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.

good on you queensland rail - also not really a post

I tripped over this completely by accident.  And I love it.  It's clear.  The language is plain.  The message is succinct.

the better way?

Sometimes when you follow the same routine everyday you only see the flaws.

Having just returned from Chicago where I opted to take the L into the city from the airport, mostly to save a few dollars on cab fare, I found a lot of familiarity and a few differences but mostly a comfort in knowing the all transit systems (or at least the few I’ve encountered) suffer from the same issues.

The truth about the modern transit system is that it isn't.  And now its summer, - the most volatile season there is - inside. 

Hopefully as people opt out of cars systems will change but for now it a mash of antiquated practices, outdated or nonexistent technology and bureaucratic choices that seem nonsensical.

Let me start by stating that I do not believe that a transit system executive who does not use the system routinely will ever get 'it'. Trying to 'envision' issues from an ivory tower is where so many bad decisions get made.

During summer in Ontario, if you’re lucky it's a sunny but pleasant day.  You relish getting to be in your shirt sleeves and sandals.  Alternatively it’s muggy and humid and the temperature is over 40 Celsius, or it’s raining maniacally.  Then you get on the bus and are stunned by the A/C into the worst thing ever - the summer cold.

I have asked many times over the years if there is a policy for A/C use on the TTC.

I have never received a straight answer.

And if you take transit, you know, there seem to be two settings on a TTC bus.  Off.  And stun.

And here I am thinking a standard setting of 25 Celsius would be great.  Instead I'm carrying a sweater around all summer because it's uncomfortable sitting in a refrigerator.

Why not open a window you ask.  And while that's a splendid idea the new low floor bus designs only have windows that open at the very top, out of reach to me at 5'4" but also mostly only capable of blowing a breeze across the ceiling of the bus.

The alternative is that the A/C isn’t on at all, and now you’re sitting in a human torture device for 45 minutes.

I’m somewhat convinced that not having the A/C on at all, and on a bus with no access to windows, somehow contradicts my basic human rights.

This is the same for the subway as it is for the bus, and the streetcar.  Although on the streetcar there is no A/C, but then again the windows open at face level so at least you can catch a good stiff 40 C breeze if the car is moving.

Don’t think another form of travel will be better.  The plane I took to Chicago was set so cool that when the back of my legs hit the vinyl seat, I jumped.  However it must have been a slightly better quality vinyl than the Greyhound because I wasn’t completely damp from sticking to the seat.  But on that Greyhound bus trip I had to wear my ever present summer sweater because the A/C was set so cold, but was uncomfortably hot when any part of my body touched the seat so the point that I wondered if my clothes were wet when I stood up.  My friend meeting me assured me it wasn’t the case.  Having said that, why vinyl Greyhound?  There must be a better way.

not, never

I spend a great deal of time purposefully distracted. I try to live by (George) Carlin's word and not sweat the petty stuff - and also the reverse because that's important.  In doing that I try not to pay too much attention to politics.  But lately I've paid closer attention to my city and its lack of progress and, perhaps because individual opinion makes the news a lot lately I've been noticing a shift in NIMBY from Not to Never.

The first time I really noticed it was at a party talking about an over-the-weekend closure by the TTC to do work.  The argument was that closure was inconvenient, to which I agreed.  But when I suggested they had tried to inconvenience the fewest people as they could my acquaintance wasn't convinced.  The thing is, there's never a good time to shut down a major downtown subway line in a busy city. But there are less bad times.  And that was what the TTC was striving for.

Admittedly my defense was more appealing 6 months ago before the official motto of the TTC became 'We're Sorry'.  And as much as I still feel my points are valid a week of being late to work for no reason I can see makes me want hear less why and see more action.

The major issue with any sort of progress is that someone is inconvenienced.  This seems to be the modern way.  And unfortunately the result doesn't always work out for the majority.  It is, in as a very ambivalent kind of descriptor, the price or result of democratic decision by committee.

I do not have great examples to share.  But issues that come to mind are the discussion about wind power.  As a province we are taxing our power grid.  We need to make more but everyone wants some sort of 'clean' power.  Provided it's not unsightly, inconvenient, disruptive or nearby.  All elements which are unavoidable. And so we do nothing and the problem is not solved.  And so it goes ad nauseam.

