How Many Keystrokes Should It Take To Buy Something?
from the maybe-they're-multi-tasking dept
In true Raymond Babbitt fashion, columnist Peter Cochrane has been out counting the number of keystrokes it takes clerks to punch into various points of sale systems -- and the numbers seem way too high. Whatever happened to simplification? We've heard of computer systems that take fifteen steps to save a file, so perhaps 48 keystrokes to pay for a cup of coffee (with cash) is the new standard. Maybe in this Starbucks-obsessed world, there really are so many different options on a cup of coffee that it should take so long to punch it all into the terminal. Either that or the systems are connected to the internet, and the clerks are "multi-tasking" and instant messaging with their friends.
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So first people want choices...now they want it si
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one-key patent
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Re: So first people want choices...now they want i
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Re: So first people want choices...now they want i
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It boils down to companies not spending money on P
"No no, push F8.. Back up. Ok, now enter code 'G'.. Then F6.. Then 4.. Now enter."
"Ohhhhh"
When I was managing a tiny retail store I looked into several POS offerings and none of them really impressed me.
POS should be a horrific monstrosity to configure initially, and then be a breeze once it's deployed. We're still doing this all wrong.
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Re: It boils down to companies not spending money
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No computer, no sale
The worst part of this is somewhere along the line, consumers started to accept it. I was behind someone trying to buy something with a bar code the scanner couldn't read. The cashier tried about 1,000 times, then called a supervisor who just kept rescanning, too. I moved to another line and about 10 minutes later when I left the store, they were still standing there trying to scan the stupid code.
I was leaving Wal-Mart once and the "stop thief!" alarm went off because the tag on my package of CD-R's hadn't been deactivated. They checked the slip to see I wasn't a shoplifter then said they had to deactivate the tag.
I told them they were my CD-R's now and my security tag and left.
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Re: It boils down to companies not spending money
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Re: It boils down to companies not spending money
Probably very little. An intuitive system might save a few hours per clerk in training costs, but after the first day, the clerk would be up to speed, and there would be no more benefit.
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RE: How Many Keystrokes
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Re: It boils down to companies not spending money
Of course some retailers have the opposite problem - fewer stores but many more registers - the largest store I implemented a POS at had 168 registers in one store and several more with 80+.
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Re: It boils down to companies not spending money
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Re: It boils down to companies not spending money
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My Supermarket is very good
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Re: My Supermarket is very good
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Re: It boils down to companies not spending money
It's not always about speed. In some retail environments, like grocery - yes, absolutely - but then a grocery POS is thusly optimized and has many less functions than a specialty store POS.
In a more specialty store - the emphasis is on reasonable speed with high accuracy and lots of functionality like layaways, inventory lookups, returns etc.
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Re: It boils down to companies not spending money
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Re: My Supermarket is very good
Can anyone actually give me an example of where these systems really fall down and why? Preferrably an example from the UK.
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