The boom of self-service

The age of CX opportunities in LATAM After the strong effects caused by the pandemic and in some cases social movements throughout the americas, we are experiencing a period of profound change. One of the most important regarding in consumer industry is the consumer itself; they experienced the full might of the pandemic and its […]

The age of CX opportunities in LATAM

After the strong effects caused by the pandemic and in some cases social movements throughout the americas, we are experiencing a period of profound change. One of the most important regarding in consumer industry is the consumer itself; they experienced the full might of the pandemic and its restrictive measures, from an initial shock caused by the uncertainty and confinements to a quick adaptation to new channels offered by the market in these everchanging circumstances.

Is in this context, and mainly due to imposed social distance measures resulting from the necessity of protecting both consumers and workers that purchase flows through self-service kiosks -which many thought would be adopted fully in a long-term basis- have consolidated as a safe, efficient and easy way to interact with customers in the “new normal”.

The uncertainty caused by the pandemic led to a rapid transformation of consumer habits, prioritizing the use of credit and debit cards and e-wallets as payment methods, encouraging most businesses to adapt and provide a solution, often deploying the aforementioned self-service-kiosks. This is because after the evolution of consumer habits, most of them want fast, hassle-free services, without queues and as clean as possible, both from a health and experience perspective.

In this regard, self-service alternatives growing may be related to more than just the pandemic factor itself but for the recommendations to not handle cash, as it can help spread the virus, thus also demonstrating the grow in card or e-wallet payments.

Likewise, having limited capacity in stores, and the customers desire to avoid queues and crowds has also influenced the preference of consumers for stores that offer self-service checkout, since this payment method can provide a much faster purchase flow for payments o requirements, specially considering that avoiding crowds may be a key aspect for encouraging purchase decision.

Another important point is customization and customer experience; self-service purchases have improved tremendously in their capabilities, not only in hardware capabilities, but also in the overall experience that can be delivered through this terminals, most commercial self-service kiosks will offer the possibility to pay or schedule services in a nicely crafted, easily navigable interface.

According to America-retail.com: “Emerging technologies such as data analytics or artificial intelligence, applied to payment systems, allow us to better understand users and make proposals increasingly adapted to new consumer habits.”

In this way, many opportunities have been created for businesses to implement and promote self-service systems, improving customer experience as a key factor for success today.

Continuing to improve and update self-service systems will be most important to consolidate a digital culture of commerce and consumers, generating in this way new possibilities for brands to connect to their customers and discover new sale opportunities. Without a doubt, the new age of self-service will be one of better relationships between customers and brands, and continuing to pursue this development will be key to achieve success in Customer Experience.

If this content was interesting for you and you want to know more about how to implement Self-service solutions for your business, at Belltech we will be happy to support your Digital Transformation projects, offering you the support and advice you need to accomplish a solution like this. We invite you to submit your contact information at www.belltech.la/contact/  and an agent will contact you in less than 48 hours.