Observation & Improvement: The Shopping Experience

Shopping at the CVS Pharmacy in my neighborhood tends to be a lengthy process and a tiresome experience due to the lack of cashiers/service and the consistently long lines. They don’t have self-checkouts or seemingly enough employees to manage the constant flow of customers. The line usually extends through an entire aisle of the store, and there are (maximum) two employees working the cash register (usually just one) at any given time.

The store is located in a busy area of DC, so there are often a lot of customers patronizing this location. Fortunately, the products are easy to find, everything is in its proper aisle, and the pharmacy service tends to be pretty prompt. The checkout process is the main problem I observe, and it’s a constant issue — it needs to be improved upon in order for the store to manage its flow of customers in a timely manner.

The Problem:
• Slow lines
• Many customers, with only one person working at the cash register
• Process taking much longer than necessary

The Solution:
• Hiring more employees to man register
• Integrate self-checkout kiosks

Slow lines, one person at the checkout, and the entire process taking entirely longer than necessary means that customers who could have easily had a positive experience with the store often leave irritated, annoyed, and/or generally not feeling happy with their experience. They end up seeing this CVS location as problematic and/or a chore to visit (not the company’s desired outcome).

In order to improve upon the entire customer experience, this location of CVS Pharmacy needs to take its customers’ needs into consideration and hire more people to man the cash register and oversee the checkout process. (Neglecting this responsibility is a matter of poor customer service.)

Another way they could improve their customers’ shopping experience is to integrate the self-checkout process to their store. Many, if not most, other CVS locations have self-checkout kiosks and the checkout process generally seems to flow pretty smoothly, barring a few human errors here and there. Self-checkout kiosks being an available option would help to expedite the entire checkout process.

Based on personal observation and experience in other CVS stores, the proposed solutions to this location’s problems would be highly effective and would provide customers with a smoother and overall more enjoyable shopping experience.