dear every tech support company

I spent the better part of the last few days trying to buy a bus pass. More specifically trying to set up a bus pass account for a brand new system and at the end of about 36 hours I have not been successful. Jockeyed between two companies using a system that is clearly not user tested and being given some answers that are clearly incorrect I’m am quite literally so tense I don’t want to deal with this anymore but I need that damned bus pass. Edit – in the almost 6 weeks since I wrote this I am not completely done with this set up!

Some handy suggestions to create less actual fury for your users.

1.       Especially if a system is new write and post in a logical place clear instructions and include information for how to proceed if something is different from the way it has worked in the past. In this case the former company would take direct withdrawals from your bank account. New company only accepts Visa or MasterCard debit. Apparently there was a paper form to deal with those of us without the acceptable debit card. It took 3 phone calls, 1 missed, and several threads of twitter interaction before anyone mentioned this to me. And even then I had to ask for the link.

 

2.       Do not tell people their browser is incompatible. If you are dealing with consumers and not business people there are at least four browsers you should be set up for. They are Google Chrome, Safari, Firefox and Internet Explorer.  A quick Google search puts these browsers in top 5 lists consistently. Sure every list has them ranked in different order but they are always there.

3.       As much as I hate scripts sometimes the information from them is needed for your staff. I get it. Phone centre jobs suck and you usually do not get the best of the crop for those positions but please arm these people with information. By the time most of us get to contacting a company we’re angry and frustrated. We understand that the voice on the phone is not the reason we’re angry but right or wrong they’re who we are dealing with. We need accurate, clear information and explanations. What I’ve heard for the past few days is ‘incompatible’ and ‘you can do that on our website’. Turns out there’s an issue with your website so I can’t. Which is why I’m calling.

4.       Deal with people. I spent quite a bit of time on twitter yesterday. I find it incredibly useful for getting companies to listen to you. I got a response right away from the company no longer offering the service. Most of what they answered was platitudes but at least they were paying attention to me. It took the new company, the one I’m trying to pay about 15 interactions before they finally piped in. Ditto read your messages before responding. I had so many bots answer things I didn’t ask yesterday. I am a bit of a weirdo but I always include my browser and OS information. If your first response is asking me these questions it is completely clear that you did not give my message more than a cursory glance.

5.       Do user acceptance testing. By this I mean have people who do not know what your website is supposed to do test it. When you do your own testing you test with a bias.

If your website is designed to take money please make it so people can pay you. There are so many testing shopping cart apps out there. Do not, to use a very overused phrase, reinvent the wheel. The wheel, so simple in its form, works. 

Please, please, please stop telling users they are at fault. They are not. They may not have done things the way you set them up but users act on a series of learned reactions.They learn each time they users systems and apps and that knowledge is compounded over time. For those of us in Gen X we've been through several radical OS changes and had to adapt to all of them. I personally find all this intuitive 'helping' that software and apps do these days completely counter-intuitive because I learned systems when everything was done by me. Yes I've had to adapt but sometimes my instinct isn't your instinct. And for Millennials and Gen Xed they are even more tech savvy than anyone. They don't need things dumbed down. Whatever generation we are; we've contacted you for help. Help us.

still missing the point - not really a post

Seriously, you can't make this stuff up.

I went looking for some info on putting the long form census back in place and found this. So maybe it we had the census Target might have gotten it. But I doubt it.

"and a little of that human touch" (springsteen lyrics)

It’s 2015.  We’re in the future of the movies of (some of) our youths, as in Back to the Future was set in 2015. Blade Runner's date is rounding the corner. So while we collectively look to see what fiction imagined, we find ourselves living some innovations that weren’t imagined, or perhaps were not imagined the way they manifested. We do not have driverless cars, but cars that park themselves are here, and Unattended Train Operation (driverless) transit is already in use. 

So while technology continues forward, often the most sophisticated algorithm in the world still doesn’t quite get it.  While I’m always awed that the PC Plus program has a pretty good idea when I need more popcorn, a product I don’t consume on a cyclical basis, there are times when a little decorum and humanity is needed.