I don't have to fabulous solution.  I have nothing stupendous to say.  Other then think. 

Yes, no one like it when development encroaches on our lives but what is the payoff?  Does the current system work?  Is a bit of pain worth it? 

I don't know.

I can only tell you what I see.  And sometimes the answer is that I can get behind the least bad choice.

Now, how does one make an appointment with Andy Byford?  I have some choice words about the state of my backyard.

consumption

In addition to the time I spend objecting to and about companies and the various levels of service I experience; and besides the endless hours I while away jumping from link to link on the internet I am currently spending a great deal of time considering with what my next job should be.  Of late, and after what seems to be the world’s longest mid(ish)-life crisis, I feel like there needs to be a distinct and planned approach to the next stage of my life.  And barring the idiosyncrasies of my own internal thought process, it does, at times, feel as if this task consumes me.

There was also a joke I was trying to work in about having spent the last several weeks being sick with cold and chest infection, thereby having ‘consumption’ but I just couldn’t get the tempo of it worked out.

So as I think on and about how and where I want to take my next venture; I also seem to be thinking about my new encounters in the Twitterverse and my unintentional discovery of how some marketers are using this, and other social platforms, to extend their customer service outreach. And I’m fascinated.

@TTCHelps – the online persona of TTC customer liaison is prompt in replying to people in a forthright manner.  In fact, I tripped over them very early in my app adoption kibitzing about the on train ‘are-they-aren’t-they’ announcements on the subway one morning.  To my flippant tweet that I couldn’t decide if the TTC announcements were informative or infuriating, they replied ‘hopefully more informative than annoying’ and with that simple exchange I started to get it.

Next was @CampbellCares – the soup company that noted my tweet complaining, while suffering my cold, that I could no longer find my preferred Turkey Chunky soup and that the Chicken flavor just didn’t cut it.  Not only did they respond; they tracked down stores nearby that I might be able to find my favoured flavor at.  Then @FURminator_Inc. favourited my tweet about my, somewhat, bizarre affinity for their pet brush.

Ricki’s, who is not on Twitter but does use Facebook, after announcing a sale and then having their website crash, did take the time to answer each person who commented on the issue on the FB feed.  In a world where using the comment feature to acknowledge the issue globally is available it was a decided personal touch to reply to each of, even if they did recycle their response.

The IKEA follow up, via a real live person, discussed in this blog, also fell into this sweep of service responses.  But I have to say I’m somewhat disappointed that after I lauded the employee who assisted me so well to @IKEACanada five days ago and they have yet to acknowledge my approval.  And in my estimation a bit of an error on their part.

The friend who strongly encouraged my adoption of Twitter and its little unique universe and I have discussed my interest in both this new (to me) medium and how it could move customer experience and service into the most interesting places - which in turn gets me thinking, again, and more, about where I should take my next career venture.  

The next steps are not entirely, yet, apparent to me but I do believe that service is the next great venture of business and somehow I’d like to be involved.

ttc – truly trying commuting

The best advertising campaign the auto industry never ran was the public transit experience.   Nothing has pushed more people toward car ownership as well.

I complain a lot about the TTC.  My friends will attest to this.  But when you look at my beefs about 70% of the have to do with people's behaviour and the balance with the service itself, so while, yes we are dealing with, on a daily basis a system that essentially stopped developing in the 70s and tries to cover massive territory; that doesn't explain the lack of manners. 

On a recent trip, using the Greyhound bus to Kitchener, to visit a friend I overheard two students discuss the lack of manners on the transit in Toronto and posit how bad it might be in NYC.  Difference, in my experience on NYC subways - which is limited yes - is that people don't do the things Toronto riders do. On my midday travels in NYC no one blocked doors or tried to get on before everyone got off, people moved into the cars and only stood for their stop after leaving the prior station.  C'mon Toronto.  We're better than this.

Aren't we?

It is said that in a dense populous one needs to be more polite to make the society function.  And while Canadians do have an apologetic reputation it all seems to get dumped into the fare box and out comes the dufusness. 

