Will Customers Scan Their Own Items While Waiting On Line?
Written by Evan SchumanJune 15th, 2006
A technology vendor called SmartTools thinks that customers should stop lollygagging around in the cashier checkout lanes. While waiting, they should be scanning their own items and saving the cashier's time. If you find this idea attractive, we need to chat. (Hint: This is not an especially good career-advancement purchase.)
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One Comment | Read Will Customers Scan Their Own Items While Waiting On Line?
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Our Comment SPAM system is getting very aggressive these days and has been blocking legitimate comments. If you post a comment and don't see it appear within 2 hours or so, can you please send a heads-up to customer-service@storefrontbacktalk.com? Ideally, please include the time you posted the comment. That will allow us to try and hunt for it. Thanks! P.S. We're working on fixing the system, but we don't want to lose any valuable comments in the meantime.
Our Comment SPAM system is getting very aggressive these days and has been blocking legitimate comments. If you post a comment and don't see it appear within 2 hours or so, can you please send a heads-up to customer-service@storefrontbacktalk.com? Ideally, please include the time you posted the comment. That will allow us to try and hunt for it. Thanks! P.S. We're working on fixing the system, but we don't want to lose any valuable comments in the meantime.
-Christine
June 26th, 2006 at 9:39 am
I feel compelled, as a Customer Service professional with over twenty years in the field, to relay a recent experience of mine that, ironically, took place in a WalMart. As I was standing in the check-out line with a friend I witnessed a customer in the self-serve lane attempt to scan their own items to no avail. Swiping the same item over a dozen times produced no result other than annoying the customer waiting behind them and forcing every other line to become more crowded as people moved over.
What was the cashier, who was only, what, 3 1/2 feet
away, doing? Her nails.
Attractive? Not really.
Last time in WalMart? Definitely, because a portion of every dollar spent there goes to her paycheck, and the paycheck of the person in charge of her job performance, and the salary of the person who hired them, all the way up to the executive (who just bought a house in the Hamptons) who made the decision to have those self-serve lines that blatantly ignore the customer and their needs by (wo)manning them with wanna-be manicurists.
The result? Business 101, people! Higher prices.