The recent episode with Uber comes to mind. In the middle of a rash hostage taking in Australia, Uber’s booking system noticed an unexpected uptake in cab usage – you know from people running for their lives – and the system’s usage metrics kicked in and started upping the cab fees. An innocent enough reaction given circumstances that fall within normal range, but, clearly, in this case a place where a touch of good old human metrics would ‘get it’. Similarly, but quite so crudely, this year’s Facebook ‘year in review’ feature took posts with the most “Likes” and used those posts to create a snapshot of a person’s year. The part the coders failed to get was the sometimes, in a method of support, people - myself included -  will Like a post that isn’t necessarily positive, but in a show of support, say when a goal isn’t reached, or a loved one passes on. 

I consider myself an amateur enthusiast of analytics and the part that I find the most interesting is the story part of the analysis, but in both telling and creating stories, options have to be considered. We all know computer code doesn’t do so well with grey concepts. And truthfully, it’s almost impossible to consider all angles, a human fault, but consideration to how people act and use features should be part of the story here. The Uber example was almost impossible to predict; the idea was the increase cab fees during peak demand times, like the end of Saturday night, or after a major sporting event, or even more vindictively during a transit shutdown or major storm. A concept, not loved, but understood by anyone who tried to rent a car over a holiday or book a hotel room for a major event. But the Facebook situation isn’t that far of a reach, and yes the post is editable, but the articles I found mentioned instances where a loved one who had passed away, was featured in this auto generated post, and understandably was startling to those users.

Most of these systems are pretty ubiquitous. Like the popcorn, or the Amazon recommendations, or that fact that certain government bodies that might be watching my consumption habits in order to be keyed in to my potentially devious plots… unfortunately what they found out is that I buy a lot of makeup and eat a decent amount of pizza. Revelatory, I know!

I had a tersely written, complain-y description of the automated job search filters currently in use. Needless to say, since I’m actively looking for work, perhaps, a bit of human review might make the entire process just a little more fruitful, for both parties.

Similarly trying to track down an answer to a question on a government form used to be a tedious task of being puzzled, reading complicated language on a website and sometimes in a fit of exasperation, calling to listen to options on an automated phone system. Although my last few interactions with government were very human indeed, I was assigned a person who handled my case, answered my questions, and who I talked to each time I needed information. And believe me when I say, it’s rather unsettling to get straightforward, logical answers from your government.

As we mature into this technology - and we all use it. Algorithms suggest what we might like on shopping sites, on movie sites, when browsing for the next thing to read perhaps we, the royal we, will get better at considering situations that may not fit the norm, and require intervention. However when thinking in evolutionary terms, we humans may be the weak link, but I think we’re still best equipped; after all our gray matter considers all the colours.

your lipservice is chapping

I’d like to think of myself as a sort of consumer advocate but for now I’m my own primary customer save the occasional friend.  And generally I get some sort of resolution.  My own experience has been that stating the issue clearly, without accusation, using dates and whatever back up is available helps get things done.  Generally I get either my money back or some sort of agreed upon restitution to the issue. 

But there are two kinds of companies who drive me a little wonky.  Those who do not offer any sort of customer assistance and those who say they do, but really are the first.  I’m currently stuck in the middle of two companies with a combined offer that are doing both.  

Back in May I signed up for a limited offer TopBox deal that included a subscription to a Rogers owned magazine – LouLou.  The transaction included an opt-out option, which I decided to forgo, but no other steps to sign up necessary – to the best of my recollection.  I’ll fully admit that I’m not 100% certain there was more required, but arguably they had my address for the makeup box delivery and I’d paid in full via credit card for the promotion.  After that, I forgot about it for awhile.  I mean all magazine subscriptions say they take 6 to 8 weeks to start.  But by September my subscription was still noticeably absent, so I started down the follow up road.  As it stands today, we’re at an impasse.

 

Yes, I was a little cantankerous on Twitter.

