Walmart receives patent for listening to employees and customers

The US supermarket chain has patented an audio monitoring system designed to evaluate cashiers and improve customer satisfaction.

Walmart, the retailer, aims to measure and evaluate the efficiency of its employees and capture customer satisfaction by checking the point of cashing in its supermarkets. This is evidenced by a recently granted patent to the company.

Sounds and Conversations Recorded and Evaluated

Walmart calls its technique "Listening the frontend" and describes it in US Patent 10.020.004 B2, filed in April 2017. The company wants to place many audio sensors near cash registers, record and evaluate all noises and conversations, and finally evaluate the performance of its employees, which should reduce costs and improve customer satisfaction.

The patent document mentions beeps of scanning the goods at the checkout, rustling of the bags when packing the products and placing the full bag in the customer's basket as possible audio sources of measurement to evaluate the performance of an employee – for example, the speed with which he collects and packs and how many bags

In addition, conversations between customers and cashiers, as well as between customers, should seize and evaluate the system and determine if the cashier greets the customer or if the customers talk to each other. may be too long. The computer system at the origin of the audio acquisition must contain for this purpose a voice recognition and distinguish different sounds (such as steps, trolley, etc.). In addition, every employee at the cash register must be identified and automatically evaluated by various measures.

It remains to be seen to what extent employees will feel constrained by such measures, if they are ever implemented. Walmart is technically quite inventive and rents at the same time for it to happen well with its own employees: For example, the company uses in 50 outlets auxiliary robots (Cobots), which should support employees in tasks unpopular routines. Walmart also thinks that airships are flying warehouses.

However, such exhaustive control of employees and customers as in this case carries some risk of resistance. In Germany, the supermarket chain Real had tried to try personalized advertising quite rapidly, including the box-office scanning in 2017. The technology had been declared harmless from the point of view of data protection, but damage to the image in the face of public criticism apparently weighed more heavily. Deutsche Post is also testing this technique with facial scanners.

(tiw)