Smart payment technology useless without basic customer service

I’m all for whatever technology can do to speed up payment when I’m out shopping, be it NFC, smart wallets, whatever.

Yet we’re missing an important point. If the retail staff can’t do the basic job they are there to do, no amount of clever technology is going to improve the experience.

Here is a case in point.

I was in Liverpool Street Station on Friday to get the Stansted Express. There is a Costa Coffee in the station and I thought I’d grab a coffee in the 15 minutes before my train left. It’s fair to assume that most people in a station don’t have a huge amount of time on their hands. You’d also imagine a brand like Costa would factor that into the way they run things. Not a bit of it.

It wasn’t busy – there were about four people ahead of me singulair medication. But the lack of system and clueless staff meant that eight minutes into my wait, I’d still not been asked for my order.

So I walked out.

If you can’t perform a basic function like taking a coffee order within a reasonable time, no amount of smart payment technology is going to improve the experience. Fact.

Pret does fast service magnificently. So come on Costa, Starbucks et al, get yourselves sorted, please.