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Self-service prescriptions?
Sure you will print out your own boarding pass and maybe you will ring up your own groceries, but would you pick up a prescription from a machine? That may be coming (Prescription medication kiosks...
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High tech comes to vending machines
My office sits in Nathaniel Leverone Hall. I never gave any thought to who Mr. Leverone was until on a visit to my parents in upstate New Hampshire I drove past Dartmouth’s Leverone Field House. That...
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Apparently our robot overlords want the crappy retail jobs too
How’s this for an alarmist headline? Retail jobs are disappearing as shoppers adjust to self-service (LA Times Mar 3) Here’s the article’s point of a view in a nutshell: In an industry that employs...
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A table tablet
So how far can we push self service? That’s an interesting process design question. There are clearly instances in which (at least some) customers prefer to do the work for themselves as opposed to...
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In defense of self-service checkout
I have previously stated that I love self-service checkouts. It may just be that I hate making eye contact (ask anyone who has had to sit through me teaching). I consequently worry every time there is...
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Shadow work and self service
How should we think of self service? Is it good for society in any sense or is it stealthy way to increase costs for customers? An article in today’s New York Times argues for the second point (Our...
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Tweaking retail operations to deal with changing customer behavior
I am getting ready to teach my service operations class next term and that has had me plowing through articles on retail operations and there have been a number of them recently. Let’s start with an...
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Using RFID to eliminate airport queues
How should airlines get passengers through airports with minimal delay? One possibility is to provide loads of capacity. There are two ways to do that. One is hire lots of staff or put out lots of...
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How Home Depot tackles queues
Yesterday, we looked at how Disney was taking on lines; today, Home Depot is up. Fast Company has a brief article on what the home-improvement chain is doing to keep customers moving through its stores...
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Is self-service checkout on the way out?
I love self-service checkout, but it is again under attack. Here in Chicago, Jewel-Osco (one of the major local supermarket chains) is pulling self-service checkout lanes from some of its stores (Jewel...
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