Application Brief: Deliver Service With A Difference At The Checkout Stand

By Motorola

Long wait times at the checkout stand, lost customers…and lost revenue
In today's busy world, shoppers have high expectations, particularly when it comes to convenience, service and speed — a ‘get in and get out' mentality often pervades the shopping experience. A ‘less than stellar' customer service experience is not easily offset, even by low prices, weekly promotions or the best product selection. Today's customers have so many shopping choices — from your brick and mortar competitors to online stores that are open 24 hours a day — that they really can ‘have it all', from price to service.

The checkout stand is a major choke point for many retailers. Long checkout lines not only lead to frustrated and impatient customers, but can also reduce customer loyalty and result in lost sales — time-pressed shoppers may simply choose to abandon their place in line and their purchases.

While peak customer traffic and staffing problems are often blamed for long lines, other inefficiencies can also contribute to this costly problem. Poor scanner performance may cause cashiers to scan an item multiple times. Inflexible scanning technology may require the bar code to be precisely aligned with the scanner in order to capture the item information and price. Dirty or damaged bar code labels — a common occurrence in the retail environment — may not scan at all, forcing cashiers to page an associate for a price check. The need to verify age for items subject to age restrictions, complete a credit or loyalty card application, or even process a return can cause even more of a delay at the register. Stores with oversize items may force cashiers to either leave the register to obtain the information required to enter the purchase, or to require customers to either lift the item onto the cash-wrap or locate or provide the cashier with the information required to ring up the purchase. And when EAS theft-deterrent tags are in use, cashiers need to take time to not only scan the bar code, but also de-activate the tag.