The Dutch Supermarket Selling Slower Service on Purpose
Speed and convenience are two drivers of customer experience change. As consumers we’re often willing to trade money for time. You might pay more to shop on the corner and avoid a drive to a cheaper grocery store.
Sometimes the improvement in convenience is not really for customers but for the business. More convenient ways to reduce staffing costs or to extract money from customers without additional effort.
Anyone who has dealt with ‘smart’ minibars and been instantly charged for moving an overpriced drink two inches in order to use the fridge will know what I mean.
No doubt minibar purchases, intended and otherwise, look great on the average-spend-per-stay charts for hotels. The costs in terms of customer irritation, front desk refund requests, and loss of loyalty may be less immediately visible.
On the other end of the speed and convenience spectrum is a business selling slower service as a benefit. Dutch supermarket chain Jumbo has added special , “chat checkouts,” where anyone keen for a chat can have their groceries scanned while conversing with the checkout operator, without risk of passive aggressive sighing from the people behind them or indeed from the staff.
In the short term, those lanes must surely represent lower revenue per hour than a standard model. Not to mention the self-service checkouts which put all the work onto the customer. In the long term, Jumbo clearly sees benefits to their business in customer loyalty and community care.
Online service is not immune from the same conflicting pulls. How can a business resist the temptation to auto-renew subscriptions without a warning email or to stick with confusing pricing models when more clarity means less profit?
There is no easy answer. Such decisions come from keeping a long term perspective on customer value, and from customer-centric business cultures that enable customer-first decision making. That takes leaders who care.
Even right on the frontline we can find ways to not put the work onto our customers’ shoulders. Don’t make them repeat their question and account details to every new person they speak to. Use technology to remove work from customers, in addition to staff.
And try to keep a little slack in your team’s day for gesprekken voeren, having conversations.
This Could Have Been an Email
This article first appeared in The Supportive Weekly, Mat's email newsletter for anyone who wants to create better customer experiences. Subscribe now...it's not boring!
Mathew Patterson
After running a support team for years, Mat joined Help Scout, where he helps people deliver better online customer support. Subscribe to The Supportive Newsletter or find him on LinkedIn.
