Think Customers: The 1to1 Blog

When it became our turn to check out, we encountered numerous problems. With every other item we scanned, the machine alerted us that we needed live assistance. After looking around, the customers in the other three lines were requiring constant assistance as well. The clerk had to help us a minimum of six times. There were three other employees helping the other people in line.

So four employees were helping the four self-service lines. After a 10-minute check-out, we finally made our way out the door, vowing to never return to Lowe's (there were also no bags available in the entire store, which made us grumpier).

Yes, self-service (if working properly) can create efficiencies and reduce costs for companies. But customers also want choices in how they're serviced. Companies also need to use common sense. Assigning four employees to four self-service lines, doubling the time it would have taken to have our purchases scanned by an employee makes little sense. The store should have assigned two of them to regular check-out lines. That strategy saved Lowe's no money and only aggravated customers.

No one can argue against the importance of deploying good self-service, but too many companies aren't listening to their customers or analyzing the foot traffic in stores to determine what is frustrating customers. If you know your self-service kiosks are not functioning properly, don't open them until you fix the problem. And finally, sometimes good customer experiences comes down to common sense. Even if your company invests in self-service functionality, empower your store managers to make decisions on the fly that may impact the customer experience forever.