraid that the store down the street has as many kiosks out of order as the store you’re accustomed to.
Speeds transactions? Where, exactly? I’m sure that at least one other person reading this has had the following happen (and that’s confidence, given that there are only four of you reading): You get on line in the Express lane. You know, 12 items or less. Well, you know 12 items or less; the woman in front of you has somehow interpreted this to mean 12 items per person in her household. And she’s one of the women you see in the Wal-Mart commercials, who buys everything at Wal-Mart, except birth control, and who consequently has 23 children. She’s got two baskets, and she has to inspect each individual item for the bar codes. Some items twice, because she wasn’t paying very close attention the first time. Half an hour later she’s done, and it takes you 15 minutes more to buy a pack of gum, a gallon of milk, and a handful of carrots because the machine suddenly refuses to take cash, credit, or debit.
But wait, you’re saving money, right? No, this is a supermarket. You’re paying the same price for what you’re buying. It just takes longer. That isn’t to say it doesn’t save somebody money; the supermarket makes out like bandits, ’cause they get to let their cashier staff wither by attrition, staffing six lanes with one person who’s surly as hell because s/he is the only person in the store who knows how this friggin’ thing works, and s/he has some job security as a result.
Which brings us to service, which also suffers. We already know what it’s like to spend 45 minutes on the phone, navigating pushbutton (or, worse still, voice-activated) prompts when we could’ve gotten an answer in 30 seconds if we spoke to a knowledgable person. The only tangible advantage to self-service is that if the person handling your order is surly, incompetent, or having an off day, you have nobody to blame but yourself.
Consultants are always keen to get rid of someone else’s job. Good service, though, has the ability to make or break a business. All the talk of “relationship marketing” doesn’t amount to much if you don’t have a staff to build those relationships. While I’ll grant that some people are more than willing, heck, happy even, to shop online, scan their own groceries, or pump their own gas so as not to have to deal with people, some of us still value social interaction and all that goes with it. Customer service is the intangible, “value-added” part of the equation.
But that’s just my two cents’ worth. If you’ll excuse me, I have a handful of chives to weigh.
Tags: Business, retail, self-service