I am a huge football (soccer) fan. I played the game as a boy, a teenager and into my twenties. At some point though, I “lost my touch.” It is a phrase that you will hear in football stadiums and parks every weekend. At least it was before the COVID-19 pandemic emerged and changed the way we live.

For those who are unfamiliar with the idea of losing your touch in football, I will try to explain. It is your ability to receive the ball and control it before running with the ball, passing or shooting. Typically, it is your first touch of the ball, though for me it was often my second touch before it was under control.

Throughout the pandemic many of us have lost touch with much of what we considered normal everyday activities. Meeting friends in a physical space or visiting family to eat meals and spend time in their homes. The other touch we have lost is face to face communication. Even in stores now, we are advised to wear masks to help prevent the spread of the virus, it is more difficult than it has ever been to form a connection or deliver a personal touch.

How does my first touch playing a game of football relate to the personal touch for retailers? Well it’s all about control. For me it was control of the ball, for the retailer it is the control of the customer experience, and how the experience is perceived.

The personal touch is one of the key differentiators for any retail business. Whether it is the ability to predict what you are looking to purchase (the largest online retailer in the world are pretty good at this), or staff knowing you on a personal level, or even the ability to talk to you about your life (my barber is particularly good at that). One point in the in-store experience when most retailers get to interact with their customers though, is at the checkout. This is an area where friction can be considered as almost as inevitable. An area where the personal touch has been an important part of the experience.

For many this personal touch has been lost. It’s been lost because of the face coverings, the plexiglass screens that now protect store staff from customers who are not wearing masks and the need to ensure customers are in and out of the store as quickly as possible, due to the restrictions on the number of people that can be in the store at any one time. Social distancing has meant that customers are cautious when asking for help and try to keep back from store staff. Staff are focused on staying healthy and helping customers to get through their store journey quickly.

The need to maintain social distancing has made paying with cash more difficult. The physical barriers and the precautions that staff and customers are being encouraged to take mean that cash payments are a challenge in some retail environments. The need to either reach around the barriers or stretch over can be difficult for some. This hinders the ability to deliver the personal touch too. Most people don’t want to engage in conversation while stretching or moving around to pay, and they will be extra cautious because of the desire to avoid contact when paying. Typically, when change is being counted there is no interaction between the store staff and the customer.

There are solutions that can help you during the pandemic when it comes to cash handling. Automating the cash handling process at the point of sale can help to maintain social distancing with customers and staff while also enabling staff to engage with customers and improve the experience. Beyond the pandemic whenever that might be, the lasting benefits of cash automation will still be there:

- The removal of friction from the checkout experience
- Better engagement with customers
- Improved productivity
- Elimination of errors

The personal touch is something that can be recovered by retailers and used to control and enhance the customer experience. Whether my first touch on the football pitch can recover, well that remains to be seen.