Don’t demand quality from your part-timers! Soon 80% of customer service will no longer be necessary… The future of customer service, which is becoming increasingly mechanized and automated.

Is there such a thing as “I don’t know because I’m a part-timer?”

Recently, when shopping in stores or inquiring by phone, I have frequently seen clerks who do not have a grasp of their products or become grumpy when I ask them questions.

I was looking at social networking sites to find out if it was bad luck, if the author just has a hard eye, or if the quality of customer service is declining, when a post with X jumped out at me. To summarize,

When I asked about inventory at a home improvement store, the clerk replied, ‘I don’t know, I’m just a part-timer,’ but I thought part-time work should be that lenient.

This is a good example of how part-time work can be just as lenient. Even if he is a part-time worker, he is still a shopkeeper. Is “I don’t know” a reasonable response?

However, I was mildly shocked to see many positive replies such as, “If you are in a supermarket or mall, you should search by yourself instead of asking the clerk.

The hospitality industry is facing a number of issues, such as labor shortages and harassment, and employment is diversifying. In such an era, is it wrong to question the quality of customer service?

While I was agonizing over these questions, I came across a book titled “Needed Customer Service, Unnecessary Customer Service,” written by Kota Saito, a customer development consultant.

Mr. Saito points out that, against the backdrop of advances in IT and AI technology, there are an increasing number of industries and sectors where human customer service is no longer needed, and many young people believe that it is no longer necessary. He predicts that 80% of the customer service that has been performed by people will become unnecessary and will eventually disappear, i.e., “unnecessary customer service.

However, the remaining 20% will be “customer service that is needed. He believes that “customer service that makes people happy,” which only people can provide, will remain forever.

We joined Mr. Saito to consider how service recipients can enjoy shopping, dining, and drinking in a pleasant environment by accepting the “customer service that exists” and the “customer service that is not needed.

What industries do not feel the “need for customer service?

Let’s say you went shopping at a fast-fashion store on a weekend stroll, had lunch at a family restaurant, bought a boxed lunch for dinner at the supermarket, and went home. You have already checked out the products online, ordered at the family restaurant on a tablet, and paid at all three self-checkout counters. I found myself not speaking a single word to the staff at the restaurant. ……

Such a day would not be unusual.

According to Mr. Saito, until around 1970, most retailers in Japan were engaged in “face-to-face” sales. It was around 1970 to 2000 that “self-sales,” in which customers select and buy products on their own, began to expand. Supermarkets sprang up one after another, and fishmongers, grocers, butcher shops, tofu shops, etc., which were mainly engaged in face-to-face sales, gradually disappeared from the streets.

Today, however, people can shop online without the need for customer service, and self-checkout machines have been introduced in supermarkets and convenience stores, allowing customers to pay for their purchases without the need for human assistance.

Mr. Saito predicts the future as follows.

By 2030, convenience stores, supermarkets, drugstores, and other retail chains that handle daily necessities will have self-checkout systems throughout the country, and unmanned stores will be spreading in urban areas.

Even in fast-fashion stores, many customers have acquired a great deal of information from the Internet when they visit a store, so they choose products on their own without asking store staff. Since the products are reasonably priced, failure to select the right product will not be a major blow. Since customers do not feel the need for customer service, I believe that the number of staff devoted to customer service will be reduced for the sake of efficiency.

Similarly, restaurant chains such as fast food and family restaurants will probably minimize the number of people serving customers by around 2030 by unmanned reception areas and the use of food delivery robots.”

To begin with, at home centers, convenience stores, supermarkets, fast-food restaurants, and fast-fashion stores, contact with store staff will last only a few minutes if ever. As was mentioned in the reply to the opening post, customers themselves do not feel much need for customer service in these industries. I guess what they are looking for is cheap and easy.