Monday 5 July 2010

When fast service is bad service

Speedy, same hour (let alone same day) responses are what we all want from the customer service people we contact. Correct?

Not always.

I recently filled in a form on a furniture removal website. The form was titled "Get an immediate quote online". I filled it in during a 5-minute break at work. I expected to get "an immediate quote online".

Instead, I got a promise that my quote would be sent to me. Then, within half an hour of filling in the form, I got a phone call. I couldn't answer the phone. Furthermore, the voicemail left on my phone left me no clearer on what my move was going to cost me. What was intended to be a quick, faceless interaction with an immediate response has ended up requiring returning of phone calls to named individuals to "further discuss my requirements".

Yes, the response was fast. But the response was not what I asked for.

The service provider missed the point of the service they were providing. The "online" element was what appealed to me in my context. However, there was no online fulfilment to speak of. The fastest service in the world can't make up for misunderstanding what your customers want.

Thursday 1 July 2010

Resurrection is actually quite a big deal

It's a stumbling block for many when it comes to religion. Whilst the premise of Christianity is appealing to many, they struggle to chew on - let alone swallow - the concept of resurrection. Why then, is the same phenomenon so acceptable in the world of technology?

Last weekend, my Internet access at home died. I tried to save it with a new router and an hour-long chat to a helpful man at BT Broadband. The diagnosis was terminal. The only treatment possible - an engineer would have to visit.

This was a big deal in our house. No Skype to Granny and Grandad. No Facebooking. No catch-up TV. Nothing.

Less than a week later, however, I noticed some other devices in my house were quite happily enjoying themselves on the Internet. iPhones and TVs were flitting about the Web to their heart's content. Unbeliever that I was, I sceptically fired up my laptop once more - expecting the same error message as before. But no - it lived! It died and rose again! Hallelujah!

A week on, and I've moved on from this miracle. I can't explain it - I probably never will. It happened once - it'll probably happen again. And somehow in the world of technology - this phenomenon is perfectly acceptable. We get over errors and crashes and things fixing themselves without so much as a reboot. The miracle of resurrection in the world of bits and bytes is something we're cool with. Why then do we give God such a hard time?