Customer on the job
By Terry Nisbett
Self-service is spreading across various industries. There are self-service gas stations, automatic teller machines and automated check-in services for the traveller; even self-checkout is available at some supermarkets in the United States and the United Kingdom. Self-service is also found in healthcare, where patients at hospitals and clinics can register themselves, and in the hospitality industry, where some hotels offer self check-in and checkout to guests.
Increasingly, the customer is on the job in various industries, but is not being paid. The services the company used to perform for customers are now being performed by customers themselves. The businesses that employ this automation declare that it is convenient and saves the customer time. Not all customers are happy about this trend. Some argue that it is really saving the business money, as companies reduce the number of tellers, cashiers and attendants.
In this era of high unemployment, the increasing creep of self-service ought to be recognised as another means of eliminating jobs which businesses consider unskilled. If these businesses can get the customer to do more work, why pay an attendant or cashier for the same duties? After all, the customer is not on the payroll. Even President Barack Obama of the United States alluded to the role of automation in unemployment. “There are some structural issues with our economy where a lot of businesses have learned to become more efficient with a lot fewer workers.” The President then used as examples, using “the ATM” at the bank instead of a “bank teller” and the “kiosk” at the airport instead of “checking in at the gate.” The more frequently customers use the kiosks and machines, the more companies can save on labour cost.
OPPONENTS of the unemployment link with automation argue that the machines create higher paid jobs for information technology workers. This still does not refute the point that lower paid workers will lose their jobs. All the supermarket cashiers cannot be transformed overnight into Information Technology (IT) professionals. Likewise, the kiosks at the airport reduce the need for passenger service attendants, and if customers use the ATMs more often, there will be fewer bank tellers employed.
Businesses usually promote the reduction in customer service as a benefit to the customer. In the meantime, interaction with the service provider becomes increasingly distant and impersonal. One may question whether that is in keeping with the primary goal of a service industry. Who should be doing the serving? Should it be the service provider or the customer? Have you realised that at the fast food restaurants, the customer has been trained to take his food to a table and clean up after himself, too? The supermarket self-checkout involves a lot of work for the shopper actually, including scanning, finding the right codes for produce, and bagging your own groceries. Did you go shopping to do all that work?
IT HAS BEEN observed, too, that apart from getting no pay for the extra work, there is no discount on the service or product either. As a matter of fact, one can see more fees in certain industries like banking called service fees. Maybe it is time the customers claim some service fees of their own, credited to their bank account each time they use the Automatic Teller Machine or do an online transaction. After all, facilitating intra-account transfers, wire transfers and opening new accounts is not their job.
Of course, automation means increasing innovation, invention and exploration of new technologies. We appreciate the technology that enables us to shop online or sell online. We know that some self-service will create another level of jobs, but as President Obama said, it is a “structural problem.” If industries are moving to eliminate certain jobs, then training has to be anticipating the new skills and preparing workers for these areas.
IT IS INTERESTING to observe the way the culture of our region has resisted for the time being the replacement of the bank teller. Obviously, in spite of much encouragement to perform most banking tasks at the ATM, many people still prefer to interact with a human being. The tellers at some banks even say, “Enjoy the rest of your day.” We still have cashiers at the supermarkets and attendants to bag the groceries, too. Not everyone wants to communicate with a machine, and many people are not comfortable enough with the new technologies to operate the machines.
Customers are not homogenous. The younger consumers growing up with iPods and iPads will navigate these systems more easily. Where the new technology presents difficulties, you can still have long lines at the same place that should have taken you out of the store much faster. According to one British survey, 48% of people asked thought self-service checkouts [at the supermarket] were a nightmare, 46% said that items wouldn’t scan properly, 13% complained about having to do all the work, and 12% said they always had to get help.
AUTOMATED service presents some advantages to the customer. Self-service can save time, especially in when long waits are characteristic. Airports are a prime example. In a busy season, the traditional desk service can mean long queues and a tiring wait. There is also an element of increased privacy especially in the healthcare industry. We have the low-tech version of self-service when the receptionist of the doctor or dentist hands you a clipboard of forms to provide preliminary information. It is more private than answering questions on your personal information in the hearing of all the other patients.
Some businesses admit that automation saves them money, most likely labour costs. Budget cuts also force some providers to find cost saving alternatives to serve the customer. From Florida’s Martin County, Sylvie Szafranski, the county’s integrated systems manager, said in a release: “Budget trends have had a large impact on our library system’s staffing. Reduced staffing prompted us to look closer at any part of our staff’s workload that could be automated.”
SELF-SERVICE has its advantages for the business and for the customer too, sometimes. But even businesses find that self-service options do not always deliver the results they expect nor do they suit every customer. Most companies realise that they may still require a mix of the traditional full service offering human interaction alongside the impersonal machines. In some instances, customers welcome the choice of do-it-yourself service. In effect, installing machines is an admission that the business is not meeting the needs of the customer. When lines are too long, it means the number of customer service representatives is inadequate to deal with the volume of customers. A machine is considered a cheaper way to solve the problem than hiring more staff. Cheekily, too, it gets the customer in the role of the employee.
As we touch the buttons and swipe the cards, let us hope that we are not saving time and avoiding the line at the bank and the library in order to get to our second job at the supermarket, checking out and bagging groceries.
