One major change that has occurred in recent times is the replacement of service employees by self-service technologies. Self Service technologies (SST’s) are technological interfaces that allow customers to produce services independent of direct service employees.

ATM’s, online banking, package tracking offered by courier services, beverage and snack vending machines and even e-commerce are all examples o f self-service technologies.

SST’s are commonly used in many service industries as they benefit both the customers (quicker service, more convenient and consistent service quality) and company (greater reach and lower service delivery costs per customer). This fundamental shift in service delivery mechanisms does not mean that companies can afford to now overlook customer service.

In contrast, the development of self-service technologies calls for a greater importance on customer service, which is necessary for ensuring that the customer technologies interface, is user friendly.

More importantly, companies need to put into place an outstanding customer service infrastructure (together with motivated and properly trained employees) to help customers facing problems with self-service technologies.

Researches have found that customers have very strong feelings about SST’s; they love them and hate them depending on a few key conditions:

Customers love SST’s when:

•    SST’s bail them out of different situations, such as being able to withdraw cash for an emergency at 1.00 a.m.

•    SST’s are better than the interpersonal alternatives and save the customers time, money, and psychological costs. The internet allows customers to shop at any time and complete transactions more quickly than they would in person.

•    When SST’s work as they are supposed to, customers are impressed.

On the other hand, Customers hate SST’s when the following problems occur:

•    They fail. The researchers found that 60% of the negative stories they heard stemmed from failures of SST’s. Broken machines, failed PIN numbers, websites that are down and goods not shipped as promised infuriate customers.

•    Poorly designed technologies that are tricky to use or understand create hassles for customers, making them feel it is not worth using them.

•    The customer messes up. Customers dislike using technologies they feel they cannot perform adequately. Although they feel partial responsibility, they will stay away from using them in future.

•    When the technology or process fails, SST’s seldom provide ways to recover the service on the spot. In such cases, customers have to call or visit the company, in particular what they were trying to avoid by using the self-service technology.