Human Factors

When it’s raining in Wellington, people just get wet. They usually don’t bother using an umbrella, the strong winds would probably destroy them within a short time anyway. In other parts of New Zealand and in Germany (well, probably in most countries of the world, but I know for NZ and Germany for sure) people use umbrellas. And when they go into a shop or a supermarket, they try to get rid of some of the raindrops on it by waving it around and getting other people wet. Inside then the umbrellas drip on the floor, building up slippery puddles of rain water which can cause people to fall. Not to speak of wet pants, when people accidentally touch their legs with the umbrella.

The Japanese have a different system for dealing with wet umbrellas. To keep the water outside when the weather is crappy, all shops have a plastic cover dispenser for umbrellas at their entrance. You put your umbrella in from the top and when you take it out towards the front it’s covered in a condom like wrapper. This is how the shop floors stay dry and people don’t slip. And you don’t need to fear that anyone will get you completely wet when they wave their umbrella around in order to get it dry before they enter the shop. Awesome idea!

It would be great to see a more reusable solution, using a plastic cover once and then throwing it into the rubbish bin doesn’t sound right to me. But it’s a start and certainly limits some risks associated with wet floors.

But when you want to go to a museum or a restaurant, you’re usually not keen to carry your umbrella around, regardless if it’s placed in a cover or not. That’s why such places often have a lockable umbrella holder at the entrance of the building. Put the head of the umbrella in, close the lock, remove the metal plate to lock and your umbrella will be waiting securely locked up until you return. That’s how Tokyo stays nice clean and tidy even in nasty weather conditions.

I have just returned from a short holiday in Tokyo. I had already heard about the impressively high level of service people usually experience in Japan, and now that I’ve been there I can only confirm, that being a customer in Japan feels absolutely great.

I can only talk for the Tokyo region, since I didn’t travel anywhere outside of the big city, but I assume it’s the same anywhere in Japan – whatever you do, wherever you go, whoever you encounter: people are always nice and go the extra mile to fulfil the wishes you didn’t even know you had. There was the shower head in our hotel for example, which had a little leak. Not a big problem and I certainly wouldn’t have complained about it, but when we used the shower again the next morning, it had been fixed. Without us saying a word. Not only had the cleaning staff seen the problem, they had even organised the repair. Great service!

There were lots of little things where I though “Wow, that’s great, I didn’t really expect this”, but one of the best things happened to us at Junkudo. Junkudo is a huge book store in Ikebukuro, one of the must-see parts of Tokyo. The store has nine stories, with level nine hosting foreign books. Since neither Kai nor I speak Japanese, we went straight up to the top floor to look for a book we had seen advertised in a newspaper. When we couldn’t find it, I approached the information desk and asked for it. Luckily I had the newspaper clipping with me, so it was easy for the person I asked to look it up in their computer and locate it within the shop. For some reason they had it one level below, and they sent me down to get it from there. Now, in both Germany and New Zealand “Go to level xyz” means that you have to find the item you’re looking for at that location for yourself. At Junkudo it meant, that someone on level eight was informed via phone that we were looking for the book, and while we took the escalator down, which probably took us less than two minutes, this person grabbed the book and placed it at the information desk for us. When we arrived to ask for it again, it was already waiting for us. Great service, again!

I got really excited about the high level of service, and when we met a friend for lunch at our last day in Tokyo I got an explanation as to why the Japanese are so service oriented. It has to do with the custom of “omotenashi”, the atmosphere of hospitality and welcome. It’s the thought of creating a nice, welcoming experience for guests – with an attention to details – that got transferred into the whole service industry. It’s a great custom and it certainly makes Japan a great experience for visitors.

… even if you hold a monopoly.

That’s all I have to say after my experience with ShopCity, who seem to be the only ones selling filters for our Mitsubishi heat pump in New Zealand. At least they were the only ones who were easy enough to find when we needed to replace the filters. We tried to order online, but we were able to put only one filter into the shopping cart, we needed two. So we assumed they were out of stock and used the online form, asking to get notified as soon as new stock arrived.

Two-and-a-half working days later we got a response, telling us that the filters had to be ordered by contacting customer support via phone. No further explanation if they were really out of stock or why else it would only be possible to order a single filter instead of two. Since I had no other choice, I called the phone number they had provided. First of all I was given various options on how to get to the person I needed to talk to, luckily customer service/ sales was the second option. I pressed 2 and got into a waiting line where I was told my call was important to them. They told me 5 times before I finally had someone on the phone. When I said I wanted to place an order, I was put on hold again. This time with radio running in the background; some kind of quiz show where the host had two callers on the line and there were competing in whatever discipline. Then my call was answered and I was asked if I held an account with them. No? Then I would have to use the website to order. Grrrrr.

