“12 items or less” plan for Coles self-serve checkouts sends shoppers reeling: How to communicate change

The self-serve checkout machine has always been a controversial technology, but a planned trial by supermarket giant Coles to introduce a “12 items or less” policy on do-it-yourself lanes in select stores has shoppers in a spin.

The pilot program, reported by news.com.au and which SmartCompany understands will run at 20 stores across Coles’ 787-strong store network, is designed to contribute to “our ongoing commitment to improve customer service”, according to a spokesperson for the supermarket chain.

“We have found customers with small baskets can generally complete their shopping faster by using self-scanning checkouts, where there is always a team member on hand to assist,” the spokesperson says.

The move comes as the chain continues to battle reportedly high levels of shoplifting through the self-serve machines, with New South Wales Police drawing attention to the problem of loss prevention at supermarkets likes Coles in October 2016.

According to a report from news.com.au at the time, Coles loses $1.1 billion lost to theft each year.

At that time, NSW Police told the ABC that 2,697 of the state’s 6,743 shoplifting apprehensions between January and October 2016 were from self-serve checkout machines, or around 40% of all cases.

More than 9,000 of the nation’s 22,000 shoplifting apprehensions were from self-serve machines, according to the ABC.

Shoppers reject idea of longer lines

Despite the scale of concerns over theft through the checkouts, shoppers have taken to social media this morning to express significant displeasure at the idea they could be forced to return to long lines for their weekly shops.

“Theft at checkouts costing you a billion dollars a year? How have you deduced that result? Maybe if you spent money on hiring staff to ‘man’ checkouts, your theft would be greatly reduced! Bloody cheeky complaint,” said one Coles customer.

Others pointed out that while manned lanes at their local stores had been reduced to make way for the self-serve machines, the idea of limiting the number of goods that could be bought using them was only going to cause headaches when paying for items.

“I guess this means we’ll see a corresponding increase in checkout operators,” one customer hoped.

However, crisis communications expert Allan Briggs, managing director of Briggs Communications, says the supermarket has a strong argument for the change, and must communicate this well at the checkout from now on.

“Most importantly staff need to be fully aware and have some Q&A responses ready,” Briggs says.

For other businesses considering operational changes to solve problems like theft, the best approach is to consider what could go wrong, as well as preparing facts for your customers to show you’ve considered how a change will impact them.

“[Think about] statistics on average time taken, benefits of the new procedure, how the savings in theft reduction will be passed on to the consumer, [such as] lower prices, or maybe donation to a charity,” he says.

Social media expert Catriona Pollard says given Coles has already made the decision to make a change, there’s no point inflaming the situation on Facebook and other platforms by engaging with each concerned individual.

“Every circumstance is different—in some circumstances I would recommend they reach out, but in this case I would say best not,” Pollard says.

“In this case, Coles needs to wait it out and make sure publicly they explain clearly why they’re doing it.

“They need to understand social is now an opportunity for customers to vent, which is actually a good thing, but sometimes responding individually will just inflame it.”

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