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A project to make businesses more aware of their customer experience, and how to fix it. By Mark Hurst. |
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Previous: Hotel air conditioning unit buttons | Main | Next: Hammersmith traffic lights
August 19, 2006 12:03 AM
Broken: Hotel's Internet login
Erik Dahl writes in:
There are two things going on here:
1. On the left side there are three service types to choose from, all of which are free.
2. On the right side, the place holder text is still there:
<------------- Hotel text begins here-------------->.
Now don't get me wrong, I appreciate the free internet access, and I worry that next time I go back to this Liberty hotel that there will actually be text on the right side of the page and the internet access will be something other than free.
Oh well, I don't mind jumping through a few usability hoops now and again if the result is free internet access.
Maybe. Reminds me of the time Nintendo sent me a games list using default settings Microsoft Word WordArt for the title.
"2) That should have been an HTML comment that you could only see from the page source, but I don't consider this broken because it was just a commonly occuring web design error."
What planet do you come from? I don't care how common the error is. It's something that should have been caught before the public saw it. This is a professional website, so they should put effort into getting rid of at least the most obvious bugs. Just because something is common doesn't make it good customer service.
Agree with Trekkie - Just because something is a "common error" doesn't change the fact that it IS an error. If anything, that makes it even more Broken, because people have come to accept it as OK.
The real Broken aspect is either with the hotel who's running the box - or more likely, the @$^%# vendor that just handed over an unconfigured box to an unknowing customer, while happilly cashing their check.
That sounds like comcast and if you want help in configing it you have a long hold time to get help.
It's Comcastic!
(Translated:
Here is the complex part you ordered meaningless consumer. We value you enough to slap your logo on there, but not enough to actually help you. Please hire someone who can devote entire shifts to sitting on hold with us, so we can give you a cryptic automated reply!)
whine, whine, whine...
first off, while leaving that text in there looks silly, did you really care, would the vast majority of people going there really care? I somehow doubt it. While it shouldn't have been left in, how does it make the site a "broken experience"? Were you unable to access the internet? Did you end up having to pay for it because that line was there? Did it affect your ability to use that particular page? If you answered no to those.. then quit whining about it...
...and to those last 2 that were taking pot shots at Comcast, ummm, why? I don't understand the reason for those entries as comments concerning the supposed issue at hand, an errant line of text in a web site.
again... whine, whine, whine. Sheesh...
Memnot's post was, of course, not in the least whiny itself.
And Comcast's cultivation of a customer experience which leads to harsh criticism at even the slightest association with a problem seems epitomically (is that a word?) broken and therefore relevant.
I dont feel this is bitching or whining; not setting up a boxed product (such as this) properly is bad usability. As a user I would see the three different services all for $0/ea and wonder "what is the difference, then, between the services?". Once that question is asked by the user, then we know a poor UE has been created. 'nuf said.
Apathy is no excuse for not setting up something properly...
The hotel may just have decided to not charge its customers for internet access. What would have been handy is having the difference explained ('Business Center 12 Hours'?)
The hotel may just have decided to have free internet. But by having the place holder text in makes it look like they did not set it up all and free is the default.
gmangw -
You are correct, it wasn't whiny, it was truthful.
Every little thing that annoys a person a little bit does not count as being a broken experience.
Show me that the site then charged you, even though it showed that there was no charge; or tell me that you accidentally click on the leftover header and it actually linked you to something else, then yes, this would be fully broken.
Otherwise, I really do feel that its whining.
There used to be a thing in this world called personal responsibility. Everything any more is someone else's fault. People are not willing to accept that they were dumb, or that they may not be perfect. I'd be very interested in whether the original poster let the people know that there was an issue. If not, then don't complain about the problem. Since you were right there, you could have easily said something to someone.
Should it be the responsibility of the people running the site to make sure that its correct, yes; but if it isn't, that would fall under the header of being dumb, or not being perfect. Take the responsibility on yourself to let them know.
That is about the only issue I have with this site. How many people have posted something as being broken, yet never bothered to mention (when feasible) to the owner that there is something wrong?
Memnon raises an interesting solution: make it the customer's responsibility to fix broken issues.
I've taken it upon myself to tell corporations when their sites or other experiences are broken, but most of the time you will get a forumulaic and unhelpful response in return. If you can even find the appropriate person in the first place.
At any rate, for Memnon, 'not utterly broken' is good enough. For those of us in the profession, it has to be better than not 'simply broken' for us to make a living. It has to be good, clear, efficient and meaningful.
I think you misunderstood my overly long rant... I don't think it is a customer's responsibility to fix broken issues, but if you are going to make a comment about how something is broken, then why not make the effort to let those with the broken item know?
