Robots, Automation Replacing Customer Service

Big box retailers and fast food restaurants are big fans of surveillance and nanny-state technology that carves the human element – and the cost – right out of customer service.

The race for automation and retail robots is here, regardless of whether it’s what customers want.

Drive by or walk into any store, discount or high-end, and you’re sure to be surveilled, tracked and recorded. Customer service is becoming a so-called science driven by surveillance tech, databases and algorithms.

McDonald’s is currently testing a self-serve McCafe coffee station in Chicago. It’s touted as a convenience for customers. But it also takes away the need for an employee to make each cup of coffee.

Amazon.com  routinely grabs national headlines by promising package deliveries by drones. That still hasn’t materialized, partly because of red tape from the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration).

Lowe’s, one of the biggest retailers in the nation, unveiled its first customer service robots in 2014 at a store in San Jose, Calif. The OSHbot  project is a joint venture between Lowe’s, Fellow Robots and the Google-based Singularity University Labs.  

According to Lowe’s “Innovation Labs,” the robots are bilingual and have:

*Language processing skills

*Autonomous store navigation, including collision avoidance

*Real-time product information

*3D Scanning ability

*Remote connectivity

*Inventory management skills.

The Singularity Hub claims the robots are “being adopted by Lowe’s, a big established firm in a sector of the economy—lumber, tools, and screws—you might not associate with robotics. Lowe’s hiring robots is akin to office supply chain, Staples, announcing they’ll carry 3D printers or UPS stores offering 3D printing services to customers.”

 Lowe’s and other companies insist that their robots, drones and automated kiosks are not intended to eliminate jobs. But that’s inevitable, starting with low-skilled workers that perform repetitive tasks.

The possiblity of lost jobs is not lost on Google, one of the main masterminds behind the robot movement. 

“Even if there’s going to be a disruption on people’s jobs, in the short term that’s likely to be made up by the decreasing cost of things we need, which I think is really important and not being talked about, Google co-founder the Chief Executive Officer Larry Page  told FT Magazine.

A job “disruption?” That’s a nice way of putting it. And lower prices really don’t matter if people don’t have the jobs (and therefore the money) to buy anything. 

Bureaucrats and corporate bean counters worry about labor costs. So it’s no surprise that automation customer service robots are viewed as saviors. Robots eliminate the salaries, sick time and health care benefits that go along with employing people. Robots also eliminate employee drama, theft and personality clashes.

Emmployees might be limited, but there are plenty of cameras and technology that is ready and able to spy on us. Go to any mall, big box store or high-end retailer and you’re sure to be watched, cataloged and filed into a database, without your permission or knowledge.

The moment we drive into a store parking lot, cameras are watching. Customers are told parking lot cameras are used to deter crime, but the technology can do so much more. Security cameras can capture faces and license plate numbers and file the information in a searchable database. 

.Inside stores, ‘Big Brother’ cameras keep shoppers and employees under non-stop surveillance.

Some stores have mannequins have cameras that watch everyone through a system called “Shopperception.” The cameras can detect and categorize shoppers by every demographic. They read your body language, facial expressions and determine your mood, along with what products you look at the longest.

Fitting  rooms are not even off-limits. Industrie Denim and American Rag, two high-end retailers, have installed cameras in fitting rooms. The rationale is so customers can better see how their jeans fit. Yet no one knows who else might be watching or where the video of those form-fitting jeans might end up

In addition to all of this, everything you buy with a discount shopping card, credit card or bank account is tracked in real time. Stores offer Smartphone applications that can track you inside and outside of the store and send you targeted advertising.

All of this so-called convenience comes with a huge hidden cost: Our personal information. The real advantage goes to the businesses that sell, share and recycle our private information with government agencies and other businesses. 

As long as we keep showing up, they’ll keep making money, not only from our purchases but from all of the personal information they collect.