Self-serve or self-frustated?
By Katie Buchanan
Self-serve checkouts/kiosks are transforming the purchasing experience; some shops are beginning to go as far as replacing all of their staff with self-serve machines. These machines are ultimately asking, or sometimes forcing, people to change their habits of a lifetime. From a motivational design perspective, these machines are a benefit as they promote autonomy – our ability to do our shopping ourselves. However it is absolutely vital that our first experience of using these machines is a good one, otherwise we are likely to lose faith and if we are given the choice, will revert back to staff-operated checkouts.
I’m amazed therefore that many machines are so poorly designed that they create frustrations rather than give control/convenience to customers. Recently I was buying something worth £3 in Boots and put a £10 note in the machine, I then waited for the change to appear. On cue £2 fell out of the change area, but where is my other £5 I thought? I waited, and waited but nothing. So I called over the floating member of staff who pointed out that the change in notes appears in a completely different change area, well out of your eye line. When I spoke to the member of staff about this he said that no-one notices the notes there (unsurprising). When I went into Marks and Spencer’s the other day they have the same design error (I‘m thinking that all of these machines must be made by the same manufacturer?). This proved an issue when I was getting cashback, and the notes came out of the same note area, which is along way from the card reader area.
It still amazes me that mistakes like this happen and the difficult thing with product design is that it is almost impossible to rectify an error of this nature once all the machines are fitted (unlike web designs where issues can often be resolved). Incidents like this really make me appreciate the value of user-centred design.
Changing people’s behaviour is hard enough without unnecessary poor design getting in the way.
Comments
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Dave HarteHave had the identical experience with the Boots self-service machine. The deisgn is awful. In Tescos you can get caught out by deciding not to place your item in a bag. So even if you buy a single chocolate bar, unless you place it in a plastic bag (and these things seem to promote single use plastic bags), it thinks you’ve lost the item and won’t continue.
Really dumb machines.
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KatieAnother frustrating experience, David.
I think self-serve as a concept is a good one – with a potential benefit for customers and businesses. The problem is each design flaw has big implications on users’ perception of the concept and likelihood to use in the future.
I do not necessarily think the machines are dumb, it is just the system and product is not designed with the user in mind!
This is a classic example how a poorly designed system/service can have an impact on the overall customer experience, which ultimately can impact the effectiveness of the service strategy of a business (customers’ prefer to use staff-operated checkouts rather than self-serve).
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ShellyCThese machines in Tesco, Sainsburys, Marks & Spencers and Boots, all clearly by the same manfacturer, are unbelivebly hard work. As you pointed out the notes come out from an entirely different place to coins or where cards are used. Also as they work by weight, they do not work properly with the big push supermarkets such as Tescos are making for their bags for life, the bags weigh more than the plastic bags and it therefore starts accusing you of putting ‘unexpected item in the bagging area’, the only way to counteract this is to simultaneously place the item and the bag into the bagging area!
As a student I worked in Sainsbuys and they are frustrating for members of staff trying to use them, as they shout at you and the poor customer for merely trying to scan and pack their items.
Now I consider it a joy when I manage to beat the self-checkout in the battle to pay for my shopping!
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Charlotte WilberforceMany interesting points here.
Personally I love the machines and will simply ‘skip bagging’ so I don’t have to place any items on the scales or into yet another plastic bag.
I would say that it seems that there was either little or no usability testing done prior to installing the machines and once you’ve had a bad experience with one, it effects your experience across all stores.
