Self service is the practice of serving oneself, usually when purchasing items. Common examples include many gas stations

Filling station

A filling station, also known as a fueling station, garage, gasbar , gas station , petrol bunk , petrol pump , petrol garage, petrol kiosk , petrol station "'servo"' in Australia or service station, is a facility which sells fuel and lubricants...

, where the customer pumps their own gas

Gasoline

Gasoline , or petrol , is a toxic, translucent, petroleum-derived liquid that is primarily used as a fuel in internal combustion engines. It consists mostly of organic compounds obtained by the fractional distillation of petroleum, enhanced with a variety of additives. Some gasolines also contain...

 rather than have an attendant do it (full service is required by law in New Jersey

New Jersey

New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...

 and Oregon

Oregon

Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...

 but is the exception rather than the rule elsewhere). Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs) in the banking world have also revolutionized how people withdraw and deposit funds; most American stores, where the customer uses a shopping cart

Shopping cart

A shopping cart is a cart supplied by a shop, especially supermarkets, for use by customers inside the shop for transport of merchandise to the check-out counter during shopping...

 in the store, placing the items they want to buy into the cart and then proceeding to the checkout

Point of sale

Point of sale or checkout is the location where a transaction occurs...

 counter/aisles; or at buffet

Buffet

A buffet is a system of serving meals in which food is placed in a public area where the diners generally serve themselves. Buffets are offered at various places including hotels and many social events...

-style restaurants, where the customer serves their own plate of food from a large, central selection.

Self service as a patentable business method

In 1917, the US Patent Office awarded Clarence Saunders a patent for a "self-serving store." Saunders invited his customers to collect the goods they wanted to buy from the store and present them to a cashier, rather than having the store employee consult a list presented by the customer, and collect the goods. Saunders licensed the business method to independent grocery stores; these operated under the name "Piggly Wiggly

Piggly Wiggly

Piggly Wiggly is a supermarket chain operating in the Midwestern and Southern regions of the United States, run by Piggly Wiggly, LLC, an affiliate of C&S Wholesale Grocers. The current company headquarters is in Keene, New Hampshire....

."

Self service is used on the phone, web and email to facilitate customer service interactions using automation.

See also

• Automated Retail
  Automated Retail
  Automated retail is the category of self-service, standalone kiosks in heavily trafficked establishments such as airports, malls and resorts....
  
  
• Employee Self Service
  Employee Self Service
  Employee self-service is a web-based application that provides employees with access to their personal records and their payroll details. The most common features of ESS allows employees to change their own address, contact details and next of kin...
  
  , a web-based application that provides employees with access to their personal records and their payroll details
• Self checkout
  Self checkout
  Self checkout machines provide a mechanism for customers to pay for purchases from a retailer without direct input to the process by the retailer's staff. They are an alternative to the traditional cashier-staffed checkout...
  
  
• Self service software
  Self service software
  Self service software is a subset within the knowledge management software category and which contains a range of software that specializes in the way information, process rules and logic are collected, framed within an organized taxonomy, and accessed through decision support interviews...
  
  
• Vending machine
  Vending machine
  A vending machine is a machine which dispenses items such as snacks, beverages, alcohol, cigarettes, lottery tickets, consumer products and even gold and gems to customers automatically, after the customer inserts currency or credit into the machine....
  
  
• Shadow work
  Shadow work
  Shadow work in economics, is the unpaid labor in an economy through self service. The term was first used by Ivan Illich, in his 1981 book of the same title. An example would be self checkout at a supermarket....