Why-oh-why do retail companies make the process of taking customers payment so unbelievably painful?
I have experienced this far too often recently, just at the point of being ready to part with my hard earned cash, wallet willingly open, the outlet fails to make the collection of money a quick or easy process.
Strange considering that you’d think that collecting customers money would be the primary purpose of being in business! Especially after all the effort made to bring product to market to meet consumer needs and the meticulous attention given to planogramming the shopping experience. Yet little effort is made to make the pain point of paying a pleasant experience.
To make matters worse, so many shops (especially supermarkets) insist on wasting prime retail space to display a permanent collection of redundant checkouts, seemingly for no purpose other than to rub your nose into fact that you must wait to pay them on their time-frame!
Yes, technology has done its bit. I’m still in love with the little ding and buzz of Apple Pay. But sadly the buzz is short lived, given that I have had to queue for 10 mins whilst staring at 5 unused checkouts!
One of the key factors when building a successful service business is the ability to recognize that when a customer is ready and willing to pay, you must make that process as quick, easy and as painless as possible.
It’s a mystery why so many companies fail on this critical but obvious point.
How long do I have to wait to pay?