IT-Review

Self-Checkout Improves Customer Service Across the Store

Australian consumers highly value the broader service benefits; Self-Checkout Systems: Creating Value Across the Retail Store study by International Data Corporation (IDC) predicts "accelerated growth rate" for additional self-service systems

Consumer acceptance of self-checkout is meeting or exceeding retailer expectations, resulting in improvements to customer service at the checkout and throughout the store.

The results of the study incorporate interviews with 6,359 consumers, including 1,100 from Australia, and six retailers across Australia, North America, Europe and Japan who have had self-checkout deployed for more than six months. IDC found that these retailers are seeing up to 50 per cent of transactions go through self-checkout, and four of the six interviewed plan to at least double their self-checkout installations by 2005.

Consumers surveyed across seven countries cited faster checkout, shorter lines and choice as the top benefits of self-checkout. The retailers interviewed stated improved service at the checkout as the key benefit, followed by improved customer loyalty and better customer service throughout the whole store.

In Australia, the survey conducted by Galaxy Research weighted responses from the national poll of 1,100 people, found that around four million would be more likely to shop at a store that offers self-checkout facilities, as opposed to one that does not.

The poll determined that self-checkout is particularly popular among younger shoppers. Respondents in the 16-24 age group showed 97 per cent believed there were "tangible benefits" in the self-checkout system, with 71 per cent saying "speed" was a key benefit.

The survey clearly demonstrates the impact of self-checkout in helping improve customer service not only at the checkout, but across the entire store. This is evidenced by the importance consumers place on service improvements retailers can make elsewhere in the store. Having well stocked shelves and store cleanliness were the two most critical issues – considered extremely important by 8 in 10 consumers, and also had the most impact on where people chose to shop.

Among consumers, some 71 per cent valued the help of sales staff while in the aisles, including location of products and answering questions. In fact, assistance while shopping was considered to be "one of the most important considerations" when in a supermarket.

In contrast, assistance with bagging purchased items was only considered important by 46 per cent of consumers and the corresponding figure for product demonstrations in the store was only valued by 20 per cent.

Interestingly, the needs of Australian shoppers are very similar to those expressed by shoppers in the European and American countries in which this study was also conducted. When asked where they would like staff redeployed to improve service in other areas of the store, the top answer was a clean and tidy appearance (77 per cent), well-stocked shelves (76 per cent) and accessible staff to answer questions and locate products (70 per cent).

Source: press release

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