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Non-Fiction
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| Self Service | |
| By TomOBrien | ||||||||||
| 24 April 2008 | ||||||||||
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I believe that what we formerly knew as "Customer Service" is no longer existant. Customer Service now means "Self Service." What better Customer Service, after all, than doing it yourself? For the record, I honestly embrace technology. I just love the latest and greatest gadgets and gizmos. I’m not one to run right out and buy the latest doohickey and I don’t have to be the first one to own the newest technological thingamabob, but I do enjoy reading about and observing new technology. I have a large, (42”) wall mounted LCD HD TV. I have three computers and two wireless networks running in my townhouse. I have an I-POD which I connect to an FM transmitter and broadcast my music throughout my home. We have a two handset, cordless house phone of course. I sometimes wonder about all of the radio waves from these devices bouncing around inside my house. I presume that all of you are familiar with the new automated self service checkout aisles now available at most supermarkets and large department stores. You swipe your credit or debit card to begin, scan and bag each of your purchases while an LCD screen lists, and a mechanical voice announces, each transaction. You then total up and finalize the sale. You have virtually no interface with store employees. I’ve heard that some food stores are experimenting with a grocery cart that has a built in barcode scanner. You swipe your credit or debit card at a small terminal built into the cart to begin, and as you place each item in the cart the price is registered and recorded. When you are finished you key a “total” button, your purchases are totaled up, the amount deducted from your checking or credit card account you then simply wheel the cart out the door. No checkout counter at all. One of the problems that I have with the direction that this technology seems to be going is that once they get us comfortable ringing up and bagging our own purchases, the next step is to have us out back on the receiving dock unloading the trucks. (You heard it from me first.) Last Saturday Kay and I were at a Home Improvement warehouse store. We choose to utilize the automated, self service cash out. As we scanned each item a mechanical voice would announce the name of the item and the cost. “Garden rake. Seven dollars and fifty-nine cents.” And then add, “Please move item to the bagging area.” One of our purchases, a thirty five gallon trash barrel, was too large to fit across the scanner window set into the counter top and there was no hand held device to scan the bar code. Kay get’s an idea to tear off the bar code section of the label and scan that. And it worked. “Fifteen dollars and fifty-eight cents, the mechanical “Robbie The Robot” voice intones. Followed by, “Please place the item in the bagging area.” Of course, the area where the little plastic bags were was not large enough to fit the barrel either. “Please place the item in the bagging area.” Robbie says again. There seemed to be no way to get beyond that command. No ”finish”, or “next item”, or “total” button to push that we could see. “Please place the item in the bagging area.” Robbie intones a third time as customers behind and to either side of us crane their necks to see what’s going on and who’s holding up the program. At this point I leaned in close to the machine and in a loud voice say, “THE ITEM IS TOO DAMN BIG TO FIT IN THE BAGGING AREA YOU MORON!” At which time the screen shows a text message, “Your total is thirty-nine fifty. Transaction complete. Thank you for shopping with us today.” Gotta love it!
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We tried those self-serve checkout machines, and after we paid, we were trying to organise ourselves to leave, and the machine kept saying, take your bags off the counter (or something like that). After the third time, my hubby got really angry at it. It's scary when we begin to talk back to the machine. We will be answering ourselves back very soon! 
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