Customer Service Management

Customer Service Management

The early adopters of self-checkout systems were primarily grocery and big box retailers with bigger budgets. “Self-checkout systems will move deeper into additional retail formats ? as earlier adopters see quantifiable results ?” says Kathy Dawidowicz ? product marketing manager for NCR FastLane self-checkout solutions at NCR Corp. “I also think you'll see non-traditional segments such as drug and c-stores adopting the concept soon.”

While reducing front end labor is usually the primary justification for making the initial self-checkout investment ? many retailers find that the process of redeploying resources is more valuable to customer service and ? eventually ? revenue than originally anticipated. Dawidowicz states ? “Typically ? self-checkouts can increase returns on investment by providing a competitive edge ? optimizing labor ? maximizing the retailer's front end throughput with a lower level of labor ? and offering better customer service. Typical paybacks usually occur within 12 to 18 months.” For some retailers ? payback occurs more quickly ? as they factor the competition ? loyalty ? and customer service aspects into their calculations.

“Finding the right balance between labor productivity and customer service scores is the key to justifying self-checkouts,” says Paul Burel ? self-checkout strategic marketing leader at Fujitsu. “You need to look beyond purely financial benefits into attraction and retention. Many retailers that have implemented self-checkouts rate higher on customer service surveys than those that haven't. Retailers should focus on smaller increments of productivity improvements ? including customer perceptions and loyalty ? which also increase with self-checkout implementations.”

The perception your customers have of your store is another aspect of customer service. For example ? many self-checkout lanes are slower than traditional lanes ? which have trained cashiers completing the checkout process. Transactions take longer for consumers to complete - scanning the merchandise ? running the ...