One of my biggest pet peeves is when people use technology just for the sake of the technology…
ie: I just went to unsubscribe myself from some email thingie I was getting, and instead of having a simple option to ‘unsubscribe’ (which is CANSPAM rules anyhow) I was lead to a website that asked for my name, email address, reason I was contacting them, etc. This site *required* that I fill in each field before the form would even be sent in… all I want to do is unsubscribe!!
And there was no email address anywhere so I could pop off a quick email… to contact them (and thus unsub myself) I had to fill out this form. So I basically made stuff up for each field as it didn’t apply to my needs.
Then I get an email response from them asking me to confirm that I want to unsub and why… I reply and the email is bounced back to me because I ‘forgot to include the reference # from the original email in my reply’. Argh!!
I really think that systems such as these are built to make life easier for the company, and that they forget the customer in the whole thing. Whatever happened to good ole customer service and making it easy for the customer to do business with you? Like when you call the phone company to change your mailing address and have to go through 10 menu choices before you talk to someone who ends up being the wrong person anyhow. 😉
I’m a big time lover of technology when it makes life ‘easier for all involved’, not when it’s used in a more selfish manner such as this. So I ask you, could your technology be getting in the way of your customer’s positive experience with your company?
Enough ranting, off to finish unpacking as we settle into our new house. More on that and back to ‘biz as usual’ here in the very near future.