I’ll apologise now that this entry is not bonsai related, but I won’t apologise for writing it. My background and previous existence is from a large multinational financial institution, where if I am honest, although I sometimes seriously doubted the competence and ability of some of the immediate layers of middle management I had to deal and work with, I rarely doubted their moral scruples or ethics, however those of their bosses I cannot comment on as I had little or no direct experience of them.

I was a technologist and as such my job was to build, install, change and fix all manner of technologies used by the institution in its day to day workings and profit generation, so I like to think I know a thing or two about “systems” both from a customer or consumer perspective and also from the company perspective. Our website was one such of these “systems”. We were constantly striving to maximise “customer experience”, “usability”, and “customer experience” for minimum cost, with maximum  “profit” “sales”, “up sell” and “cross sell”, like any commercial institution would. We had design teams, marketing teams, sales teams, compliance teams, finance teams, credit teams to name but a few all involved with changes, additions, fixes and rollouts of our websites and products  to ensure that a balanced view was taken, the customer was treated fairly and legally, that their viewpoint was taken into account AND we could make a profit. I also saw pragmatic and sometimes what I considered senseless overrides and compromises to this process made in the name of “reducing expenses”, “time to market”, “competitive advantage”. These invariably came from on high. They sometimes reduced the “customer experience”, “usability”, and “customer experience”, but normally were not cynical or unethical. Why am I wittering you ask?

I, like many people have to use an ISP to access the internet. In fact I use a well known UK based ISP. Their prices are not that competitive, the service provided is not that good, the technology I am offered is old. So why don’t I change? Simple – inertia, the agro of change. – They were who I signed up with, who I first got my internet connection working with and I have stuck with them. I nearly changed a year ago when they became completely uncompetitive on price. We phoned to attempt to close our account and were offered a retention package which frankly made the aggravation of moving not worth going through, and was a good price.

 This runs out very soon. I don’t care if I am offered another retention package. I don’t care if I have to pay more. This time I am moving. Why? Well, quite simply; “customer experience”, “usability”, and “customer experience”.  A straw that has broken the camels back. When I go their homepage, it loads quickly, except for the box that allows me to logon to my mail account, my broadband account, and my mobile account or get help. Not Good. I wait, I wait more – the box appears, eventually, and I move my mouse over the email logon and click- Arrrrhhhh – too slow, the box disappears, and moves down the screen, and where I have just clicked has magically become an advert for one of their core products or services and it opens a new window. I hastily shut the window so I wont be tempted, whizz my mouse down the screen to where the logon box now resides, and click on mail again – Arrrrgggghhhh – too slow, the logon has shut, and moved back to where it originally was, and where I am has magically become an advert for another core service or product. All because I am too impatient to wait longer for the homepage to finish it’s morphing, which in turn forces me to read the omnipresent adverts for zillions of things I don’t want and don’t need. I have learned to wait for the homepage to stabilise, but with my eyes shut so I don’t see the adverts. Occasional users probably get caught every time.

Are the designers and marketers paid and bonused on a per click basis for the adverts ?– if they are and they’re allowed to do this, then – I’m OUT

Are the designers and marketers not part of an integrated product development team that blocks such a poor customer experience ? – if they are not and the process is this poor then I’m OUT

Is this an oversight and does management have such poor oversight and control over what’s going on ? then if so – I’m OUT

Do they simply not care as they believe inertia and retention packages are enough to keep customers ? If they believe this then I’m OUT

I know there is recession; I know everyone wants everything cheap; the best price on everything; but when the true price is sacrificing inherent quality and/or content, short term sacrifice of quality, ethics or loyalty,  then guess what – I’m DEFINITELY OUT.

Absolute price at any cost is not a measure I want, VALUE FOR MONEY and HONESTY is where it’s at.