Where has all the help gone?

By Karen Aho

Remember when customer service meant service provided for you? By someone else?

More and more, customer service means you get to serve yourself.

Technically, that makes it self-service. But in marketing parlance, self-service is actually a form of customer service, wherein the store -- or the airline or the hotel -- installs a cool gadget that lets you do the work once entrusted to others.

"What better customer service is there than self-service?" ask the marketers. "It's fast!" "It's accurate!" "It's convenient!" "It's confidential!" (No more bystanders overhearing that triple-cheese, extra-mayo order.)

Already, kiosks allow you to mail packages, order food, pick up dry cleaning or prescription medication (including some in California for marijuana), check out library books, rent DVDs, check into hotels, pay water bills or parking tickets, do some banking or, if you're incarcerated, see how many good-behavior points you've racked up.

It's now possible to begin a trip, feed and entertain yourself, and even mail gifts home without interacting with a single person save airport security (and there a simple nod will do).

All this and no fear of rejection

U.S. consumers scanned $137 billion of merchandise at self-checkout lanes in 2006, a 24% jump over the previous year, according to research from IHL Group. Consumers spent an additional $300 billion at self-service kiosks, with the combined dollar volume expected to surpass $1 trillion by 2011.

The industry is growing at such a clip that it's almost impossible to track the numbers, said Patrick Avery, the editor of SelfServiceWorld, launched in 2005 to meet the demand for information.

"The price is coming down," he said. "And nine times out of 10 those (self-service) units are going to pay for themselves in six months."

In Pennsylvania, Giant Food Stores designed a new supermarket around the concept of self-service, with mobile scanners that let shoppers tally and bag groceries as they go, and kiosks that print directions to canned yams, search for recipes, put in deli orders and display photos of the managers. ("Shopping is a very personal experience," spokeswoman Tracy Pawelski said, "so we get to know our customers.")

"It's just one of those exponential type occurrences," said Bruce Steinhardt, the founder of OTech Group. "It's just going to continue to grow at an increasing rate for quite some time."

He should know. Several years ago, Steinhardt, a medical administrator, was using a self-service checkout at Home Depot when an idea hit. He had just used a kiosk for a flight, too, and thought, "Why not do the same at doctors' offices?"

In 2004, Steinhardt founded OTech, which now has kiosks in 40 clinics for patient check-in, with clinics paying $5,000 per year per kiosk. The kiosks verify insurance, take payments and direct patients to the appropriate waiting areas, all without a person asking questions.

"You would rather do it yourself than stand in line and -- I hate to say this -- talk to people," Steinhardt said.

But I never asked to do all this

We've been adding jobs to our daily repertoire ever since self-serve gas pumps took the service out of the service station.

Almost all of us check ourselves in for flights, either online or at a kiosk (86% of leisure travelers in 2006, according to Forrester Research). About 40% of us do our banking online, Online Banking Report says. We don't even flinch before rolling up our sleeves to make copies, print photos, book travel or research that new stereo.

But did we really ask to do all this work?

It turns out most of us would rather not, according to researchers. But we value our time and money more, and companies know this.

Though it may be difficult to believe now, people were hesitant to use ATMs when the units debuted in the mid-1970s. But how irresistible is a cash dispenser freed from bankers' hours? All those minutes used to rush downtown before 4 p.m. were gloriously restored.

Gas stations, meanwhile, persuaded us to drive away with our hands reeking of gasoline in exchange for a discount of a few pennies per gallon.

Now we think of it as paying extra for service at the pump. And banks are starting to charge for in-person teller services that were previously free.

"It used to be, 'We'll give you something extra for doing self-service.' Now it's, 'If you don't do self-service, we'll charge you something extra for having a person help you,'" said Linda Musthaler, an analyst at Essential Solutions.

Continued: Training the customers

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