Not being known for shallow overstatement, I've discovered a major flaw in the capitalist economic system.
Fiona's been on a monthly tariff contract for her mobile phone for ages and we decided that a pay-as-you-go option would be better so I decided to cancel the current contract. Could I find anywhere on the O2 website that allowed me to do that? Nope. Any mention of terminating your contract in their help, glossary or FAQ? Nope, not a dickie-bird and, as far as their website would lead you to believe, embarking on the quest for the holy grail would have been a walk in the proverbial compared with discovering the state of eternal cellular disconnectedness I sought. Evidently the designers never countenanced the possibility that a customer could ever deign to leave, unless they were dead of course, whereupon they couldn't actually use the web anyway, so why bother?
So I was forced to do business with them the old fashioned way and called them, waited for ages listening to their ambient plinky plonky on-hold muzak, gave my details in full to two separate people and, eventually, I finally found the exit.
The point of this story, lots of companies bang on about how good their service is, how fantastic their products are and how easy it is to do business with them. Right up to the point when you want to stop doing business with them. Perhaps the sign of a true customer focused company is when it's just as easy to stop doing business with them as it is to start?
Will we ever see a main menu option on a website entitled "Cancel your contract" or "Take your business eleswhere" Probably not. But why not? Customers leave and switch companies all the time, but why do companies feel the need to further justify a customer's decision to leave by making it a real pain to do so?
I'd suggest that every (online) organisation needs to also have a section on their site, or even a completely separate site, that takes you through the often stressful task of parting company.
Like a funeral director for business and consumer relationships, where you're taken through the process swiftly and discreetly, giving respectful care and attention for your wishes at this, your time of need. It would take balls to clearly signpost the EXIT for your customers but it would also suggest that your company has nothing to fear in losing customers, as if blindly denying the fact that your customers may well want to leave you as quickly as they joined, prevents them from actually doing so - "If you do not build it they will stay."
Fiona's been on a monthly tariff contract for her mobile phone for ages and we decided that a pay-as-you-go option would be better so I decided to cancel the current contract. Could I find anywhere on the O2 website that allowed me to do that? Nope. Any mention of terminating your contract in their help, glossary or FAQ? Nope, not a dickie-bird and, as far as their website would lead you to believe, embarking on the quest for the holy grail would have been a walk in the proverbial compared with discovering the state of eternal cellular disconnectedness I sought. Evidently the designers never countenanced the possibility that a customer could ever deign to leave, unless they were dead of course, whereupon they couldn't actually use the web anyway, so why bother?
So I was forced to do business with them the old fashioned way and called them, waited for ages listening to their ambient plinky plonky on-hold muzak, gave my details in full to two separate people and, eventually, I finally found the exit.
The point of this story, lots of companies bang on about how good their service is, how fantastic their products are and how easy it is to do business with them. Right up to the point when you want to stop doing business with them. Perhaps the sign of a true customer focused company is when it's just as easy to stop doing business with them as it is to start?
Will we ever see a main menu option on a website entitled "Cancel your contract" or "Take your business eleswhere" Probably not. But why not? Customers leave and switch companies all the time, but why do companies feel the need to further justify a customer's decision to leave by making it a real pain to do so?
I'd suggest that every (online) organisation needs to also have a section on their site, or even a completely separate site, that takes you through the often stressful task of parting company.
Like a funeral director for business and consumer relationships, where you're taken through the process swiftly and discreetly, giving respectful care and attention for your wishes at this, your time of need. It would take balls to clearly signpost the EXIT for your customers but it would also suggest that your company has nothing to fear in losing customers, as if blindly denying the fact that your customers may well want to leave you as quickly as they joined, prevents them from actually doing so - "If you do not build it they will stay."