Category Archives: Huh?

June 18, 2015 · 12:12 pm

The Freemium Come On

I had the same sort of thing happen to me twice in the last 24 hours so of course I feel compelled to rant about it. In the first case, I was searching for a better system to keep track of my business development work. I spent some time reviewing solutions and I thought I had found one that I liked. Research told me that there was a free solution that would meet my needs so I signed up. Imagine my surprise when my account said I was now using their enterprise solution for a 30-day trial.  I wrote to customer service asking about the promoted “free” option and was told that in 30 days my account would be downgraded to the free solution although some pieces of what I had access to would be lost.  No, he didn’t tell me which pieces so I’m a little wary of getting too invested in this since who knows if I’m building a database which will then be held for ransom.

In the second case, my “thing” about grammar led me to a browser extension that is supposed to improve upon the tools built in to the operating system, my word processing software,  and the browser.  It too said it was free so I installed it and registered for an account. The first document I ran through it contained a number of errors, some of which were labelled as “critical” (spelling and a comma fault) and others labelled as “advanced.”  Hovering over the critical issues allowed me to fix them immediately, choosing from several proposed solutions.  I clicked on the advanced list and was taken to a page which told me I needed to upgrade to fix the advanced writing mistakes as well as to enhance my text.

In both of these cases, I don’t begrudge the companies for charging for their services.  I think freemium is a pretty good business model and there are some free services that I’ve paid to upgrade over the years after having used them for a bit.  I have a bigger issue with companies that begin as free and then begin charging for features which had been free.  The issue I do have is a lack of clarity upfront.  If it’s a freemium service, state that and lay out the differences between free and paid.  Hopefully, your product is good enough that you’ll convert folks who use it and want a deeper involvement.  Don’t play the airlines’ game of promoting a low cost (or no cost) and then hitting a user up with charges for everything under the sun.  That’s just deceptive.  That’s my take.  Yours?

 

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June 15, 2015 · 10:53 am

Too Big To Care

More bad publicity for the folks at United Airlines over the weekend.  This time, a mechanical issue in-flight resulted in a plane full of passengers having to spend the night in a military barracks.  Obviously there was no issue with the need to land the plane – who wants to be 6 miles up with a mechanical issue?  But what happened next is yet another black eye on United’s record of customer care.

English: United Airlines Boeing B747-400 at Be...

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

What company needs this headline:

Hundreds Of United Airlines Customers ‘Abandoned’ In Remote Canadian Barracks Without Heat, Little Food

I won’t reiterate the list of stories that portray United as a company that hates its customers and instead I want us to have a think about a bigger question.  Only four airlines—United, American, Southwest and Delta—now control 85% of domestic air travel due to mergers and acquisitions. I think we’ve all seen higher fares and worse customer service pretty much across the board. According to the Department of Transportation, airline-related complaints increased by 26% in 2014.  This same sort of routine – a business sector becoming more consolidated and customer service declining while prices rise – has played out elsewhere.  Banking, cable TV and broadband providers and insurance are just a few areas where we’ve all seen this play out.

My thinking is this.  Companies become too focused on improving systems without focusing on how those improvements affect customers.  United, for example, may focus on improving financial performance by increasing baggage and other fees while angering their customers.  Maybe their attitude is “If everyone does it, what choice will the customers have anyway?” and that has, for the most part, been true.  What’s also true, however, that the many of the quality metrics – are declining along with their costs.

Smart companies improve the bottom line but not at the customers’ expense.  They maintain the small company mentality even as they become quite large.  Customer satisfaction is always a front and center metric, and product improvements are made to benefit the customer, not always the bottom line.

All of which makes me wonder if “economies of scale” generated through dynamic growth can actually not mean “too big to care”.  Do you have any thinking on that?

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June 11, 2015 · 11:36 am

Don’t Tone Me

My youngest child had an expression she would use when I would say something to her in a manner she didn’t like. You know – things like “wash your hands and come in to eat” or “don’t put makeup on the dog”. She couldn’t really find fault with what I was asking but she would look at me and say “don’t tone me.” Turns out it’s an apt business expression.

I was chatting with a former colleague this morning. Things aren’t going particularly well at his current gig and I had my life coach hat on trying to help. He shared some internal emails to illustrate some of what was causing problems and my mind was blown. Obviously I can’t quote them but the gist of the issue wasn’t what the guy’s boss was doing. It was the tone.

The memo I read was to a bunch of recipients who are not kids.  Most are over 30 and have lots of work experience.  The note outlined how they were to spend every moment of their working day and was focused on process not on results.  Well, that’s not true.  The results expected were filling out forms, making phone calls, and which font to use in presentations.  There was nary a mention of actual results.  The message was an obvious confusion of activity and progress.

More importantly, the tone was demeaning.  I don’t know the author but I found it offensive.  It would be one thing if it was a summation of what had been discussed in person as a group but this apparently came out of the blue.  With an emphasis on accuracy in the presentations the staff was to make, this note was written in multiple fonts (cut and paste job!) and had errors in it.

The takeaway is that email – and all writing – generally lacks nuance.  The recipient can assign whatever tone seems accurate and in this case vaguely threatening and demeaning seem accurate.  Moreover, never implement new procedures without a team discussion as to why you’re putting the new stuff in place.  People are willing to follow when they’re led; they’re much less willing to be pushed.  “Toning” them isn’t leading – it’s pushing (or kicking) them to a goal.  Getting out in front of them and showing them the way is a lot more productive.  You agree?

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