Facing time-starved consumers and continuing labour shortages, retailers are looking to new technologies to change the way we shop.

Various forms of interactive customer-service kiosks - some of which are being tested in Canada - could soon become the latest tool in a store owner's arsenal.

According to NCR Corp., once known as the National Cash Register Co. and now focused on using innovative technology to solve business problems, kiosks are an easy way for companies to "up-sell" their products - getting consumers to buy more than they would otherwise.

"The kiosks are better than a (sales) person on an up-sale," says Kent Porter, Mississauga-based director of self-service for NCR's retail solutions division in Canada. This type of kiosk, where people themselves punch in what they want to order or what service they want, is in demand.

Photo courtesy of Experticity
Experticity is rolling out Video Agent in a pilot project in conjunction with Staples in Canada.

Thousands of terminals used to order fast food are already in use in the U.S., he adds.

U.S. grocery stores are also adopting similar technology.

Through deli pre-order machines, a customer goes to a kiosk to purchase the meats and cheeses they want instead of waiting in line at the deli counter. The order is then prepared and put in a cooler at the front of the store with the customer's receipt attached.

Many stores have doubled their deli revenue, says Porter.

But not all the new technology relies solely on human-machine interaction.

Experticity, a Seattle-based company specializing in customer-service products for the retail and hospitality sectors, has introduced Experticity In Store, its version of the future of retail customer support.

In this case, technology is the enabler that allows customers to reach a live salesperson at the other end of the technological connection.

"Our customer stations have no keyboard and no mouse," says Experticity president and CEO D.L. Baron. "A touch screen routes the customer to a live on-screen person - if I'm in the plumbing department of a store, I'll get a plumber; if I'm in the electric department, I'll get an electrician.

"In fact, we can make it so easy that you don't need to touch the screen. We can make it motion triggered, so they (the salesperson) can come on and ask if there's anything you need."

The technology, which aims to put an end to long lineups, appears to be timely. A new Ipsos Reid study shows that Canadians are less patient about lining up than they used to be and feel that they waste anywhere from 30 minutes to more than four hours a week in queues.

The study of 1,336 adults, done for NCR in January 2007, reveals that when consumers were asked what frustrates them about waiting in line, 87 per cent of Canadians point to the "lack of staff to assist you"; 86 per cent indicate that they feel they are "wasting time" while in line, and 52 per cent say they are frustrated at "not being able to serve yourself."

In Canada, Experticity is working with Staples, which has rolled out Video Agent, its own version of Experticity In Store. The pilot project has been expanded to 10 stores from five and will be evaluated in mid-July.

Initial reaction is favourable, says James Pelrine, manager of process improvement for Richmond Hill, Ont.-based Staples Business Depot Canada.

Experticity's concept is simple: Use technology to take the call-centre concept to the next level. Customers can approach an in-store station - a stand with a touch-screen monitor, webcam and a printer - and ask about product information, pricing, availability, installation assistance or even where to find a certain item in that store.

On the other end of that technology, there's a company employee specializing in the particular product or service. The employee is connected to the customer via a webcam, has access to two computers - one to interact with the customer and the other to access the web or the company's Intranet - and is able to answer the customer's questions.

Within seconds, a customer can access a company salesperson/expert and the system can print out a receipt or other information for the customer to take home or to the nearest checkout counter.

Meanwhile, the employees monitoring the system can be located elsewhere in the same store, at head office or halfway across the country. Baron says plans are also in the works to introduce a version that will allow retailers to have employees work out of their own home offices.

Depending on how the system is set up, Baron says a single back-end salesperson who can be hundreds of kilometres away can handle customer interactions from multiple stores where staff members are occupied with other customers.

"We are working pretty much with probably every retail vertical (electronics, home improvement, cellphone companies, department stores and discounters), including fashion, which we thought would never happen. They all see this as the way forward," says Baron.

Although Staples likes what it sees so far with its Video Agent, it hit a setback when it first rolled out the technology in Nova Scotia - Pelrine notes customers were a bit taken aback when a live sales associate popped up on the screen.

In September 2006, the company installed Video Agent in four stores in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and one in Alberta - at Fort McMurray, the chain's highest-volume store in Canada.

Approximately two months ago, it added three more Alberta stores to the program - one each in Calgary, Edmonton and Grande Prairie - and two more in the GTA.

The idea is not to replace store level associates, but to deploy the machine in the chain's higher-volume copy centres or remote store location where there are lineups of five to six people deep waiting to create business cards or use other copy centre staff-assisted services.

Staples has two agents working out of its Richmond Hill facility to handle the customer service stations, which are online from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. EST Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. EST on Saturday during the pilot stage. It has since added a third agent to handle the excess flow due to the additional five stations.

"The reaction is extremely positive," says Pelrine. "I have letters from customers raving about the service. They're impressed at reduced turnaround time and how quick they receive the finished product. We also get as much positive feedback from our store associates."

Peter Woolford, vice-president, policy development and research for the Toronto-based Retail Council of Canada (RCC), says: "Anything that enhances the customer experience in the store is something that retailers will look at very carefully.

"The general observations we have from listening to our members is that they have the impression the customer feels more harried and fewer minutes to get done what (shopping) needs to be done."

Woolford says when labour constraints are considered - the labour market is tight in virtually all of Western Canada, urban areas in Central Canada and larger urban areas of Atlantic Canada - if there are ways to put more knowledge into the hands of consumers, it will likely be welcomed.

"The choice of whether these kinds of technology will be employed will really be driven by the nature of your business. That same customer who came into my computer store to buy a piece of hardware and really values detailed questions about the product is not necessarily going to want that (technology) when they buy a box of cereal."

(Laura Severs can be reached at laura@businessedge.ca)