It started with an e-mail to TopBox directly; got a polite but not terribly useful reply.  I tried LouLou, and got the same.  And now we were playing the ‘it’s not me, it’s them’ game.  So I took to Twitter.  And got more lip service.  As it stands after almost a month since this started, I have heard from neither company and have no resolution, and still no subscription.  I did however get a promotional e-mail to join TopBox; and as you might imagine, I’m not so keen to do this.  

Sure there’s always the good ol’ ‘buyer beware’ caveat.  And yes, I’m no fan of Rogers already, but now I have to put TopBox on a ‘not sure I want to do business with you’ list because of a $10* transaction, and apparently, I’m going to write a blog post about it.  Sure you looked for a second like you were doing something on Twitter, but in the end you didn’t, did you.

And because human nature inherently does not reward the good guy, I will relay the story of excellent customer service.  

As I’ve written before I’ve signed up a makeup sampling program, Ipsy.  For about $15 a month you get a package of ‘goodies’ every month.  So every month about the end of the second week of the month I get a bright pink bubble wrap envelope in my mail box with said goodies.   But not this month.  In spite of routing notices from the two postal systems handling this package, there was no delivery (to my house).  Contacted the company, we went back and forth a few times, with a suggestion I give it a couple more days, but when 4 days later there was no package, I got a ‘no problem, we’ll  get you a new one, sorry for the inconvenience’ e-mail and 4 days later a tracking code.  The following week a new package arrived with most of the goodies I was supposed to get, with one acceptable substitution.  No lip service, just service and a resolution. 

 

This month, this particular sight was missing.  Until it wasn't.

Fortunately I did get some lip balm in a recent Ipsy bag to relieve all the chapping caused by TopBox.

I write about these things in large part because I feel that the key to continued success is great customer service, no matter what your company is, or its size.  Sure some companies and some products can’t always be replaced or fixed, but there are ways to work with your customers to ensure that they feel as if you’ve heard them and you are trying to come up with a resolution.  If I’ve entered in a purchase agreement that is final sale or that clearly spells out that there are no returns/refunds then I take my chances.  If this is not the case what is the harm in trying to service your customer base, because as the old shampoo commercial goes, I told two friends…

* The approximate value of the subscription portion of the offer.

is it gonna go my way?

It doesn't take much effort to find a bad opinion of any company online.  There's always someone willing to dish about their negative experience in a public format.  Yelp seems to be a good place for these types of reviews.  And as I’ve said in the past, those opinions are worth looking at but also worth the consideration that one bad review does not a bad company make. 

(And we all know that people won't/don't/can't be bothered to give good reviews), so.

Having said that, and in the same breathe, it's pretty safe to say that as a company you can probably do 'OK' when servicing the bulk of the public, but it takes some special talent to blow it when it comes to people who are marginalized by special needs.  And I will come back to this point.  I promise.

But first let's talk about a growing trend in the lack of car ownership, in which we also need to talk about intercity mass transit - and when I say talk, but I mean bemoan the lack of decent options.  You can rent a car, or do car share, but that can be pricey and if you're heading out of town to stay with a friend you have to deal with parking.  Also forget getting either a car or a deal during the holidays, my experience is that the 'deal' is you get the pay extra for those dates.  You can use some sort of mass transit, such as VIA; which is expensive and have a laughable schedule unless you are going to Montreal or Toronto; GO, which is great during the week but forget the weekends; and lastly Greyhound (and I'm going to lump other bus lines in here) the final bastion of low cost mass transit and they know it.

Here's the deal.  Greyhound is as non-customer centric as you can get.  They're in the business of selling you a ticket and running a bus from point A to B.  It's up to you to figure out how to buy the ticket, how to get on the correct bus, make certain your luggage and you get on and off the bus and if there's an issue, you're just going to have to suck it up.  Having said that it costs me about $20 to go back and forth to Kitchener on a given weekend and generally, the price is the same no matter what - assuming you buy it ahead of time and pay a little extra for the convenience of printing your own ticket.

We've all seen the news.  Megabus (who is not Greyhound) runs into bridge, into another bridge, starts on fire. Mentally unstable man (on Greyhound) had a psychotic break and it's really, really bad. But the article that caught my eye was the one about a girl, confined to a wheelchair, essentially dumped in a snow bank on a cold day, for no reason that made sense, and in response, Greyhound states "We pride ourselves on stellar customer service and a stellar travel experience."

