Checkout times are an integral part of the overall impression formulated by consumers about any given retail chain. If consumers wait in line too long, they start to develop resentment for their personal time being wasted while they wait to pay their money. Self-help checkout equipment has helped significantly, and retailers overall seem to be doing a much improved job to make the checkout experience more palatable.

David Biernbaum, senior marketing and business development consultant, David Biernbaum Associates

Wait time is an important aspect of the total customer experience in the store. A pleasant shopping trip can easily be undone by an extended wait time or poor service at the checkout.
While it is certainly valuable to ask shoppers what they would do or how they would react to situations, it is far more useful to observe behaviour or ask these questions in the context of an actual shopping trip. Internet surveys may provide a sense of this, but it is really necessary to do in-store observations and interviews.

As part of our Front-End Focus initiative, Dechert-Hampe has conducted thousands of observations and interviews at the checkout. Front-End Focus is a programme sponsored by Mars, Wrigley, Time-Warner, and Coca-Cola in partnership with a number of leading retailers.

In our research, we have looked at issues such as wait time, transaction time, and total customer satisfaction. We have found that retailers can substantially mitigate the negative impact of wait time by providing customers something to do or look at in line. The value of products such as candy, gum, beverages or magazines is not only the impulse sales, but also the distraction of impatient shoppers.

We have learned that shoppers do not often switch lanes and, while they threaten to walk away, they seldom do so. However, the checkout is the last place the customer experiences and can have a major impact on their total store impression.

Many frustrated shoppers turn to self-checkouts as a solution. Interestingly, they usually spend more total time at a self-checkout, but they perceive it as less because they are occupied rather then waiting.

Ray Jones, managing director, Dechert-Hampe & Co.

Not only are we pressed for time in general (real or unreal), the wait time seems to be addressed by friendly cashiers who can engage on even a base level to make the final connection to the customer.

The real frustration with wait time for me seems to be with self-checkout, where customers who are at best ‘technology challenged’ slow and stop a line with no help in sight. Home Depot is a good example of this where, in some cases, there are no registers open other than self-checkout and the customers are struggling to figure out how to scan a bag of concrete.

Charlie Moro, president, CFS Consulting Group, LLC

Wait times haven't just become an issue; they have been an issue for a long time. That's one of the reasons some retailers have installed self-checkout lanes and/or begun using wireless checkout devices and/or have the policy that when three people are in line, someone calls for another cashier to come up and/or publicise the fact that between 4 and 7 p.m. all lanes will be open.

The issue isn't new, and it hasn't gone away. Consumers don't like to wait when checking out.

Camille Schuster, president, Global Collaborations, Inc.

I'm not sure that retailers are measuring these times, and even if so, if they are measuring them accurately. Certainly, they can be measured by system-generated data. However, this data never really tells the real story.

I participated several times in many manual studies. And from my view, this is the only way it can accurately be done. It takes a trained observer. More importantly, someone talented enough to run a stop watch and who is thoroughly impartial.

What can be learned is extremely interesting. The tales told are even more helpful in customer service itself. The most interesting I've seen was one that was done prior to installation of self-checkout, during the installation, and then later, weeks following the installation. It showed what is rarely discussed about self-checkout – which is an improvement in wait times and an overall improvement in the perception of customer service. Certainly, most see this change as merely a labour savings investment. However, done right, it returns high improvements in number of customers on line in lanes open, and an impressive improvement in perception of wait time and customer service improvement. In particular, this is true when baggers are maintained in the self-checkout lanes just as with manned lanes.

Looking closely at the numbers in the survey discussed here, the scariest number is the 3% that walk and never return. Considering that a 3-5% improvement these days in same-store sales for supermarkets seems to be perceived as 'good', giving up or potentially losing those 3% over a one-minute additional wait time is worrisome. Or if it isn't, it should be.

Retailers often look at product mix, selection and expanded categories that produce same-store sales growth. In reality, these things mean little if you are willing to let 3% of your customers walk and never return. The fact is that those 3% by word-of-mouth cost you far more than their impact by themselves. Keeping a close eye on this area is as important as it ever was, if not more so with the consumer having so many choices. With all of those choices available, they have to go by others in many cases to choose you. If one minute can cause this potential loss, it's as important as ever.

