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| 2009 Google Doodle winner from Christin Engelberth |
I
love the ability to do so many things online.
As a journalist, Google and other search engines make my life infinitely
easier. Being able to renew a
prescription online, or buy vitamins online, or grab a copy of the latest
bestseller online… I don’t have to fight crowds, or worry about store hours, or
waste gas.
And
by the same token, purchasing and making payments online makes life easier for
retailers. After all, it reduces human manhours
when those transactions move online.
Yesterday
I was checking prices online for shipping a package. Was it a better value to go USPS or UPS? (Did you know – prices can be up to $10
cheaper for mailing something by US Mail if you purchase online?) I ended up going with UPS because it was
still a better price and promised to get to the destination faster. I was able
to determine that online, without running around from the post office to the
UPS office.
Companies
are actively recruiting us to purchase and handle transactions online. Every time I check an account online, I get
the “GO PAPERLESS” page. I get emails
from retailers every day encouraging me to use their mobile site, or offering
me a discount for purchasing online.
I
like discounts. And I’m all about saving
the environment from too much paper usage.
But it’s kind of ironic that I’m encouraged to go paperless and some of
the profit gained from not mailing me a statement is used to send me useless
marketing crap in the mail.
But
what I really have a beef with is how basic customer needs are ignored once
companies have gotten us online.
PROBLEM:
Credit cards expire. If you use a credit card for a recurring service (think
Netflix or Skype), you need to update your credit card information with the new
expiration date.
I
DARE you to do it in less than 20 minutes for your Skype account.
This
has been a consistent problem with Skype for at least 4 years (since I tried to
update it the last time my card expired).
And many customers have angrily written about it. I finally found a sort-of FAQ, but when I
tried to follow the directions, I realized the graphic and information was not
accurate for THIS version of Skype. No one
at Skype had updated the FAQ.
I
tweeted to Skype about it, because I was incredibly frustrated. A day later they tweeted me back and
encouraged me to use the outdated FAQ.
SOLUTION: Skype… how tough is it to put an EDIT CREDIT
CARD tab in your account section?
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| How Buzzstream.com does it |
In
the next few posts, I will write about other online customer service problems
that many people are experiencing, along with solutions that are downright
simple.
Another
source of frustration is when customer experience problems are brought to your attention over and over and over again… you
ignore us. If you really care about
customer loyalty, here’s a way to find out just how well your site is working
out for us: Google to find out how many
people are experiencing problems with your sites. You may be shocked.
I
am not sure why the customer experience is so shoddy at many sites. Is it because you don’t test your sites in
the way that a real customer would use them?
Is it because you can’t actually see us, so therefore you aren’t faced
with our frustration?
Just
because you can’t see us doesn’t mean we don’t matter.
--Just One Woman's Opinion...
