Pandemic will lead to push for touch-free technology

The study, conducted among 2000 UK consumers, identified that 80% of people will change the way they engage with publicly-available technology, in light of the pandemic.

The statistics indicate big implications for retailers, banks, and travel operators, who rely on millions of interactions daily with technologies such as ATMS, ticket machines, chip and pin terminals and self-service checkouts.

Peter Ballard, coo-founder of Foolproof comments: “This survey clearly shows that people are now more averse to touching technology in light of the current pandemic than they were before. What’s more, there are strong indications that these attitudes may become more ingrained in our post Covid-19 future. We need to accept that people will want to touch things far less than they are required to do now.”

The findings indicate a need to change touchpoints to reflect new customer attitudes. 72% of the sample say they have either worn gloves or wiped down a public touch surface within the last two weeks.

When asked about future attitudes towards the hygiene of publicly available technology almost 50% of participants say that they will use contactless payment where the limit allows, a quarter of respondents say they will use cash machines less, and only when absolutely necessary, and one fifth say they will do more grocery shopping online.

Ballard continues: “We suggest leading on intermediary changes which reduce touches to purchase such as, styluses, improved mobile payments and QR codes as a way to pay, whilst having a longer-term strategy for the trajectory towards being completely touchless. Further off we could see a boom in touchless interactions rooted in haptics, voice and gesture or see mobile devices facilitating a broader set of interactions beyond payments - this will foster all new touchless experiences.”