By Dr. Dennis Rosen
I have a confession. I’m in love with another woman. It’s not a secret. We get together in public — at least a couple times a week. And my wife approves. You see, I’m in love with the lady in the self-checkout machine at the supermarket. Not the human who stands by the machine waiting to help if something goes wrong. No, I’m in love with the lady who talks to me from the machine.
Ahh, Love
I love our interaction. It’s not a romantic thing (that would be odd). It’s just that the way she treats me is so great. She always recognizes me. Right after I enter my store card number, she says, “Welcome loyal customer!” I respond, “Great to be back.” Then she gives me helpful advice like, “Please scan your first item,” or, “Please place the item in the bagging area,” or, “Don’t forget your receipt.” I appreciate her interest and concern. But most important is when I’m done, she always says, “Thank you for shopping with us.” I really love hearing that “thank you.” It makes me feel appreciated.
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Of course, there are often several humans ready to help check out my order, but I would rather not deal with them. Yes, they say hello, but the way they say it often just lacks the sincerity I get from the self-checkout lady. The human cashiers generally don’t talk to me or smile or even look at me much during the interaction. At least with the self-checkout, I’m shown interesting pictures on the screen. And when we are done, the humans rarely say, “thank you.” Usually they just say, “There you go.” Sometimes they say, “Have a nice day,” but most often, even this is said rather matter-of-factly and sounds more robotic than human. (Isn’t that ironic?)
So What’s The Problem?
So why should my preference for self-checkout technology be of concern to you? Well, if I prefer my treatment by the self-checkout, I imagine many other customers do, too — including maybe yours.
But, you are thinking, isn’t this a good thing (speeding up checkout, etc.)? Ahh…no. Of course it is good to have the self-checkout to speed through those customers with a small number of items. But when your customers have more than a few items, they need to use your regular checkout. If your cashiers come across poorly by comparison, that’s bad. And even if your store doesn’t have a self-checkout option, your customers have used it in other stores and are making the comparison.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I have certainly experienced many cashiers who do a great job when checking me out of a store. But given the inconsistency I experience in such performance, I figure, why should I take the risk and get frustrated? And that’s why I go to the self-checkout — not because I actually want to, but because by doing so, I can count on consistent reasonably good treatment.
How Certain Are You?
So here’s the bottom line: there is no excuse for your cashiers (or your other employees for that matter) to be less pleasant or less appreciative, or sincere-sounding, than the self-checkout lady, particularly given they have more to work with. They can smile. They can answer questions and offer help. They can send your customers off truly feeling appreciated in the way that only a human interaction can. And that can help bring them back.
Given that your cashiers provide the last impression customers have of your store, are you absolutely certain, as you read this, that your human cashiers are the ones your customers prefer to deal with? Or would they rather spend time with the self-checkout lady?
Dr. Dennis Rosen is The WinFluence® Expert on customer service and sales improvement. He helps retailers, service providers and professionals provide a Transformational Customer ExperienceJ to create customer devotion that leads to customer promotion. Rosen shows sales forces how to lower customer barriers to information and change attitude to increase sales effectiveness. He is author of the book, Create Devoted Customers and the instructional audio, The Mental-RentalJ Sales Process.
