Welcome to Retail Checks and Balances, a podcast that takes you behind the scenes of the bustling world of commerce and culinary delights to help you grow your business and win. Join us as we explore the fascinating stories, trends, and challenges that shape the retail and hospitality industry, from cozy corner cafes to sprawling shopping malls and everything in between. And now, here's your host, Kevin Spencer. 

Welcome again to Retail Checks and Balances. Today we're going to look at the revolution of self-service in both retail and hospitality. This fascinated world of self-service and it has had a profound impact on these industries. Let's kick off by taking a journey through the evolution of self-service. I mean, you walk in now and you see in the supermarket, self-service, self-checkout, as we call it, kiosk. We also walk into restaurants, fast food, restaurants particularly, we see a kiosk where we can order. And in most cases, now you don't really see a cashier at the counter anymore because they're managing this whole workforce. But before we get into that in detail, I wanted to say that, you know, self-service is something that's not new. You know, if we look back, Let's say, I would say, at the big, the early 20th century, we saw things like the automatic banking machine, you know, that was, that's self-service, right? Being able to get cash out of a machine without any human intervention and even to go even further. The first introduction of vending machines where you put cash in and you got a drink or chocolate or chips or whatever the case is. Those are the first inclinations of self-service. So you know when we Fast forward to today, we see a proliferation of self-checkout kiosks, automated ordering systems, mobile apps transforming the way customers interact with different businesses. And the thing about it is that these self-service technologies have become a synonymous with convenience and efficiency. And how do I explain that? They empower customers to browse, order, and pay at their own pace, reducing wait times and enhancing the overall satisfaction or the customer experience in your business. But this is not only about customers. Self-service also offers numerous benefits to your businesses. You know? One of the primary advantages is operational efficiency. Self-tracker lanes and kiosks help retailers and restaurants process transactions faster, thereby reducing labor costs and improving the throughput. And let's not forget about the data. Self-service platforms collect a wealth of information about the customer's preferences, their behavior, enabling businesses to tailor their offerings and marketing strategies effectively. Which comes to, you know, that entire customer experience by putting control directly in the hands of your customers. Whether it's customizing orders or accessing product information, customers appreciate the autonomy that self-service affords them. Like for example, I can go shop anytime I want online. I don't have to go to the store. But that's self-service by having an e-commerce site. Those things have been around before we actually see those kiosks and self-checkouts. coming about. I can do it at the leisure at my home. I can do it at my own pace. I can put my own on hold, come back the next day, keep adding things. If my, if my routine is to place orders every Wednesday, or, you know, some people just buy at will and keep buying because of the convenience. But of course, one of the things that we need to understand is that the adoption of self-service isn't without its challenges, of course. Businesses must navigate this technology integration, user experience design and security concerns. Integrating self-service system with existing infrastructure can be complex and costly. And if the user interface isn't intuitive, it can lead to frustration and abandonment. People just say, you know, I'm not going to use this. I've seen this happen with some people implementing self-service a little too early because they need to study the market or study, you know, interface itself has to be easy, has to be, Intuitive, as we say, easy to follow, easy to navigate. And security is another critical consideration. With increasing digital platforms or digitization of transactions, businesses must ensure robust measures are in place to safeguard sensitive customer data and even fraud. And that's a fundamental thing that has to happen, has to be the most important thing that businesses must understand before implementing self-service. But despite these challenges, many businesses have successfully implemented self-service solutions to great effect. And there are some great case studies I could talk about. I mean, localization of the solutions as well based on your demographic is something that you need to understand. I mean, you wouldn't want to implement it without understanding who shop at your stores or who shops online, whatever the case is. But we're talking about the physical self-service infrastructure now. Because if we take examples, you know, I looked at, I take McDonald's, their self-ordering kiosks have streamlined their ordering process, reduced wait times, they've been led to upselling opportunities, which is fabulous because you guide customers within their, within the they experience to upsell different things before they check out, you know. And this is a grand thing in most self-service opportunities. And in retail, you know, let's talk about Amazon was revolutionize their shopping experience with their cash at their stores, where customers can simply grab what they need and go, grab and go. A lot of people are trying to implement this from a self-service perspective. You just walk up, scan, scan, scan, enter your customer ID, pay at the kiosk, and you're out the door. And a lot of customers appreciate that ability to have that speed because, you know, we don't want to go in a line and stand up for 15, 20 minutes because there's lack of labor force. And that's the fundamental thing that has happened. The labor force has gotten very, very thin and each businesses are fighting for the exact same amount of people who are working in these industries. You know, it's very tight. So what does the future hold for self-service and retainer hospitality? I would say we're seeing exciting developments in artificial intelligence, IoT and mobile technology that promise to further enhance the self-service experience. I mean I've been to two Great conferences in the last two weeks, NGA show in Las Vegas, National Grocers Association, where there was a wealth of self-service technology being showcased, being the wave of the future. And, you know, a lot of those technologies or companies doing that have done a great job. And if we look at a week after that, I was at America's KFC annual convention and you know there was a bunch of technology there in terms of self-service and what KFC has been able to work with world-class vendors to develop their own platform that is inspiring at least You know, you see in this ease of use, just being able to cut down the transaction time and get an increase in revenue. And I'm talking about incremental increase in revenues. I mean, I've spoken to a couple people at that conference and one of the big things is that increase in incremental revenue, which is fabulous because you're cutting some of your labor costs and you're increasing your revenue. which will transcend into larger profits and trying to keep that same profitability pushing forward you know and you know we're seeing This whole new wave of voice-activated systems and virtual assistants also on the rise, offering seamless integration and personalized recommendations. You know, like I visited this fair in Las Vegas. It was a good experience in terms of the robotics and talking to a robot and that whole artificial intelligence just at the basic level at this point in time, but you see that it's going to evolve into something great. And I would like to be around to see that, you know. And, you know, we gotta be open to what this has to offer, you know, as business people. I'm not saying that the human element is going to be replaced because the human element is always going to be there. The human touch can never be replaced by artificial intelligence. And that's what I believe. That's my opinion that, you know, the human touch is still needed at some point in time. Because if you have a complaint, you know, you don't want to go and complain to a machine because the machine has no feelings. A machine has no empathy. to help devise a situation. So we got to make sure we understand that as well. And, you know, the thing about it is that I want everybody to understand that, you know, we always are going to need people to drive technology. because that's where it starts. And you got to appreciate that. You know, even if everybody has tried something and you want to try it and you want to do the same thing, it's built, it's based on some idea that came from a human being. And we got to understand that, how important human and thought, which is provoked by some level of an intelligent being. right? Hope I didn't lose you with that thought but I just wanted to make sure I make that clear because you know we are in a world of human beings and now we're using, we're not really replacing human beings but we're using that brain that we have to create a duplication of an experience but you know I don't want to babble on that anymore but Thank you very much for listening to this episode, and I hope it gives you insights and inspiration, whatever business you're in, to provide solutions going forward. Thank you very much. God bless you all. We'll keep you safe. 

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