In dealing with this old infrastructure with narrow platforms, stairs and mostly not working escalators and nonexistent elevators, could we all just use a little common sense.  Remember ‘Walk Right, Stand Left’?  It was removed because someone managed to successfully sue the TTC after falling on an escalator.   So we all suffer the fool who decides to buck the trend and stand on the left in spite of the fact that everyone else is standing to the right.  Arguably sometimes the outcome of these suits is great.  Those station arrival announcements that started a few years ago?  The end result of a case ruling outcome of a visually impaired rider trying to navigate the system with his disability – and in the end really quite useful. 

There are places where the needs of the few result in change that assists the many.  On the other hand, does anyone remember when the TTC tried to do away with WheelTrans, the service for people confined to walkers and wheelchairs who had difficulty with the main system?  Those affected protest in the form of showing up at rush hour to Bathurst Station and attempting to board streetcars with their assistance gear.  The result was a very long rush hour, and they got to keep their WheelTrans after very effectively showing that they really couldn’t use the system the way it was.

Unfortunately this is what also lead directly to those new low floor buses that the TTC is outfitting their entire fleet with.  For those of us, like me, who end up using the outer edges of the system – my damn office moved to the very edge of the suburbs – and civilization – but that’s another rant – we’re stuck, on those awful buses with no recourse.

I may be exaggerating but I firmly believe that no one actually test ran these buses.  Test ran as in piled a large crowd of people carrying a variety of oddly shaped and sized packages, closed the doors, hit the gas and stopped abruptly every 200 or so yards, let half of them off, and piled on as many or more people.  In software we’d call this a ‘test use case’.  I’m not sure what is it in the public service vehicle milieu, but very much seems to be a missing step.  Also no one tested the outward opening back doors in a snow bank.  And as you know if you ride these buses, the only recourse the driver has is to ‘reboot’ the bus, which means turning off and then on the engine to reset the computer chips.  Apparently our last fleet of buses lasted over 50 years – call me pragmatic, but I’m not seeing these doors last more than 10 at the current rate of failure.  Then again, we all have to enter and exit from the front door during any type of weather, so perhaps by being saved with lack of use, I’ll be proved wrong.

Recently on one of those internet trolls where one story you read links you to another and on and one, I found an article about a tongue and cheek set of Manners Cards make by an individual in NYC.  Of course, I can’t find the article again, and in the interview the creator admitted he was a little too chicken to actually hand them out.   Although not limited to public transit and including some suggestions, like not walking 4 abreast and blocking the entire sideway to the exclusion of all other pedestrians, the cards included violations for blocking the escalators by standing on the left.

In the end it’s all pretty simple.  Pay attention to your surroundings and acknowledge that you are in a crowd and not in isolation. 

• For instance don't stand at or block with your ‘insert here’ stroller, bundle buggy, 60 bags of groceries or big fat ass,  the top of; the bottom of; or in front of any escalators, and/or doors.
• Don’t put your nasty dirty shoes on the seats just because the car isn’t’ full. 
• Let everyone off the vehicle and THEN get on. 
• Don’t ‘tsk’ when the system is slowed down or stalled – you’re not the only one frustrated and it doesn’t help the atmosphere. 
• Don’t play your iPod without headphones- nobody wants to hear your horrible taste in music. 
• Don’t hit other people. 
• Don’t spit (anywhere, ever). 
• Keep the smelly foods to a minimum.  Yes we call smell it when you open a can of beer.
• Please, please do not clip your nails, especially toes on the transit. 
• Most people are pretty good with the offering of seats to the elderly and expecting, but don’t nip in and take their offered seat for yourself you selfish prat.  Or as I once witnessed by a 60ish year old woman, complain loudly that no one will give up a seat while standing there is 5 ½ inch stilettos – if you can wear those shoes, you can stand. 
• Don’t sit aggressively, blocking access to inside seats, or even worse, take up an entire seat with your precious bag of lunch.  Unless you can show me it paid $3 to get on, it doesn’t deserve that seat.
  

As an ending note I do think Andy Byford is trying, albeit with a very limited set of playing cards.  Although I do, regularly, consider joining Twitter, only to follow and harass… er… update Mr. Byford on the day to day taxes of the system.  I have, to date, resisted this urge. 

And to my fellow travelers, happy travels!

P.S.  Apparently I'm not alone.  I don't know this guy, but he's got some of the same pet peeves I do, and he uses pics as evidence. http://ihopeyourbagiscomfortableasshole.tumblr.com/