Deakin University researcher Dr Nichola Robertson and her supervisor, Professor Robin Shaw, looked at how customers responded when self-service technology like ATMs, internet banking and ticketing machines went wrong.  

“Self-service technology is a fact of life, however, this research uncovered frustrated consumers who are seething with resentment regarding these technologies,” Dr Robertson explained.  

“We looked at customers' negative experiences with all types of self-service technology, from interactive voice response, to Internet banking and ticketing machines,” Dr Robertson said.  

“What was a particularly interesting and new finding of the research was that customers reported an overwhelming feeling of powerlessness. Self-service technologies are promoted as increasing consumers” sense of power, control, and independence, yet our research indicated that this is not always the case.”  

Dr Robertson said customers had a higher expectation of self-service technology.  

“They think the service is going to be quicker, more reliable, and more responsive,” she said.

“Yet even people who are confident with technology still had problems with self-service machines.  

“What was interesting was that people would go to great lengths to get the technology to work properly. They would try to get a friend to help them, search for instructions and really tried to help themselves.  

“When they finally got to the point where they needed to complain, people would temper this desire by looking at the ease of the complaint process, the desire to vent frustration and their perceived self-confidence in using the technology."  

Customers would complain in various ways, she said.

A lack of complaints to the organisation does not mean that customers are satisfied with these technologies, and the old adage, “no news is good news” is far from applicable in the context of consumer complaint behaviour.”  

Dr Robertson said there was a lot companies could do to help their customers with the self-service technology.  

“Companies invest a lot of money in this technology, so obviously they would prefer customers to use the technology and continue to use it,” she said.  

“Yet they need to think about it from the customers’ perspective when they design these things. They need to research their customers.  

“They need to help the customers help themselves. A start would be to provide enough instructions to allow the customer to trouble shoot the problem and provide assistance to the customers so they can gain the skills required to use the technology.   

“If the customer wants to make a complaint, companies need to provide multiple channels, including an interpersonal option.

“Organisations can promote technological channels by making them easy to use and guaranteeing a response to the complaint.”  

Dr Robertson said providing a human avenue for customers to vent was very important.  

“Interestingly customers don’t necessarily think they are going to get a response, but they just want get it off their chest and complain. The benefit for the company is that by providing this it keeps the complaint in house and minimises negative word of mouth or the loss of the customer completely.”  

Dr Robertson hopes that the findings of the research will help companies to improve the customer’s experience of self-service technology by reducing customer frustration and improving complaint systems.