One Customer Experience Tool That Will Get Significant Attention in 2016

Sometimes I get the feeling that people believe that everything in the future will happen online and all transactions will be automated without any or with very little human interaction. Success stories with self service solutions such as Taco Bell who recently in an Bloomberg articleannounced that orders made via their new digital app are 20% pricier than those taken by human cashiers or Chili’s, after installing self-service tablets, reported a similar increase in dessert orders, further influence this perception.

Source: customerthink.com

Excerpt: Drawbacks with automation

According to a recent article in Harvard Business Review technology lacks flexibility. When we’re interacting with a person and we’re having trouble understanding something, the person can adjust to us. If we’re having a misunderstanding, they can help clarify it. Technology really can’t do either of these things. A person has the ability to delight us or disappoint us. It’s really hard for a technology to ever delight, however, because it’s standardized and is built on a set of rules. But it is possible for technologies to disappoint us.

Dennis Campbell, Frances Frei, and Gretchen Gavett have done research looking at self-service technologies, in banks in particular. In one case customers’ overall satisfaction with the bank fell as the proportion of their total interactions shifted away from face-to-face channels and toward using automated solutions. Cambell and Francis also some years ago looked at banks that introduced online banking and found an interesting pattern; customer who switched to the online channel came into the branch more, and they started using the call center more, which was actually more expensive. So the tradeoff wasn’t all a favorable one from an efficiency/cost point of view.

So, automation of service transactions is apparently not always good. But is there something that can bring the best of the two worlds together? Yes, integrated mobile apps for employees in the physical location has the opportunity to change the game.

Try it Out Tuesday: Coinstar Exchange for gift cards

Inside a Randalls grocery store, you might see an unfamiliar yellow kiosk near the cash registers

Source: www.khou.com

We go in with a wallet full of cards from a coworker, and our first try is a card from Fleming’s Steakhouse.

The card has a balance of $37.03. Coinstar Exchange offers us $22.96.

It’s not an even trade, but it might be worth a swipe if the card has been sitting in your wallet or you don’t plan to use it.

Coinstar tells KHOU 11 News it offers up to 85 percent of the value, and it varies according to each retailer.

Bill Allaz walked in with a $50 gift card to Best Buy. He accepted the offer of $32.50 from Coinstar.

“I wanted to get a little extra money today,” he said.

The kiosk accepts about 130 cards, but didn’t offer Ayo Codrington enough for hers. She had a $25 Bath and Body Works card. The machine offered her $15.

“I was hoping that it would be closer to $25,” she said.

There are more than 70 kiosks in Texas and 23 in the Greater Houston area.

Tap/click here to find the nearest Coinstar Exchange kiosk.

Return To Sender: UPS Wraps Up Holiday Shipping Season With Easier Returns

National Returns Day is Jan. 6, 2016, when consumers are expected to ship more than a million packages back to retailers on that single day. By the end of the first week of January, UPS expects to deliver more than 5 million returns packages – 500,000 more than last year,.

Source: money.cnn.com

According to the UPS Pulse of the Online Shopper™ study, 45% of consumers have returned an item by shipping it back to a retailer – 42% of those said they made a new online purchase during the process.  

“As online shopping volumes grow globally, so do returns volumes,” said Teresa Finley, UPS senior vice president of global marketing. “Online shoppers tell us they want free, fast and easy returns. We help our customers provide flexible options that create revenue and attract potential buyers.”  

Returns now play an important role in purchasing decisions as 67% of consumers said they look at a retailer’s return policy before they complete an order. Consumers also want a hassle-free returns experience: 66% want free returns shipping and 47% want an easy-to-print return label.

Additional UPS research reveals an appealing returns policy has the power to attract customers and many retailers need improvement. Only 32% of retailers offered free returns and less than half specified a merchandise exchange timeline on their website, which is a key component of the return policy that is viewed by 88% of online shoppers.

UPS offers a wide variety of returns solutions for merchants. Some retailers provide return labels within outbound shipments, while others have technology that allows them to offer a consumer credit or refund as soon as the item is scanned into the UPS network.

Consumers can drop off their pre-paid and pre-labeled return packages at any of the 8,000 UPS Access Point™ locations around the country. They can also visit any of the 4,800 The UPS Store® locations or give the packages to a UPS driver.  

Amazon Promotes Package Pickup Lockers in UK

Amazon is running a contest to promote its delivery lockers in the UK, and it’s giving away some choice goodies as part of the Santa’s Locker campaign which runs through Christmas Eve.

Source: www.ecommercebytes.com

Amazon kicked off the Santa’s Locker contest in the UK on December 11 and it runs through Christmas Eve. Each day, Amazon puts between two and five gifts inside different lockers, and then provides clues to help participants find the lockers and codes so they can open them to win the gifts.

Are Delivery Lockers a Better Fit for Wal-Mart Than for Amazon.com?

Wal-Mart already has lots of places to put lockers.

Source: www.fool.com

The lockers are but one component of this, though they aren’t really a new idea. Wal-Mart began testing them two years ago and has been slowly rolling them out into more markets. Amazon also has experimented with them, starting back in 2011, along the way installing lockers in retailers like Staples and RadioShack until the retailers realized they were giving the e-tailer the rope with which to hang them. Amazon still uses them at its campus bookstores, and has partnered with convenience stores like 7-Eleven to have its Click & Collect lockers installed. Amazon says it has hundreds of locker locations nationally and is adding more every day.

Wal-Mart’s advantage is its vast network of brick-and-mortar stores that can serve as distribution hubs for the goods it sells online. There are 4,600 Walmarts in the U.S.  Because Amazon has to rely upon the kindness of strangers to install lockers, it can’t be as integral a component in the universe of shipping options for it as it can be for Wal-Mart.

A locker ultimately is a low-cost way to stay competitive with a tough rival.