A Tale of Two Stories Redux
A couple of weeks ago I wrote of my adventures with my large bank and with AT&T. Apparently my thoughts spurred some of my colleagues to chime in with their thoughts and observations.
For those who didn’t read A Tale of Two Stories, the first part of the essay described the fun and games I went through trying to deposit a check drawn on a Canadian bank, a check that had been made out to me by a client of mine that is, curiously enough, a Canadian bank. My friend and sometime guest ranter Tracy Baker had this to say:
Kevin
I could not agree with all of your thoughts more if I had written them myself.
What makes me really angry, though, is the "Policy Pounder" you encountered at your bank. The US Government and the Canadian Government have a reciprocal agreement (in effect for at least 25 years) that allows processing of checks between these two nations as easily as if they were domestic. The key (and this is what the paying bank did correctly) is to issue the check in US dollars if going to a US payee or Canadian Dollars if vice-versa. Your bank would not have been out a dime and the check would have been processed just as quickly (and I've actually seen quicker) as a domestic check with no possible loss to them.
Too many companies have led their customers down the garden path of broken promises, yet they continue to play the critical mass game instead of looking at any, some, or all of your points as an alternative.
On AT&T
The second part of the essay related my experiences with AT&T, a story that still doesn’t have an end, but certainly had a miserable beginning and middle. I got two noteworthy responses on this one. The first, is from another friend and ranter, Peter Flatow.
Kevin
Your piece forces me to add a couple of “experiences” of my own to your collection.
Recently we needed to set up a new phone line for a new business venture. Verizon is the local provider. Now you would expect that a telephone company would have on its web site a telephone number should you have a question about service levels and rates. You would think that calling information you could get a Verizon number for questions. I mean, why wouldn’t the telephone company want you to use the telephone? They just don’t, unless of course it is during dinner and they want to sell 25 cents/minute service.
Yesterday I received a call from the New York Times selling home delivery. Now I know I tricked them because they called on my office phone and my office is in my home but I do pay for home delivery with my company credit card. They were offering six months at half price. I said, “that is great, how do I get my rebate?” Now I knew better but the sales person thought I was serious and asked me hold while he asked his supervisor. Now I had them! While wasting my time is not an issue to them, my wasting their time is. Several supervisors later they apologized for calling!
More AT&T
Finally, there is this response from Mike, yet another ranter that puts some of this into a different context.
Hello Kevin,
I can top you on the AT&T experience, but why bother? Stuff happens. I buy because I have things that have got to get done and somebody else has the product or service standing between me and getting done those things I have to do. The customer experience that I go though is secondary to accomplishing whatever it was I wanted to do in the first place. I agree that the experience should be frictionless. But for it to be pleasant as well merely falls into the "would be nice" bucket.
I have walked into a Washington Mutual cafe-style bank lobby and I have to tell you, that is not what I am looking for as a consumer. If the thing that I had to get done was to sit on my bum in a bank lobby, then it would be great. But that is not what I am looking for. I may need to get a check deposited before the 3 pm deadline to cover a check I wrote earlier. That's the thing I have got to get done. Getting it done without friction would be great but getting it done in time and avoiding a bounced check fee is imperative.
If buying your product helps me get things done but it is hard to do business with you, then I may switch. The switching threshold varies, but on things I value it can go pretty far. An educated consumer in the past had to know the product. Today that same consumer must also understand something about big, impersonal companies with uncaring employees. If you are not willing to become a “full metal jacket” consumer, you risk standing on the side of a new divide who will always be dissatisfied.
Take today's check-in counter at the airport. Hundreds of travelers with electronic tickets are content to stand in a long lines for personal service in getting a boarding pass while only a handful are willing to swipe a card at the kiosk, answer a few prompts, and be whisked through the system in a matter of minutes.
We are empowered as consumers, but a consequence of our emancipation is increased responsibility. Collaborative consumers represent the other side of the new divide. These buyers will have switched to frictionless vendors and will enjoy high value relationships. There will be an increased degree of proactivity required on the part of the new consumer including the self-initialization and self-monitoring of transactions which will keep costs low.
Vendors will find these to be their most profitable customers and will put disproportionate effort into building out better and more interesting products and services for this group. These solutions however will not assume a lot of hand holding. In contrast, passive consumers representing high maintenance will persist and will continue to receive less interesting and more expensive returns on their relationships with vendors.
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Kevin Hoffberg
Last modified:
05/03/06