The importance of having till systems and self-service checkouts in store that are user friendly and accessible has been highlighted this month (July), with Tesco drawing criticism for its self-checkouts and how they’re affecting the shopping experience.

The supermarket giant has received more than 200,000 customer complaints about its self-service systems, the Retail Gazette reports, with a petition now having been signed by nearly a quarter of a million shoppers.

Customer Pat McCarthy started the petition in question, writing: “What used to be a great shopping experience has now become physically difficult, overwhelming, and a nightmare.

“At my local Tesco mega-store and probably all over the country, Tesco is bringing in new self-service and sort-it-out-yourself card only till machines.”

Of course, the idea behind self-service tills is to facilitate the shopping experience and make it quicker and easier for people to buy what they need efficiently. But if the tills themselves make the job harder, it’s likely that you’ll start to lose customers or, as in this Tesco case, start seeing some serious complaints.

Having a good mix of self-service and staffed tills is perhaps the wisest way of working, so that people can choose which they’d rather use.

The balance between the two is likely to be influenced by your target market and brands with younger audiences may want to have more self-service and automated options in store, while those targeting older demographics may prefer to stick to more traditional till options.

It’s becoming increasingly important for consumer-facing businesses to really prioritise the shopping experience and customers are now looking for a lot more from the brands they choose to shop with… so make sure that all your systems, digital and traditional alike, are fully functional at all times to keep the customers satisfied.