creative brief

Retailers embrace customer self-service

A recent trip into the local town centre demonstrated to me how rapidly retailers are now embracing self-service and overcoming some of the barriers to a great customer experience that have held them back to date.

How to integrate online with retail space has been around since the early days of online retailing – clicks and mortar as we called it in those days.  With retailers (particularly those in town centres) struggling to compete with the convenience and price of online stores it is great to see that the tide is turning. So how do these retailers fare when the customer experience is examined?

Post office counters now offers self-service posting of letters and parcels via terminals in the foyer. Gone are the days of queuing with a mixed bag of people collecting their pensions or renewing their car tax disc (which is now purchased online too), only to be faced with a multitude of posting options by the counter staff. So how did the customer experience fare?

Missing steps disrupt customer experience

The touch screen experience was generally good, but lacked some instructional steps meaning that it wasn’t always obvious what to do next. For instance, after weighing and selecting postage the screen switches to the beginning of the process again asking you to weigh your parcel. A transition screen asking if you are finished or would like to weigh another item would be a good addition here.

The selection of ‘letter’ vs ‘small parcel’ etc is another stumbling point. This decision requires a degree of knowledge that most users won’t possess. A handy sizing guide is provided but is low down, out of sight and is not immediately obvious to the user. At the end of the process it is not obvious where to place your item as the postbox was not sited directly beside the self-service terminal.

Whist the terminal lacked the level of guidance that a novice user would need, this was more than made up by the help and support offered by staff. Customers were filtered off at the point of entering the post office, and help was offered throughout the process.  Great customer service, but a few enhancements to their screens would create a much better self-service experience.

Click and collect in store

Argos new digital storeArgos has done away with the germ-laden laminated catalogues from their store and has replaced them with shiny banks of touch screens for customers to browse.

This retailer’s self-service model has always been central to the experience, but has now been improved and brought into the digital age. Now they provide self-service terminals allow the shopper to keyword search their item and place an order ready to collect there and then. Staff are on hand to guide shoppers through the experience as floor-walkers, making it a much more enjoyable shopping experience than before.

Argos has also used the re-fit as an opportunity to promote the store and their ‘fast track’ click and collect service with this door-drop flyer.

UPATE: Argos have removed the option to reserve online and pay via self-service in store. Perhaps a reaction to card fraud, but the result is that all customers now have to queue to pay for their items, thus slowing the process down for those who have reserved in advance.

Self-service in-store

And finally, our local Tescos has added to its ‘click and collect’ and ‘click and deliver’ options by offering self-scanning in store.  At the same time the entry barriers, which previously left the customer feeling they were entering a forbidden space have been removed, opening up the store entrance and welcoming the customers in.

After scanning your club card at the terminal the user picks up a flashing hand-held device from a wall of scanners.  This part of the experience reminded me of the mole bashing game, as good peripheral vision is a bonus. Physical agility is also a plus as some scanners were positioned near floor level which may pose a problem for some shoppers.

After a quick induction from a member of staff the shopping experience was quick and easy. The scanner was effective and simple – it was easy to add or remove items or check prices as you shopped. The main behaviour change I experienced was the need to pack as you shopped, which felt wrong and a bit like theft!

At the end of the shop the user scans the barcode on the self-scan till and scans any items that the hand-held scanner wasn’t able to capture.  Payment is straightforward, and the user leaves the hand-held scanner at the till for staff to recycle.  Random checks by store staff mean that theft is discouraged, and presumably any losses experienced by Tescos will be outweighed by the benefits of customer self-service.

My main issue with Tescos was the over-bearing staff at the payment point. When using the self-scan option for a second time I was repeatedly offered assistance to the point of irritation. Hopefully as shoppers adopt self-scanning the need for overt assistance will decrease and will only be offered where customers clearly need guidance.

So how can other retailers adopt self-service?

Tesco and Argos are both great examples of offering a range of options to suit each customer’s preference and circumstances:

  • Order online and collect in store
  • Order online with home delivery
  • Self-service in store
  • Online search and select in store

A single self-service channel is now not enough to meet customer expectations, and all must start with an effective online product catalogue and e-commerce platform. Once that is in place different options for customer research, selection, purchase and collection can be implemented to allow users to shop where and when it suits them.

Customer insight should drive channel strategy, and the end-to-end customer experience should be paramount when designing the online and in-store experience. It’s great to see these retailers complement the self-service experience with support from in-store staff, but a truly seamless experience should be easy for users to adopt with minimum help, and repeat time and time again.

Have you seen any great examples of retail self-service?