Luckily the lady on the phone picked up my mood and was happy to let me order via phone after I had told her my story. She took my details and put me on hold while my credit card details were being processed. This time I had to listen to radio advertisement, ironically advertisement for a heat pump. Apparently my payment got through and I was promised the filters will be delivered tomorrow. We will see…

It would have been so easy to make this a more pleasant experience:

• If your customers can only order a limited amount your product, tell them the reason why. In this case a simple message that they’ve been out of stock and what the options in this case were, would have been great.
• If you expect customers to call you, please give them a positive experience. Telling them how important their call is doesn’t do the trick, if they have to listen to this multiple times while being transferred again and again. Also forcing them to listen to radio is not a good choice, at least not if the radio station isn’t playing music.
• If you have a sales department never ever let them start a conversations with “you should order from our website”. There will always be a reason why your customer is calling instead of using the online shop. They might have tried the online shop without success, or they might feel more comfortable ordering on the phone. Whatever the reason is, please don’t question their choice.

I guess in this case it’s really a matter of holding the monopoly. If I didn’t have to order with them, I wouldn’t even have called. I would have tried the next online shop. But knowing that owners of Mitsubishi heat pumps have no other choice, apparently makes ShopCity a bit careless about the customer experience. They will buy anyway, because no one else has what they need.

Update: The new filters really arrived the next day – at least one thing they were good at.

I’ve always been a big fan of libraries. I was a member of a “reading club” when I went to primary school, and my mom used to take me to the branch of Stadtbibliothek Essen in our suburb until I had read all books in their children’s and teenager’s section. Luckily I was then old enough to take the tram into town by myself, to get more reading matter whenever I needed to.

On our second day living in New Zealand I joined Wellington City Library, and I’ve been a regular visitor since. I love books and DVDs, I love the people and the atmosphere and I think they’re doing a lot of things right when it comes to delivering a positive customer experience. But today, they topped everything they’ve ever done so far, at least for me personally. It seems like they’ve tailored their offering just for me! But let me explain…

On the weekend I sent out the following tweet:

I got a few responses and started fighting the fruit flies with apple cider vinegar and lemongrass oil – the situation inside the house is now well under control. But I really do need to improve conditions for my compost bin. And as if the library knew I  needed some advice, today they sent this tweet:

And from there they made it very easy for me to follow up on the seminar: one click on the link brought me to their events calendar.

And another click on the ical icon automatically transferred it into my calendar on my Mac and my iPhone. Couldn’t be any easier – I wish more service providers would make processes so easy for me…

Normally I love Air New Zealand. Although they sometimes seem to be a little under-staffed, the overall travel experience is always great. And they develop amazing things for the web – for example How far can I go? and Home sweet as.

But today I thought they might have gone a bit over the top with the urge to deliver a perfect user experience. As Gold Elite members of their loyalty programme, Kai and I had a big envelope in the mail today, containing our new ePass. The ePass is a SIMcard sized tag, that can be used to check in quicker by waving the tag about 2-3 cm of a kiosk. Koru Club access is also faster, maybe because you don’t have to talk to the friendly lady who usually checks your boarding pass anymore. And the craziest thing: they want me to stick it to the back of my mobile phone! Are they insane???? I’m not sticking anything to my iPhone! Ok, there’s another option, you can also stick it to something else that you always carry with you when you travel. I guess, that would be my Air New Zealand Airpoints Card. So what’s the point of it? The checking in procedure at the electronic kiosks has been great most of the time anyway. Apart from all those days when they were out of order, but this is likely to happen with the new system as well.

Air New Zealand ePass

I hope that there are some real advantage to this, maybe I’ll find out about when I’m traveling the next time…

Update: With the mPass iPhone app there’s no need for me to still carry the ePass for traveling. Flight details are now automatically loaded into the application, and a barcode created for scanning at both Koru lounge and  boarding gate make the ePass redundant for me.

Wellington City Libraries have redesigned their search function. Typing in a search term doesn’t only bring up a list of available resources anymore, but a mind map displaying Associations, Translations, Spelling Variaties and a Discovery Trail as well. Clicking on an item in the map carries you on to the next level of mapping. This is a very helpful tool in case you aren’t looking for a particular title or author and I find it quite addictive to stroll through their suggestions.

If you don’t like it, get confused or simply loved the old search function – it’s still available, so you have the choice which one you want to use. Well done, Library!

Hurray, today bepacked.com was made public. The Flex and ColdFusion based application is the ultimate tool for people traveling through Australia. Ventego Creative is part of a large team of professionals (including the “inventors” of bepacked.com – Dirk Eisner and Leopold Humbel) who made this site one of the most essential websites for backpackers and other voyagers.

It’s a community-driven tool, featuring everything you need to plan, perform and evaluate your journey through Australia. Get all the information you need before you start, receive insider tips from fellow travelers, keep in touch with friends and family at home, share your happy moments or simply find someone to sell your equipment to before you return home – here you’ll find everything you need. In the first release the map, find interface, trip planner, contributor services and many more things are fully functional. Although there is currently still a lot of information missing, it’s stable and works very well, and the first load of content providers is getting on board. There will also be a list of new cool functionalities coming during the next few weeks and months (e.g. diary entries via txt, commenting etc.), so keep your eyes open for that. And the best thing is: everything is for free! So get out there, place your favourite destinations on the awesome map of Australia and be part of this from the very beginning!