In order to streamine costs to better compete with online retailers and to increase their profit margins, more and more retailers have turned to self-service. While shoppers like this in some situations, (a) there are many instances where they want human contact and (b) the retailers are giving up another competitive advantage.

As Mike Cearley observes at selfserviceworld.com: “I’m all for self-service, interactive ordering and ticketing, and the like. But the balance with this sort of technology, out in the real world like this, is how much it takes away from or supplements customer service. That’s right: good, old fashioned customer service.”

Click the image to read more from Cearley.