Best Practices

7 Keys to a Successful Self Check Out Project

Several years ago, CML made the decision to replace most of its existing staff circulation terminals with customer self check out stations. Many peer libraries are amazed when I share we have achieved a 90% customer self check out rate...that equated to 15.3 million items for us last year, a truly remarkable number.

I thought I'd share some of the secrets to our success and encourage you to consider a self check project that your staff will appreciate and your customers will love.

• Establish the vision. Be sure you know why you would undertake a project such as this. Most projects fail because there is a lack of vision and goals established at the onset of the project. Know what the desired outcomes are of a project such as this and set measurable goals. It is important to have an established set of goals, with management and board of trustees buy-in, before proceeding.

• Make it all or nothing. When we made the strategic decision to move to customer self check we removed the option for customers to have staff assist them in checking out materials. We made the decision to replace most of our staff terminals with self check units. I have seen a lot of libraries put up 1 or 2 units, off to the side of the circulation desk, but this is really a losing effort that has no meaningful impact. People are slow to change unless they no longer have a choice and although you may attract curiosity by having a few units available, it will never achieve wide acceptance as long as a staff member is available to help.

• Sell the vision to staff. Staff, especially circulation staff, need to understand the reason why you are taking on a self check project. It is not to outsource or eliminate their jobs, it is to empower them to perform other tasks. Another common argument is that customers like to have conversation with staff and that this will go away if self check is implemented. Actually, the opposite happens...staff are now free to have more conversations and can greet the customer in many more locations within buildings then before since they are not "tethered" to a circulation desk.

• Sell the vision to customers. Conversely, sell the vision to your customers. There will be a lot of questions and possibly some complaints on why you moved to self service. Take the time to explain to customers the need to operate more efficiently with less money and that staff will have more time to perform other valuable functions. Have staff out in front of your self check units ready to help customers who have questions or problems. Show them the benefits of not having to wait in long lines and how they can quickly process their materials to save time. And above all, have patience. It will take 3 months for the bulk of your customers to become completely comfortable with the system.

• Know the market. The market for self check hardware/software is booming. A visit to several different department stores will probably reveal systems from several different manufacturers. There are many new vendors entering into the library market all with different functions and capabilities. Establish your wish list early on...do you want a system that is highly customizable? Are additional languages important. Does it have to allow fine payment? There are a bevy of options to consider so be sure you compare as many vendors as feasible. Talk to your peer libraries and find out which systems they compared...one of the best percs of working in the library industry is there are no competitors and libraries love to share what they are doing.

• Public Service engagement in the project. Let public service drive the project. They know the customer and their capabilities, let them drive how the unit functions and looks. Choose staff who are excited by change and up for the challenge of selling it to their peers. Public service staff more readily accept a technology promoted by their peers then those that are promoted strictly by IT. Bottom line, public service has to make it work so let them own the technology.

• Market it. Leading up to a deployment, market the upcoming service whether it's flyers, in house displays, and/or promotion on your website. Get your customers excited and curious about it so there is buzz surrounding the project. And the same goes for marketing to staff. Write project updates so they can see progress and if possible install a self check unit in their location, just for their use, so they can see it won't be so bad once it comes up.

I hope you find these tips useful should you implement customer self check. One other piece of advice I can give: try to utilize existing millwork to cut costs. We simply used the exiting circulation desks without the need to put in new, costly millwork.

Courtesy of Greg at GeeksintheStacks.com.