In-store robots do not compute with brick and mortar customers
The future is here with retailer’s trialling technological innovations such as in-store robots. However, shoppers are avoiding them. For example, earlier this year a Scottish supermarket chain employed their first in-store robot named Fabio, only to fire him after one week. Customers were actively avoiding the robot, despite Fabio’s sole purpose to assist in-store navigation and product choice to their unique shopper needs. Another example is a German consumer electronics retail chain who also found their in-store robot, Tom, was being avoided by shoppers, prompting the retailer to program Tom to dance ‘Gangnam style’ in a bid to engage customers.
Why are robots not effectively engaging customers?
One key reason for the lack of customer engagement with in-store robots is the misalignment between a robot’s design and its job description. For example, many of the in-store robots already available are designed to have round and friendly faces. However, these characteristics also make the robots seem submissive, rather than intelligent and competent, traits associated with more dominant facial types.
Additionally, 75% of global customers on average still wanted to interact with real people, and 59% of global consumers feel that the human element of customer experience has been lost by companies.1 This suggests that in-store robots should connect customers to human attendants to provide the much-needed human touch of customer experience.
- PwC. (n.d.). Source.