What is the impact of the convergence of technology and removal of previously provided human-based transactional services?
It happened to us first with the advent of the automatic teller machine in the 1980s. This was introduced as an example of “added convenience,” although everyone knew it was also the bank’s way of cutting costs (by having to keep less tellers employed to help their customers). Now for this “added convenience” of accessing our own money, we get charged if we try and take out our money from any ATM that isn’t the banks (although this varies from region to region).
But one thing that the banking industry got absolutely right was rock-solid ATM software for machines that need to be accessible and available 24/7. It is a pretty rare occurrence to drive up to an ATM that is “out of order” nowadays.
The retail industry could learn a thing or two from the banking industry in regard to replacing humans with machines. I am reaching my breaking point with the poor quality, scratched up scanners, and screwed up screens that can be found in virtually any retail establishment that has instituted a “self checkout” lane. (The U.S. Post Office is also an example of checkouts that have more screwed up LCD screens than any other retail establishment I’ve ever seen, in the dozen of local post offices I’ve visited.)
Look, Home Depot, Lowe’s, Walmart, BJs, IKEA, and Stop ‘n’ Shop. If you want me to use the self-checkout lanes at your store, please make sure they are functioning and in working order! I can’t tell you how many times (1 out of 2) that I walk to a self-checkout line and find one of the following problems:
- Bar code scanners scratched up beyond belief, to the point where it takes 5 or 6 swipes of an item to get it to scan. This is the number one problem. I stood in an IKEA line the other day and tried scanning the same item 20 times (in 20 different ways, angles, etc.), all the while the stupid checkout person just looked on, helpless. (Yes, I felt like the hapless rat in some Skinner box experiment.) The solution? Simply replace the scanner glass! A $3 item fixes your customers’ frustration, yet most retailers seem clueless to this.
- LCD payment screens that are screwed up. I’m sorry, but you’re asking me for information on a screen that I can’t even read! Please, check these once a week and ensure you replace them in a timely manner when they go bad. I’ve been to some stores where the same screwed-up screens are presented to me for months, showing little “care” in customer care (Hi, Home Depot!).
- The same device that displays your payment information on the keypad is also the card swipe. Guess what, that card swipe is often bad, and makes your customers swipe their cards multiple times before they finally give up and try a different card. The card isn’t bad (I know, because I just used it in the gas station pump which has none of these problems), just your stupid card reader. Check these too regularly. Hey, if you need to, buy a $0.59 screw on every machine once a week just to ensure it’s working!
- Get daily feedback from your self-checkout cashiers. Look, I know these people are trying to be helpful, but they are put in an awkward position when the technology they know is in bad shape keeps failing the customer. So get their feedback every week on what self-checkout lane needs maintenance, based upon their observations, instead of just telling them to “help the customer out.” I don’t want someone to tell me how to swipe a card (Umm, gee, I’ve only been doing this for a decade now). I want someone to note the problems and get something done about it!
- You haven’t figured out how to let someone scan multiple, small items? Then make sure people know they shouldn’t use self-checkout. Regular checkout people can enter in one item, hit a quantity number (say 20), and be done with it. You can’t do that with self-checkout, and it’s a pain in the butt. If you’re really concerned with me ripping you off, then I probably shouldn’t be your customer in the first place.
- Last, recognize that the self-checkout customer is saving you money, not the customer (in fact, it costs the customer effort to self-checkout). It costs me nothing to use the standard checkout method that’s been available to consumers for over 200 years. So don’t penalize me for choosing to help you out. And don’t give me some marketing baloney how such technologies “save the customer money.” No, they save you money. And if you don’t know how to run a profitable business without them (and keeping them well-maintained), then please, save us all the trouble and take them out and go back and hire some more checkout people.
Technologies such as ATM machines and self-checkout lanes are a part of our modern life. But I will often shop at my local supermarket (that has smiling cashiers and no self checkout line) over the bigger (and perhaps slightly cheaper) supermarket 10 miles away. And as much as I’m dependent upon Home Depot and Lowe’s for my self-improvement resources, I will start ensuring I use their cashiers over their self-checkout lanes if the quality and maintenance doesn’t improve soon.
Because what’s the point of all of this technology if it only aggravates your customers and makes them unhappy? Certainly, that’s not the intended point of these technologies, and yet, because of poor upkeep, that’s exactly what’s happening.
If ATM machines and gasoline pumps can handle hundreds of transactions a day with few hiccups, I imagine retail checkout lanes can do so as well. But it’s up to retailers to invest in the technology (and maintenance of that technology) that ensures the customer isn’t left standing there trying to scan something that won’t be scanned because of scratched glass or a bad card reader.