As a long time customer of Greyhound's my only response to that is 'whathPHFFF".  And I’m not just talking about this particular individual, who really got the short end of the stick on this one.  I’m talking in general. See and then after they decided that maybe they could do better than ‘stellar’.

I'll soften this rant a little by stating that, for the most part, I’ve never taken issue with the drivers' themselves.  I use this service on average about 10 times a year and have for the bulk of my adult life, so I’m eventually gonna run into a dufas or two.  But as a company the service is laughable.

During the December ice storm that hit Ontario, I got up on a day I was planning to travel to a birthday party for my niece.  Airlines, trains, TTC and even CAA were filing news posts, twitter and updates to their own websites.  Greyhound 'cannot foresee delays by weather'.

While the TTC updates by the second, Greyhound has little to say.

So what do we do?  Take the train - which I would love to but at twice the price and a schedule that returns me to Toronto after 11 p.m. on a Sunday night (from Kitchener) this is not an option. So we stick with the reliable and annoying Greyhound until another low cost option presents itself.  In the meantime I'll continue to rile Greyhound on Twitter if only to amuse myself and feel some sort of satisfaction that I said something.  And since we all seem to be voting about something this year, why not talk about intercity transport options.  We're a big country but in places we're not. Like southern Ontario, where a few hours between cities should allow options for travel that are reliable, affordable and decent.

I mean, have you ever tried to pee on one of those things?

on a more serious note

I had a little panic attack at Yorkdale mall today.  In the throes of being overheated and tired of trying to find my way out of my least favourite mall, I talked to someone who was empathetic to my plight, and offered a joke about the parking lot being even worse than the mall.  For a moment I was completely confused – all I could think was why would I have to deal with the parking lot.  And then I remembered.  I was in the suburbs and as a non-car owner; I was the odd woman out.

A few springs ago I became aware that a lot of people where trying to hit me with their cars.  At first I thought I was being a bit paranoid, until my other pedestrian friends noted the same thing.  

There was no real rhyme or reason to the attempts.  The spring seemed to be the worst, but not exclusively. Right hand turns seemed to be an issue, but crossing in a crosswalk, or at a light didn't seem to stop the issue.  Rolling stops, and playing chicken with me was also a situation I didn’t want to be involved with. Think about it, you’re in a 2 ton vehicle, and I’m wearing my coat.  People - drivers, were trying to hit me with their cars.

At the start of 2014, I found evidence the supported my suspicions.  And an editorial that I agree with; where is the demand, the absolute urgency, for some sort of revelatory response to the fact that in 2013 pedestrian fatalities outnumbered murders in Toronto.  There were 63 traffic related fatalities in 2013, a year where the murder rate hit the mid 50’s, most of these incidents in the last 6 months of the year.  This is people being killed by cars when walking, on their bikes or motorcycles and includes victims of car accidents.  But by and large the most are pedestrians, hit at wide, signaled, suburban cross walks, by cars.  And more than half of them seniors. 

What does this mean?  Well first off that I was right.

Secondly it means that all of us, pedestrians, drivers, people who figure out how to time lights and how to make traffic flow need to take a good long look at how we move everyone in this city.  That all modes of transport; and feet are a mode; are given consideration in planning but also in our day to day.  As city dwellers continue to eschew driving in record numbers, choosing instead to live and work in cores and only rent or car share when needed, we need to encourage drivers to pay more attention as they may soon be outnumbered.

This is a not something we can legislate away.  This is a course of action that must occur at a grassroots level.  We all have to pay more attention to what we do.  But if I can, as a pedestrian, instill this one thing in drivers and before I go off on a tangent to say that I personally feel all vehicular misdemeanors should be tackled by forcing drivers to use the TTC for 90 days and learn how easy they really have it – if you’re in your car – you’re going to get there faster.  So give us pedestrians a break.

If you’re really keen on the deets… http://torontoist.com/2014/01/torontos-bad-year-for-traffic-fatalities/