'Scanner'

Self-scan with random checking. Technology will get better and less expensive too, so there will be less need for random checking.

Steve Bramhall, managing director, SB Purchasing

Absolutely; checkout times and customer service have become more important. We have evolved into a NOW society. We want it, when we want it and how we want it. The average time someone will wait in line is three persons. If the wait is longer, you will see the droppings of product or leaving of full carts, and they will just walk out. Happens all the time.

Retailers should have a ‘sentinel’; someone that is assigned to keep an eye out for customer service

Susan Rider, president, Rider and Associates, LLC

We have been saying for years, the consumer is time-starved. Waiting in line to check out is viewed as a waste of time by most consumers. The problem is, just saying a four-minute wait time is the breaking point, is the wrong way to look at the issue. A four-minute wait for an express line of 7 items or less is simply unacceptable to most consumers. A four-minute wait for a consumer buying $200 worth of groceries is a different story.

W Frank Dell II, CMC, president, Dellmart & Company

Checkout wait time has always been the cornerstone of a retailer's service definition. This is not new, and it applies to every form of retail. Customers can be offended, frustrated, or almost delighted with the exchange. It all depends on how the retailer designs the service point and then uses the resources available.

Customers will be tolerant of wait times longer than four minutes if all lanes are open and the staff are functioning well (i.e., not chatting with each other). I've seen plenty of jammed front ends that are tolerable because the personnel are pleasant. Shoppers can tell when employees are working hard to ‘get them out’.

However, I've also seen plenty anxiety in the lines. Crabbiness begets crabbiness. Why would a shopper return to a store that made him/her feel bad about being there?

Smart retailers recognise that the POS is a place of discomfort by definition (‘pay up and get out’). They do what they can to make it less so.

Dan Raftery, president, Raftery Resource Network

The irony in retailing is: the longer you keep the customer in the store, the more they buy. And the quicker you get them out of the store, the quicker they return.

Having said this and reading the other comments, I think the one missing item is managing the shopper's expectations. True, the four-minute standard may have real relevance. However, other cues have value in the ‘frustration equation’. For example, shoppers are more lenient of the temporal dimension if every checkout is open and if there are dedicated baggers at each checkout. Also, when the cashier makes a mistake, what is the process for fixing it? It should be seamless, not making customers pay for our mistakes.

Time is money, so we should manage expectations accordingly.

Richard George, professor of food marketing, Saint Joseph's University

Two chains come to mind that are at opposite ends of this spectrum: Meijer and Costco. For some reason, Meijer has the slowest checkouts in the world. They have a lot of lanes open usually, but they move at a snail's pace and it is extremely frustrating. Even though I have tried to remind myself that their prices are good and so is the selection, the checkout totally ruins it for me. Costco, on the other hand, is very aware of checkout times and is always working hard to manage it. They open more lanes, they help people unload their carts, they have people scanning with mobile scanners, and their checkers are fast and courteous. I shop at Costco regularly, and seldom at Meijer, for these reasons.

Art Williams, retail marketing consultant/analyst, Independent

It isn't the wait time; it is the visibility of progress. If customers see the line is moving and employees are responding, they are fine. If they see one haggard employee trying to deal with a customer who is returning six things on five different receipts, and there is no one else coming to help... then you've lost them.

'rduneil'

Whatever is scarce has value, and time is one of the scarcest commodities out there for most people.

What scares me about this study is that retailers will read it and say okay, people are willing to wait up to four minutes – so, that will be the metrics I will live by. I want to shop at the store that says, "If four minutes is the breaking point, I want to be well below that. So, if I set my limit to three minutes, I am going to be at least 25 per cent better than my competition."

There are two things that have been missed in the comments. One, through the use of technology and scheduling software, companies are better able to make sure that they have the staff they need at the times they need them. Two, if you are going to keep people in line, give them something to do or something to distract them. When you have to wait in line at Disney, they have TVs to distract you and make you feel like the time is moving faster.

Mel Kleiman, president, Humetrics, LP, a division of Kronos Corp.