Something may be “gained” by substituting machines for people (in terms of convenience or speed, at least initially), but something is definitely lost as well. And that’s another piece of our humanity — the social transaction that is the foundation of every financial transaction. Perhaps that’s why Wall Street is a far different beast today than it was 30 years ago, because human interactions have largely been replaced by automated computer transactions and software.
We’ve all seen what replacing human transactions with computer transactions in the financial sector has done to our economy. And maybe our world as well.
19 comments
IKEA self-checkout lanes are the WORST! They have actually lost money from me because I have given up in frustration and decided I didn’t need the item, rather than continuing to go through the hassle of it not having scanned multiple times.
In fact, because of IKEA, I tend to avoid all self-checkouts now, unless the lanes staffed by real people are just too clogged and I’m in a hurry. So I’m right here ranting with ya. 🙂
Hear, hear! I avoid self-checkout lanes like the plague. I have a bad experience almost every single time. Frankly, I don’t appreciate having to learn and remember a new complex task — the task of checking myself out — which I only need to do occasionally. I also have to remember the slight differences in procedure among different stores. (Does this one let you add coupons after you hit “pay” or do you have to input them first? Can you buy stamps easily at this store? Etc.) And that’s when the equipment runs smoothly.
I would rather pay slightly higher prices to know an experienced cashier is completing this task for me!
You left this comment ten years ago and will probably not read what I have to say, but thought I’d chime in to help others like you.
Self checkouts ain’t rocket science. Nothing complex about them. The problem with them is the rude, thoughtless and idiotic customers who do one or more of the following:
1. Bring a cartload of groceries to self checkout and cause a line to form/get longer.
2. The dunces who can’t figure out how to use it, causing a line to form/get longer
3. The garbage human beings who intentionally go as slow as possible, causing a line to form/get longer
4. Talk or text while self checking out, causing a line to form/get longer. Invariably, the dunces who use their phone at self checkouts are also the sort who intentionally move as slow as possible and are too stupid to understand how to work the self checkout.
Dear readers, if you are stupid, rude, and/or thoughtless, PLEASE for the love of all that is holy, stay far away from the self checkout lanes.
LOL. Nice rant.
I won’t use those self-checkouts for many reasons, but you’ve just given me a few more.
Only now after reading this post do I feel OK sharing that I have never, ever, used a self-checkout lane in a store. I have internally sworn never to do so until that is the only recourse to me to obtain sustenance. OK, I will share that part of the reason I’m interested in psych sites/blogs such as this is my long road back from the depths of depression. One of the most important emphases of my therapy and recovery was increasing my connection with people. Because the main cause of my depression, divorce, resulted in my living alone, I go to the grocery store more often because 1) I can’t buy in bulk without food going bad, so go to the store a lot more frequently for less food/produce at a time; 2) I go to the store more often to make sure I leave my house and am not a hermit, to circulate among people even if I’m not communicating with them, and to at least talk to one person, the clerk, exchange smiles, and sometimes even exchange pleasantries/humor. It probably sounds so inane or shallow to readers, but this simple sort of human exchange helps keep me balanced and more positive.
Of course, ever since I began to receive treatment for depression, I fear anything I express will be viewed as “crazy” so you can take or leave the above thoughts.
John, This is a great ‘rant’; I never compared the ease of self-serve at the pump with the heartbreak of self-serve at Lowe’s before. You are absolutely right! What is up with that? A self-serve strike is a brilliant idea. You may have started a new grass roots movement!
Mary, You are clearly smart, brave and, with good help, working hard to feel better. Good for you!
Mary, you pointed out another great reason to avoid self checkout lanes — social contact. After all, a purchase at a store is as much a social exchange as it is an economic one. In stores a hundred years ago, if something didn’t work right or broke right after you bought it (or was spoiled), you brought it back and you knew the people at the store, and they would do right by you (exchanging it or returning your money).
That wasn’t based solely upon simple economics back then, as there was also an implied social contract — “This is the right thing to do, after all, I have to see this person in church every week or pass them on the street.”
When you remove all social interaction from a purchase, you remove a part of that social contract and try and reduce it purely an economic one. And while that may work for some companies, others have learned the hard lesson that once you destroy a consumer’s trust (for whatever reasons), it’s only rebuilding the social contract that will bring that customer back.
So I’m with you — I will gladly choose to wait an extra minute or two in a human-powered checkout line than “saving” it by self-checkout. And whatever time I think I’m going to save in self checkout is now being lost due to the malfunctions of the equipment and complete lack of help by many of the people responsible for manning those lanes.
