Is Your Organization User Hostile?
I occasionally get these whims, though my dear wife refers to them by there generic name, hair-brained ideas. So, my most recent whim/HBI was, “hey, why don’t we take an early vacation to Arizona–by train.” Not a bad idea, in my opinion.
So, I sign in to Amtrak.com, discover that there are daily train stops in Yuma, AZ, and decide to see what such a trip might cost. Here’s the message I got:
Sorry, we cannot find train service matching your request. Please try alternate stations/cities.
In other words, go someplace else.
In fiddling around with the site, I discovered that I can go to Yuma if I book it as a multi-stop trip, going first to Chicago, and then to Yuma. Since I haven’t taken a train in Xty years, I don’t know how long such a trip might take–I may find myself waiting a day in Chicago and another day in San Antonio all because I didn’t know the time-tables well enough to schedule myself to stay on the same train all the way through.
This is the business world’s classic difficulty–they say “the customer is always right,” but they mean “the customer is a moron.” The assumption is that if we choose to play on their field, we must play by their rules, but they don’t bother to tell us what those rules are. As a potential new train passenger, a message like “Please try alternate stations/cities” turns into “We don’t like you. Please fly or drive.”
This is a good question for all organizations: Do you assume that your customers have all the same knowledge that you have? Do you insist that people play by your rules, without telling them what those rules are? Do you require them to know your time tables (or their analogues in your world) and interpret them accurately if they want to use your product or service?
Worthwhile questions, particularly if you want to avoid becoming obsolete or irrelevant. It’s how Amtrak keeps missing opportunities to serve the public. I’m a train fan, and they have convinced me to try another mode of transportation.