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NCR UNIVERSE: The multichannel customer is here, and she wants more self-service

April 2, 2008

ORLANDO, Fla. — "We are truly at an inflection point," said Bill Nuti,NCR Corp.'s chairman and chief executive. "Businesses are forced to interact with a consumer that is changing."

 

Long story short, like the ever-changing and evolving technology paradigm, consumers are changing, and they want to interact with businesses at an ever-accelerating pace. Businesses, in their quest to keep up, are looking to self-service and multichannel strategies more than ever before.

 

At least that's the way the head of the Dayton, Ohio-based self-service giant sees it, and it's a message he and the rest of the NCR team are touting to customers and journalists from various industries and markets during NCR's third-annual Self-Service Universe Executive Conference.

 

‘The revolution is real'

 

During his opening address Thursday, Nuti quoted 10 ideas recently published by Time Magazine that are changing the world.

 

Bill Nuti, NCR Corp.'s chairman and chief executive, speaks at NCR's third-annual Self-Service Universe Executive Conference.

Of the ideas, which range from the so-called "Post-Movie-Star Era" to "Reverse Radicalism," is a section dedicated to "The End of Customer Service." And guess what spurred the notion to be pinged by Time as one of the top-10? Answer: An overwhelming shift among retailers, the hospitality industry, banking institutions and more to increased use of self-service.

 

In fact, among Time's top-10, this move to more self-service listed as the No. 2 "big idea."

 

So, is that movement or migration a good thing? Yes, not surprisingly, says Nuti, whose company is betting on the self-service shift.

 

But does the shift represent, as Time would lead readers to believe, an end to customer service? Quite the contrary, Nuti says.

 

Quoting statistics from its most-recent annual consumer survey, which polls users in North America, Europe, China, Japan and Australia, Nuti says NCR found that consumers are increasingly demanding and using self-service.

 

Looking specifically at the United States and Canada, the 500 North America consumers who participated in the March 2008 survey, 86 percent said they were more likely to do business with companies that offer self-service. That's a 12 percent increase from just last year. And, even more striking, Nuti says, is that no respondents said they would be less likely to do business with a company that offers self-service – a minority category that accounted for 2 percent of last year's results.

 

Additionally, around 56 percent said their likelihood to use self-service has increased over the last 12 months. (Clickhereto download the full survey.) 

 

Respondents also said the use of self-service positively impacted, in their minds, brand image. In fact, 66 percent said they positively viewed brands that use or offer self-service technologies.

 

"The ‘Self-Service Revolution' is driven by the desire for something better," Nuti said.

 

It's a revolution that's being driven by technology enhancements, technology affordability and a desire on the part of the consumer to do more for himself. One merely needs to look to the speed at which consumers have embraced the Internet and wireless technology, Nuti says, to see that the adoption of self-service is only going to become more widespread, crossing every socio-economic, ethnic and generational sphere.

 

Ultimately, Nuti says, self-service will enhance, not harm, customer service.

 

"One of the true values of customer service is personalization," he said. "By offering consumers more choices, you improve personalization. You must have networks and self-service options that meet the needs of customers in order to survive. The age of the multichannel consumer has finally arrived."