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The
first week I was on the job at PC Week back in 1986 I met Bob Scheier, who also
started working for the magazine. Since then we have tracked each other's
careers and both of us are still cranking out stories. When he's not trying
to scam free web access, Scheier helps IT companies communicate with their
customers through white papers, marketing collateral and media consulting. He
can be reached at rscheier@charter.net.
I
usually hate the word "solution" because I consider it overused,
meaningless jargon that confuses, rather than educates, the customer. But I
recently found myself hoping for, but not finding, a "solution" to an
everyday problem, and the incident got me thinking about how we, as customers,
can judge what is and isn't appropriate.
The problem was wireless
email access from my Handspring Visor Prism. I need to do this several times a
week, and would be willing to pay, oh, $20 a month for the privilege.
Therefore, I jumped when I saw a promotion from Handspring, Cingular Wireless
and VoiceStream Wireless on the Handspring site, offering a basic voice and
data service plan for $20 per month with the VisorPhone Module thrown in for
free. The offer even included Handspring's Blazer wireless web browser. Using
the VisorPhone as a wireless modem, the offer gushed, I could check my
"personal or corporate email from the road, surf the Internet from
anywhere, instantly message family and friends and more." I signed up.
At
first, after ripping open the box and plugging the VisorPhone into my Visor,
all went well. The Visor instantly installed recognized the VisorPhone, found
the VoiceStream service, and allowed me to make voice calls. I next set up an
account with a free ISP (since I imagined doing only an hour of two of web
access per month to check my voice mail) and eagerly dialed the local access
number.
My
authorization to log on was denied...and denied .... and denied. I tried
tweaking passwords, fiddling with the log-on scripts, trying different access
numbers, to no avail. Finally, after several hours of roaming through various
Visor support sites and several emails to Handspring tech support, I found that
free ISP's don't support handheld devices because the screens are too small to display
the ads on which the free ISPs make their money. Signing up for web access with
ISPs who support the Blazer handheld browser would cost another $10 to $20 per
month, on top of the $20 per month for the VoiceStream service AND the $50 per
month I pay for cable web access at home. So I returned the VisorPhone,
VoiceStream graciously let me out of the service contract, and everyone went
home happy. Right?
Wrong.
I still don't have my wireless email access, but worse, neither VoiceStream nor
Handspring got a paying customer (since I assume VoiceStream reimburses
Handspring for each VisorPhone which generates an annual service contract.)
Counting shipping, order-processing and the cost of the tech support calls I
made, both vendors probably lost money on the deal. No sale; no profits; no
problem solved – therefore, no solution.
What
would have turned this lost opportunity into a genuine solution? My
suggestions:
1)
The only true
solution is a complete solution. If
VoiceStream or Handspring had bundled access to a handheld-friendly ISP – even
at a $5 cost per month to the end customer – into the deal, they would probably
still have me as a customer. You can't get access to the web without an ISP, a
piece Handspring and the carriers left out of their offering. It's not a solution
if a customer has to go looking for such missing pieces.
2) A true solution doesn't overstate its capabilities.
By this I mean the customer knows
what the products and services they're buying can and cannot do out of the
box. If I had known up-front about the problems of finding an ISP, I would
have known the VisorPhone/voice service bundle wasn't a good way to solve my
email problem. Not only would this have saved me frustration, but would have
saved Handspring and VoiceStream the support and transaction hassles that
turned this into a money-loser for them. When the customer gets surprised,
nobody (except FedEx or UPS) gets rich from
the resulting product returns and service cancellations.
3) A true solution is easy to use. If the customer has to spend hours on help lines or
fiddling with system configurations, you haven't solved their problem. The
first time they see an error message that isn't easily understandable, or a problem
that forces them to search web sites for an answer, you've dropped out of the
"solutions" category. To me, a solution means I don't have to think
about the technical problem and can get on with my work.
Should
I have thought about the need for an ISP before signing up for my VisorPhone?
Absolutely. Am I a cheapskate for not being willing to pay an ISP for even
occasional web access? Probably. But the point is, the vendor forced me to
learn about these hassles and trade-offs on my own, instead of including
everything I needed, pointing out the true costs up-front and letting me make
an informed decision.
For
you vendors out there, selling real "solutions" isn't just about
being nice and generating warm and fuzzy customer relationships. It's about
making real money from what you're selling, instead of just burning up time and
effort and churning customers. Ask yourself if what you're selling 1) contains
everything needed to solve the customer's problem; 2) that you accurately
disclosing everything it can and cannot do, and 3) that it is easy to use.
If
it doesn't meet these three criteria, then it isn't a "solution" --
and you're asking for trouble by selling it as such.
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David Strom
david@strom.com
+1 (516) 944-3407
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