Which line do I choose?

Photo credit: AndreikaI was at a retailer recently and as I was going to pay for for the items I was buying I was in the position we have all been through – which line do I choose?  Instinctually we all want to choose the line that’s going to move us through the check-out process as fast as possible. In reality, the difference of a few minutes on way or another doesn’t make that big a difference. Most of us waste that much time on our Blackberry or iPhones every hour.

Of course I chose the wrong line and my frustration grew as I saw customer after customer fly though their line while the customers ahead of me seemed to have the most complicated of transactions.

So here is my suggestion to retailers with multiple checkout lines.  While it was my choice to pick the line I did, and while I should not have gotten as frustrated as I did, it still affected my experience with this retailer. An experience that this retailer can 100% control.  Instead of letting the customer choose their line, create a single line that feeds into all of the available registers. This is no breakthrough in retailing as I’ve seen it done at other stores.

What is your customer’s experience? This is just one example but highlights the fact that a business can and should consider every facet of their customer’s experience and optimize it.