[IxDA Discuss] Primary interface

[Jim Drew]

>From: "Richard (ENT Technologies)" <richard at enttech.com.au>
>
>> The funny thing about these self checkouts is that they were planned
>> to make the lines go faster-instead they tend to attract fussier
>> people who go through everything painstakingly slow: double checking
>> everything.
>
>I thought they were designed to replace a human checkout operator, thereby saving 
>thousands in wages, benefits etc.  I don't think it has anything at all to do with making 
>things easier for the customer (in practice they probably make things worse). It's all 
>about making more profits for the shareholders.

Yeah, that's the intent, and it doesn't always work:

When I stayed at the Riviera in Las Vegas a few years ago, they had swapped to a kiosk check-in mechanism like has been successful with the airlines.   Unfortunately, the user experience left something to be desired -- including the user having to find the box of blank keycards to put in the machine to have encoded for them.  The single desk person they had (serving about 8 machines) had to step me through the entire sequence (I needed to change rooms, because they tried giving me a smoking one); if *I* can't figure out, you know it's hosed.  Fortunately no one else was checking in then.

As noted, she said that the purpose was to cut down on staff.  The ultimate effect to her was to nearly triple her workload, having to handhold even the most capable travelers.

(I've not seen any other hotel with such kiosks.  Maybe Riviera's experience set the tone for the industry.)


-- Jim