In writing my book, Silicon Collar, I saw plenty of examples of how machines make human workers safer, smarter and speedier. I also became more aware of poor implementations where the man-machine balance is broken and leads to worker and customer dissatisfaction. In this series, I will highlight some of those experiences.
We got the annual renewal notice for our Quickbooks Payroll. Seemed high so I bought on Amazon the base Quickbooks Pro and the payroll for $ 150 less. Actually, Intuit forces everyone to update the base software very three years and this also bought me the upgrade so the savings were close to $ 500
The Amazon download worked fine – but they only provided keys for the Pro product, so I called in for the Payroll keys. They could not figure it out so patched me to Intuit support. As usual the Intuit agent collected all kinds of information, then said she needed to transfer me to the payroll group. I protested that would be yet another handoff and she managed to get me the payroll keys. 45 minutes so far.
I then asked her to make sure my credit cared was not charged for the original notice. This time she said the payroll group was gone for the day (being Sunday). Can I communicate online? No (indeed their website does require you to call in – see image below)
So I asked to speak to a supervisor. He managed to note in the system not to charge my card but could not email me the detail. How about emailing a screen shot? Or a printout to be faxed or mailed to me? He said something about security restrictions. Talk about not empowering your employees. He finally managed to paste the screenshot to a Word doc and email it to me. It came from a “NoResponse” address. More unempowered employees. So, if they do charge our card, someone can pretend the conversation never happened?
So, here’s my question – how does a company which is paid to make small businesses more efficient have such poor leverage of man and machine. Why did their poor customer support (who by the way were impeccably polite) and I have to spend an hour on the phone when a couple of keystrokes on my part should have sufficed. And why do they make someone as efficient as Amazon also look bad?
BTW – see the Frustrated icon at the bottom-right of the image? I have pasted a link to this post. See if they bother to respond
In writing my book, Silicon Collar, I saw plenty of examples of how machines make human workers safer, smarter and speedier. I also became more aware of poor implementations where the man-machine balance is broken and leads to worker and customer dissatisfaction. In this series, I will highlight some of those experiences.
I was looking forward to trying out the Hilton Digital Key knowing it would be crazy trying to check in during Oracle OpenWorld week. I am more of a Marriott fan, but my friend Vijay Vijaysankar raves about it
“I haven't gone to a check-in desk at Hilton in a while . I just do a check-in on app , and get a digital key and walk straight to my room . I also only choose hotels that have digital keys for the most part.”
The initial experience was promising. I could pick a room of my choice on the mobile app. I picked one in a tower which is quieter than the others, but the confirmation asked me to go the check-in desk when I arrived. Seemed a bit unnecessary since the key was on my mobile phone.
Something to do with checking IDs, I figured. Surely, they could have a kiosk similar to that at Hertz which can scan a driver’s license or a US Global Entry kiosk which scans passports.
No, they expect you to go a designated Digital Check-in desk. Except that it was unmanned, and I had to join the rest of the crowds for someone to provision the key on the phone.
The room opened fine. The first time, that is. Later that evening, it would not work so I had to go back to the lobby and get a cardkey which I used rest of the stay. Just for kicks I tried the mobile key on the last day, and this time I worked
Hopefully Hilton will work out these quirks, otherwise the automation will annoy both customers and employees.
In writing my book, Silicon Collar, I saw plenty of examples of how machines make human workers safer, smarter and speedier. I also became more aware of poor implementations where the man-machine balance is broken and leads to worker and customer dissatisfaction. In this series, I will highlight some of those experiences.
I love using the APC kiosk at our local post office. The kiosks are accessible 24x7 and allow users to process even elaborate forms of certified and return-receipt mail, to purchase stamps, and to renew P.O. boxes. The kiosks are said to be able to perform four out of five of the transactions normally handled by a retail window clerk. I, for one, find them much more convenient than waiting in line. Yet the USPS has been baffled that even after a decade its customers have not made more use of its kiosks. An audit showed the customer adoption percentage (CAP) was 9% below their target of 35% for walk-in-capable transactions in FY 2013.
I think I understand why
I recently had to wait in a long line to use media mail( Media mail is an author’s best friend – allows you to ship books and electronic media at discounted rates). The clerk told me “the kiosk supports media mail”. I went back and navigated through various menus and could not find the option.
I Googled to check if the kiosk does support it. And found this site with all kinds of comments why people find the kiosk frustrating
Come on USPS, with some minor adjustments, you should be able to get way more than 35% usage!
In writing my book, Silicon Collar, I saw plenty of examples of how machines make human workers safer, smarter and speedier. I also became more aware of poor implementations where the man-machine balance is broken and leads to worker and customer dissatisfaction. In this series, I will highlight some of those experiences.
It’s sad, but we rarely answer our home phone. That way we avoid annoying sales, political polling, IRS scam and other nuisance calls. Frontier Communications faithfully emails us wav files of any voice messages and indicates the length of the message. If it is less than 5 seconds, I auto delete – it’s usually a wrong number.
For the last month, every week day around 2pm we have reviewed a 20 second message from 440-542-1360. The Caller ID shows a location, Chagrin Falls, OH, not the name of the calling enterprise. A Google search shows the number belongs to a debt collector.
The call asks for a person we do not recognize, and It gives you 4 options - answer, hold etc. It does not seem to recognize it is talking to a digital voice recorder and keeps going till it hangs up.
Think about that – for weeks now, no human has reviewed the call logs and flagged our number as unattended or just plain wrong.
So their machine keeps whispering sweet nothings to the Frontier machine which forwards that to our email server.
Automation gone haywire.
In writing my book, Silicon Collar, I saw plenty of examples of how machines make human workers safer, smarter and speedier. I also became more aware of poor implementations where the man-machine balance is broken and leads to worker and customer dissatisfaction. In this series, I will highlight some of those experiences.
My wife and I enjoy the movies – we easily see 15-20 a year at the theater. Here are some ways the experience has become annoying at our local AMC Theatre
a) I used to order tickets on the mobile phone, using the AMC Stubs app. At the theatre, we would use the kiosk to print the tickets. For the last few weeks, the app has not worked (without a fathomable error message) and so we have gone to ordering off the web. Unfortunately, 2 out of the 4 kiosks always seem to be broken or out of ticket stock. So, it’s back to standing in line for the tickets
b) The tickets have a bar code and the usher has a scanner. I have never seen him/her use the scanner. It’s the old tear the ticket routine.
c) The theatre has self-serve Coke Freestyle soda machines. But you have to stand in line to pay for them. And the POS machines in the food section do not recognize the phone number associated with your AMC Stubs. So, the poor cashier has to look up that number on a screen, write it down on a piece of paper and enter it on another screen (not kidding). All that to get you your discount for being a Stubs member or to use the credits you have accumulated
d) They have 4 Freestyle machines. Quite often 2 of them are not functioning, because they have run out of ice.
End result – needless crowds at the ticket counter, and at the concession stand, and a harried work force all of which could be easily fixed by a team which keeps the automation working smoothly.
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