Retail is all about choice. Which store? Which brand? Which style? Which size? Hundreds of thousands of hours are spent trying to influence those choices. Packaging, placement, pricing, sponsorships, and so much more. Marketers invest a lot to gain an edge and, while direct-to-consumer is skyrocketing, physical retail remains an important player, especially in grocery and home improvement.
If you pay close attention in these spaces, you can see different people gravitate toward the combination of options most appealing to them. To some, it's mostly price. To others, it's brand loyalty or it could be any number of other factors. But, within the physical space, few preferences are more obvious than someone's choice to use (or avoid) a self-checkout kiosk.
It may appear quicker or maybe you just don't want any social interaction but, regardless of what drives the choice, what's particularly interesting is that customers are selecting something that remains a generally poor experience.
Some items are difficult to scan. Others require you to look them up. You may have to wait for assistance for any number of reasons.
This is all plays a part in building a retailer's brand experience. And it's not building a good one.
There's a lot to dissect but, today, let's focus on the sounds.
Start at the beginning, few things make me cringe more than hearing "Welcome valued customer!" from that voice. Of all the things I advise clients to avoid, being disingenuous is at the top of the list.
Grocery chains are among the worst when it comes to violating this rule. It happens at the staffed checkouts too. "Thank you Mr. ummm..." followed by a confused stare at the receipt and then my last name butchered.
It would be bad enough if the kiosk tried to do what staff is forced to do. But the designers behind these kiosks found a way to make the experience even worse. They try to convince me I'm valued by calling me "valued customer," a generic label.
Person or machine, if you don't actually know me, don't try to convince me that you do. Not with your voice. It won't work. Ever. Same is true when it comes to valuing my business.
Pausing here, because this is a critical point. We react very differently to hearing these things versus seeing them on a screen or a piece of paper. Add a cluster of these kiosks and noise pollution can be a real issue.
Bottom line, don't treat sound and voice design the same way you treat visual design.
Moving on...
We're conditioned to expect the beep of the scanner, which actually isn't bad and is an important piece of feedback to confirm whether each attempt to scan was successful. Nothing great about this but it meets expectations. C+.
Sadly, the experience doesn't get any better from here. The thing nags you repeatedly to put each item in a bag (even when there are no bags). Any number of issues can lead to a "help is on the way" and a locked terminal. And the whole thing wraps-up the experience with a reminder to not forget my receipt.
Nevermind that I cannot use my own voice to interact with it, rather than needing to use a filthy touchscreen and a separate payment terminal with limited communication with the kiosk.
There are reasons grocery and others invest limited amounts in their physical spaces and experiences. They can be low-margin, difficult to staff at times, and many customers have limited choices due to proximity and other factors. But these kiosks aren't cheap. And they've been around for more than 15 years. Why haven't they improved more?
Maybe the value and appeal of avoiding social interaction is enough to overcome all of this. Ironically, it is for me.
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