Thursday, February 01, 2007
Talk to Me Don't Talk Back
Wink: A cubicle is just a padded cell without a door.
There is a trend around here for new stores that are opening to use self serve check out lanes. (That's a whole blog by itself, having 28 checkout lanes, but you never see more than two of them open.)
Back to these fancy new non-person check out machines. They take debit card, credit card and no card. Yes they will take cash, give you change and even talk to you. I have sort of combined a couple of conversations I heard in several stores, but it was overheard this way yesterday when we were out shopping, going through normal human activated checkouts.
"Hello, I am here to take your order." Customer: "I don't want you to take my order, I want to pay for it and keep it myself". "Please scan your first item." Customer: "I don't remember which one is first, I have been in here an hour". "Please scan your first item."
"Beeep, [pause], please scan the item again!" "Beep." "Is that your last item? Please indicate whether you are paying with card or cash by touching the proper icon on the screen." "That is incorrect, please try again." "Now slide your card through the indicated slot."
Boooommmmmppppphhhhhhh! Real human attendant comes over. "Sorry sir, let me reset that for you. Turn your card around and slide it through that slot. That should fix it."
Customer: "Thank you, I think."
"Your transaction is complete. You may pick up your bag and leave." Huh?
Who would have thought that we would be having a one way conversation with a machine? A computer much like you are looking at right now. There will be more of that as we are watched, instructed and prodded by non-reactive interactive LCD screened touch sensitive monsters.
Oh, back to our customer who is just leaving the store. "Baup Baup Whauuuppp Whauuupppp it looks like our associate forgot to remove the tag from your merchandise. Please return to the register, our associate will be pleased to help you!"
Now that conversation should be a good one. I didn't stick around for that.
This work by NSCAVE is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License
There is a trend around here for new stores that are opening to use self serve check out lanes. (That's a whole blog by itself, having 28 checkout lanes, but you never see more than two of them open.)
Back to these fancy new non-person check out machines. They take debit card, credit card and no card. Yes they will take cash, give you change and even talk to you. I have sort of combined a couple of conversations I heard in several stores, but it was overheard this way yesterday when we were out shopping, going through normal human activated checkouts.
"Hello, I am here to take your order." Customer: "I don't want you to take my order, I want to pay for it and keep it myself". "Please scan your first item." Customer: "I don't remember which one is first, I have been in here an hour". "Please scan your first item."
"Beeep, [pause], please scan the item again!" "Beep." "Is that your last item? Please indicate whether you are paying with card or cash by touching the proper icon on the screen." "That is incorrect, please try again." "Now slide your card through the indicated slot."
Boooommmmmppppphhhhhhh! Real human attendant comes over. "Sorry sir, let me reset that for you. Turn your card around and slide it through that slot. That should fix it."
Customer: "Thank you, I think."
"Your transaction is complete. You may pick up your bag and leave." Huh?
Who would have thought that we would be having a one way conversation with a machine? A computer much like you are looking at right now. There will be more of that as we are watched, instructed and prodded by non-reactive interactive LCD screened touch sensitive monsters.
Oh, back to our customer who is just leaving the store. "Baup Baup Whauuuppp Whauuupppp it looks like our associate forgot to remove the tag from your merchandise. Please return to the register, our associate will be pleased to help you!"
Now that conversation should be a good one. I didn't stick around for that.
This work by NSCAVE is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License
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