Um…John? Get a grip…
self checkout is miserable. god forbid you should make a mistake, scan something twice, or have a coupon or something. You have to stand there like a jerk waiting for some poor slob to get done helping the last guy who had a mistake, and if you’re very lucky, there’s one of those police lights at the top swirling around to let everyone know you can’t work a simple machine.
I only use the self-checkout if I have 4 or fewer items and the regular checkouts are full. I almost always need to haul an employee in anyway, so those things rarely save me time otherwise – which is the ONLY reason for using them.
If the glass and other components are not standing up to regular use, the answer is not replacing them very often, which costs money AND labor cost, but replacing them with sturdier stuff – harder tempered glass, metal or harder plastic, etc. The one-time higher outlay saves far beyond the initial cost in money saved over replacing worn-out components over ensuing weeks and months.
I didn’t mind using the self-checkout at the grocery store until today. I suspect I gave two twenties, fresh from the ATM and stuck together for a 13.98 purchase, and the machine read it as one twenty dollar bill. Calling the store got me nowhere, with the customer service person babbling about bar codes and how the machine has safeguards… I was so frustrated that I gave up, will have to go to the store and talk to someone who knows me there. Lesson learned.
This is a response to an IKEA self checkout comment by an IKEA employee.
At first when we installed the self checkouts they were ok. The fact is that everyone believes we have fired people like other companies due to these machines, but we have not. However, I always hear customers complaining to me about them. I have been arguing with the management at my store to get rid of them, but they won’t because it’s the corporate office’s decision. I have told upper management that the customers hate them and that people are willing to leave the store and not buy anything because of them. I am trying to fight for the customers, but no one will listen. If you want to get rid of self checkouts at IKEA, complain to the corp offices, not the local stores because they have no say in that decision.
Every time we use a self checkout line, we tell a business that they no longer need to hire humans to serve us.
Sadly I think noone gets it. Yes it is a good investment for the company but what about the people without jobs. We wouldnt really be at a loss of unemployment if we actually hired more people and stopped using those stupid self check out. Sorry to say I work where there is one and it sucks to be there waiting and looking to make sure noone is stealing anything. Also it is a hassle when people are yelling or getting mad because you helped someone before them and they dont understand you were already there. I personally cant stand them and I NEVER use them!! They are horrible machines that should never exist. Next thing you know everything will be machines and there will be no human interaction.
Automated check-outs? NO!!!! I want a person, not a non-entity. I like people contact.
I’m against most of this article probably because I run self-checkouts on a daily basis. This is definitely a 2 sided street …
1) Those 20 items need to be scanned individually because you wouldn’t believe how many mistakes are made because a customer thinks they are grabbing the same item when really it’s not. Inventory control! I couldn’t even tell you how many hours our Manager’s have spent counting thousands of screws or cat food cans because a cashier has hit “20 x’s” because the customer told them they were all the same when they weren’t. Our cashiers are not allowed to use the “X’s” or “Repeat” buttons for this reason and since, surprisingly, there have been no issues. The fact of the matter is there are too many products out there that look exactly the same but might not have the same features. Unless you’ve worked retail, you will never understand this … or inventory control.
2) Customers are really not too bright when it comes to SCO’s. Honestly, I’m not saying it in a rude way but they don’t listen to what the machine is telling them. I cannot tell you how many times a day a self-checkout is telling the customer to put the item on the platform and yet there they are, still standing there with the item in their hand. Just an FYI to your readers as I too did not know this until I worked with SCO machines. The “platform” is a scale. The computer knows the weight of every single item. If you don’t put the item on the platform, it isn’t sensing any weight so a prompt is going to come up. With our machines this will happen twice before it tells them to wait for an attendant. Not only that … I can’t tell you how many customers I have to tell just to hit the “Start” button.
3) SCO’s don’t take jobs. Even if our 4 machines weren’t there, we wouldn’t have 4 more people on cash. Now THAT’S a waste of money. If the SCO’s were non-existent, we will still only have that one SCO attendant on cash.
I do understand some people’s frustrations with the machines. Our chip card readers are HORRIBLE! The fact of the matter is we need new equiptment but the Corporation really doesn’t care and it sucks for both you AND me. Although I doubt that piece of glass you were talking about really cost $3. The hand-held machine we have (it’s mobile so we can take it with us when we’re helping customers) alone costs $2000.
I use SCO’s everywhere I go. At the end of a long work day I don’t want to interact with anyone at a cash. I want to get in and get out. I’ve never had an issue using any self-checkout machine because I’m paying attention and listening to what the machine is telling me to do.