Printing Kiosk Self-Service Technology in Retail
Introduction
The implementation of Self-service technology is rapidly increasing among industries and affects the way customer interacts with firms to enhance service outcomes. This proliferation of SST has grown in many positive ways between consumers and businesses for example almost half of all retail banking transactions are now conducted without the assistance of a bank teller (Lawrence and Karr, 1996).
In this assignment, the author will introduce self-service technologies in retailing and how it works for the digital print photo kiosk. There will be a discussion related to its pros, cons and characteristics; highlight of its role for retailers; identification of current trends in technology retailing.
Interacting with Self-service technology (SST) is daily occurrence in our daily lives - when students are accessing their school account via personal lap tops, topping up the credits in the EZ-link cards for public transport or even going through online stores for Christmas shopping. Retailers can answer customer enquiries over the phone, sell items over the internet and even hotel’s automated room service ordering systems.
SST is defined as technological interfaces that allow customers to perform entire services on their own, without direct assistance from employees. It eases the work load by having selected actions automated. This can be an online or offline system. Technological interfaces enable companies to delight their customers instantly by allowing them to solve their problems using technology (Bitner et al., 2002).
There is a proliferation of healthcare advice and information online (over 20,000 sites on the Web offer some level of health information and/or advice), and medical prescriptions can be ordered online as well. In the business-to-business realm, some companies have been very successful in shifting to a technology-driven ordering system combined with the capability of customers to track and manage their orders and inventories
The implementation of Self-service technology is rapidly increasing among industries and affects the way customer interacts with firms to enhance service outcomes. This proliferation of SST has grown in many positive ways between consumers and businesses for example almost half of all retail banking transactions are now conducted without the assistance of a bank teller (Lawrence and Karr, 1996).
In this assignment, the author will introduce self-service technologies in retailing and how it works for the digital print photo kiosk. There will be a discussion related to its pros, cons and characteristics; highlight of its role for retailers; identification of current trends in technology retailing.
Interacting with Self-service technology (SST) is daily occurrence in our daily lives - when students are accessing their school account via personal lap tops, topping up the credits in the EZ-link cards for public transport or even going through online stores for Christmas shopping. Retailers can answer customer enquiries over the phone, sell items over the internet and even hotel’s automated room service ordering systems.
SST is defined as technological interfaces that allow customers to perform entire services on their own, without direct assistance from employees. It eases the work load by having selected actions automated. This can be an online or offline system. Technological interfaces enable companies to delight their customers instantly by allowing them to solve their problems using technology (Bitner et al., 2002).
There is a proliferation of healthcare advice and information online (over 20,000 sites on the Web offer some level of health information and/or advice), and medical prescriptions can be ordered online as well. In the business-to-business realm, some companies have been very successful in shifting to a technology-driven ordering system combined with the capability of customers to track and manage their orders and inventories
References: Bitner, Mary; Ostrom, Amy; and Neuter, Natthew (2002). “Implementing Successful Self-service Technologies,” Academy of Management Executive, November, Vol. 16 Issue 4, pp. 96-109. Bitner, Mary (2001) “Self-Service Technologies: What Do Customer 's Expect?” Marketing Management, Spring, Vol. 10 Issue 1, pp. 10-11. Neuter, Hatthew L.; Ostrom, Amy L.; Roundtree, Robert I., and Bitner, Mary. (2000). “Self-Service Technologies: Understanding Customer Satisfaction with Technology-Based Service Encounters,” Journal of Marketing, July, Vol. 64, Issue 3, pp. 50-64. Curran, James; Meuter, Matthew; and Surprenant, Carol (2003) “Intentions to Use Self-Service Technologies: A Confluence of Multiple Attitudes,” Journal of Service Research, February, Vol. 5 Issue 3, pp. 209-224. Parasuraman, A. (2002), “Technology Readiness Index (TRI): A Multi-Item Scale to Measure Readiness to Embrace New Technologies”, Journal of Service Research, 2 (4), 307-320. Bitner, Mary; Ostrom, Amy; and Neuter, Natthew (2005). “Choosing among Alternative Service Delivery Modes: An Investigation of Customer Trial ofSelf-Service Technologies” The Journal of Marketing, Vol. 69, No. 2 (Apr., 2005), pp. 61-83