I'm interested to know what profession you are in (so I can understand why that means anything more than my thinking). On top of that, was this particular item so broken as to make it that bad?
Think of the possibility that, along with the normal card you usually get in your room telling you how to access the internet, there was another one that mentioned that they were running a special "free" weekend, or whatever (like you sometimes see with the premium movie channels). Wouldn't that then explain the no fee for each option, and assuming that you would have seen that card, why bother to then mention it again in the site, since the only people using the site would have already known about it.
...and there I go again writing another book...
It just really amazes me at how nit picky people get around some things, especially anything technological/computery
yeah, that's a made up word, too bad! :)
Actually, Memnon, you should reread your post. You did in fact say it's the customer's responsibility to be part of the fix. "There used to be a thing in this world called personal responsibility...I'd be very interested in whether the original poster let the people know that there was an issue."
And, perhaps you miss the point of this site: it's not just to find things that are 'bad,' but things that are 'broken,' i.e., they don't work as they are supposed to.
This Comcast page is an example: it's not bad, but it's certainly more complicated than it needs to be, and will confuse some customers. If you are in business, your aim should be to confuse as few customers as possible (unless you're in advertising, but that's another story... ;)
Anyway, I encourage people to be 'nit picky,' as you put it. It's how things get improved. If people weren't nit-picky about technology, we might all still have manual chokes on our cars and DOS prompts on our computer screens. And, it feeds industry (and provides jobs) to keep improving, keep making things better.
So, to your post...is it totally, utterly, completely broken? No. Could it be better? Certainly. Should Comcast, whose only real value to their customers is the service they offer, improve it? Of course.
I'll echo MMcwatters points and add that this site is "A project to make businesses more aware of their
customer experience, and how to fix it." A badly built website with errors in it says sloppy. Is this the image that you want to project to the customer? It's not whether a thing works or doesn't work, it's HOW it works and the way it relates to the customer experience.
*** sigh *** (insert beating of dead horse here)
Mmc: yes I did say people should take resp. to point out errors, but I never said that they should FIX the errors, as you keep saying I did... there is a BIG difference there, and for anyone who has bothered to read this far through the thread, I think its an important thing to point out.
and Carlos... do you honestly think all the businesses, governments, and whatnot, come to this site going "you know what, I better check TIB to see what mistakes/customer issues I might be having"?
If, as mmc put it, "most of the time you will get a forumulaic and unhelpful response in return" if you personally go to them, what makes you think they would care enough to come here.
Be realistic, I would be willing to bet that the majority of the people that come to this site come here for the fact that these broken things are pretty funny, and to have a good chuckle at the broken or not-broken comments... oh, and to see who can get first comment!
... and to hopefully end the insanity of this thread...
if anyone cares to reply back again to my last post, feel free, but I'm done with this one, no more discussion from me. For such a trivial error in the first place, I know that I have expended far more than enough effort discussing it... on to hopefully more broken things!
Well, memnon won't be seeing this reply, but for the benefit of others reading, this site is not to point out specific problems to specific companies, but rather to provide examples of poor customer experience and from those examples, understand how we can improve the customer experience in our own areas.
This article is an example of sloppy work. If this were your website, and your response was "so what?", then you aren't thinking from a customer-centric viewpoint.
Actually, TIB has, in the past, helped to fix things. There have been posts where companies have seen the thread, and responded! In fact, many companies seem to respond when their products are bashed in a public forum.
Anyway, Memnon, only because I love beating a dead horse, you say in your original post, "That is about the only issue I have with this site. How many people have posted something as being broken, yet never bothered to mention (when feasible) to the owner that there is something wrong?"
My guess is that many of the posters here are exactly the type of people who let companies know they are screwing up. TIB is just a fun place to vent.
ahha!! and you thought I wouldn't be reading this...
I wouldn't have said anything either, except for one thing that was said by Carlos:
"...this site is not to point out specific problems to specific companies, but rather to provide examples of poor customer experience and from those examples, understand how we can improve the customer experience in our own areas."
Actually, go read the text to the right of where it says This is Broken, at the top of every page. Maybe I took that too literally, as meaning that the site is supposedly to make those businesses with the posted broken items aware of them.
I personally have never taken the site to be anything more than a place for a good laugh, like I said.
If it does some other good... then that's a bonus.
Comments on this entry are closed
Previous: Hotel air conditioning unit buttons | Main | Next: Hammersmith traffic lights
1) Who cares, its free
2) That should have been an HTML comment that you could only see from the page source, but I don't consider this broken because it was just a commonly occuring web design error
Stop Bitching.
Posted by: asdf at August 19, 2006 02:22 AM