1.1: Customer service is usability
I think about usability a lot. Some of that is because it’s my job and some because I’m fascinated that products and tools get released onto the market after what must be hundreds of thousands of dollars expended in use-case testing only to be just not quite right.
Take the self-swipe credit card terminal at the grocery store (we’re not even talking about the self-check stand). Upwards of 90% of people using these machines in the U.S. (and possibly the world) are right handed. From a usability perspective it makes sense, then, to put the slot you swipe your card through on the right. But then where does the special pen you often have to use to sign go? Some designers have put it across the top…neatly blocking the swipe slot. Most designers just give up and put it on the left (because yes, it’s so convenient for a right handed person to reach across the screen, drag the cord that connects the special stylus to the terminal across the screen and then hold it out of the way while scrawling a signature). The best designed of these machines put the swipe slot across the top and the moderately small stylus on the right, in a hole that seats it like a traditional fountain pen.
The great thing about usability as a concept, and about the practice of user interface design that promotes it, is that it can be applied to almost anything, even interactions and systems that have nothing to do with technology. Which brings me to my first usability failure.
Sunday I met my friend S. for brunch at a popular diner downtown. I got there about 20 minutes early and the restaurant teemed with diners though no one waited yet for a table. After looking around and realizing that no, my friend wasn’t there, I let the hostess know that there would be two of us but dining partner wasn’t here yet. No problem, she says. It’ll probably be about 10-15 minutes for a table.
During this 10-15 minutes which was actually more like 20 (yes, my friend constantly runs late) a complete party of two arrives, and another, and then a party of three, and then a party of six. When a table for two opens up, my friend is still no where to be seen so the hostess moves to seat the complete party of two that arrived 10 minutes after I did.
Being who I am I say, excuse me, but I was here first.
Oh, she says, but your party isn’t complete and theirs is.
Yeah, but if you seat one it’s the same as seating two.
Well, their party is complete and that is how we do things here.
This is where the usability failure comes in: initially she set my expectation that in 10-15 minutes when a table opened up I’d be seated then later she came back and added an additional rule that contradicted the expectation she’d set with her first statement.
Later, after watching three other parties of two get seated in front of me, when my friend showed up and she finally seated us I explained to her that it wasn’t having to wait until my party was complete that was the problem. The problem was that she’d initially told me I’d be seated when a table opened up, set an expectation that would happen, and then changed the rules. Her reaction: you can talk to my manager if you want.
Now, maybe I should have talked to the manager because, theoretically, if you get enough experience in the restaurant trade to be the MOD during Sunday brunch you understand that managing expectations is the key to keeping customers happy. Instead I let her know that it wasn’t a big deal but that the next time it happened she should let the person in the incomplete party know that it was policy only to seat complete parties and set the expectation correctly. Given that she just blinked and said “OK” I doubt her behavior will change which is too bad because it’s not as if I was playing irate, entitled customer, either. The whole thing was extremely calm.
Next installment:
Usability failures 2.1 and 2.2: Usability is customer service (aka: Why geek speak should never make it to error messages and why a single path to problem resolution should never be the option)
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