Retailers: Your Missing Employee

Many retailers of all sizes are not taking advantage of an "employee" that will work for almost no wages, and help keep their customers satisfied.

This employee will work for you when nobody is around. It will give you a presence in your local community. It will provide a sense of continuity when your business is closed.

You can buy this employee for just a one-time cost of a few dollars.

I cannot understand why businesses do not all hire this employee. By not having this employee, you anger your customers. Also by not using this employee correctly, you really anger your customers.

The employee is NOT a web page. For many small retailers, a web page might not be a good investment.

This employee is a telephone answering machine. Not so high tech, and been around for years. Yet woefully ignored.

Let me present some examples that hit me today.

No Information, No Answering Machine

We bought a really nice carpet at a local retailer. In addition, we borrowed a sample of the carpet so we could match it to fabrics. I wanted to return the sample. The REALLY simple question is "is the store open at 10:00 AM." I did not want to look at their website, so I called on the telephone.

Now this is a big company with several large branches in my town. Ring, ring, ring, and finally to provide the customer some punishment, the high-pitched whine of a FAX machine came on the line.

It would have been much more customer friendly if the store had an answering machine that, among other information, provided the hours of the store's operation. I had to go out (driving in the snow, which I dislike) anyway because another company had an answering machine with incorrect information (see below), so I stopped off there to drop off the carpet sample. They were closed...boy was I unhappy, as I told to the manager that I spoke with when the store finally opened.

I think that if I could have found the same carpet elsewhere, I would have returned it, costing the store a $1300 sale.

Nice Answering Machine, Wrong Information

The local Scandinavian furniture company sells Christmas trees. I called their line before the store opened to see if they had any trees left. The answering machine answered. The message: "Your store has plenty of Christmas trees."

(I wanted to get there before the store opened so that I did not have to wait on line with all the folks buying furniture.)

I went over (driving in the driving snow) and lo and behold, the Christmas tree corral was empty. (Then I drove to the carpet store.)

I called the Scandinavian furniture company when they opened and mentioned that the message was wrong. I got some kind of nonsense that they only knew their stock levels when the store had closed for the day...of course the Christmas tree message was a special message (they don't list the stock levels of all their merchandise on the telephone), and anyone looking out at the tree corral could see that it was empty, and that the message should have been changed.

If it were acceptable to provide wrong information then the message should have said something like: "We're still selling trees. If you want to know whether or not we have any, then drive by and see."

There Was a Third Example

A local store had a piece of furniture that my wife spotted as being a good fit in our living room. I was to see if it was what I wanted (Art Deco style living room).

Their answering machine told me that if they heard the message, that I was to leave my number and they would call me back. I don't want them to call me back. I only wanted to know what time they opened. The answering machine did provide a bit of an ad for the store, but that was of no interest to me. The information that I wanted was missing.

Lessons

1. Every retailer should have an answering machine. If you think one would provoke crank calls, then you are pretty paranoid.

2. The answering machine should provide some basic information:

• A Simple Greeting
• Name of the Store
• Store Hours
• Store location (not only "123 First Ave," but also, "Near the intersection of First Avenue and Jones Road.")
• Any Special Sale or other Information
• Leave a Message and We'll get back to you
• Check out our website at www.whatever
  

3. Work the machine properly.

• Make sure that at closing time, the information on the machine is correct. Turn the answering machine on.
  
• Turn off the answering machine when the store is open. Get the messages left by customers, and respond to them.
  

Finally

Don't let your store look like it is out of business every evening when it closes. Provide information that your customers need to do business with you by using an answering machine.

(I also recommend buying an answering machine, rather than using a service of your telephone provider, which may entail a monthly fee.)

FREE course on creating great User Documents

I have made my course on creating great User Documents as a free, no-strings-attached download. The course guides the student through the creation of an effective User Document.

You can learn about it here:

http://www.greatuserdocs.com/DownloadCourse.htm

Please pass this information on to your friends and loved-ones who are assigned to write User Documentation.

New Cellphones Should Do the Phone Stuff

This is driving me nuts. Cellphone makers are thinking of more and more things to put into their phones: cameras, mp3 players, etc. Why don't they make their phones do what phones should be doing. Here are three...they might make phone use better for all of us.

1. Visual Voice Menus. When the user dials into a system that uses voice menus ("press 1 for this, press 2 for that") the voice menu system should provide a text display of the menu items. The user will not have to wait for the voice to present all of the options. He/she will be able to see the page of the voice menu options, and press the desired button...or touch the item for a touch-sensitive screen.
Yes, this requires changes on the voice menu system but it sure would make life easier for all of us.

2. Pass on a phone number. Years ago my son was on a cellphone call to another friend. My son asked for a third friend's phone number. My son had to write down the number and re-dial it. Why can't one phone user send a phone number to another via the phone? The sender could have it sent from his/her contact list or type it in. The receiver could use that number to dial his/her phone, or put the number in his/her contact list.

3. I'm in the car, and I don't want to answer. The option to easily enter "I cannot answer" messages. These might be: "I'm in the car, and I don't want to answer....call me in 10 minutes" "I'm in a meeting".
Also the user should be able to program his/her phone to accept calls at any time from certain numbers (the phone would vibrate); non-designated numbers would get an "I'm not available" message.

Tell Us What It Means

Recently I received a notice from the City telling me that a building was going to be built that violated some of the current building codes. The owners of the building-to-be wanted three variances.

The City was asking me and other residents that might be affected to comment on the requested variances.

The variances were:
1. Change of floor loading
2. No loading dock for the retail stores
3. Narrowing of the entrance to the parking lot.

The City wanted the residents to analyze the requests, and voice their opinions at a meeting.

The only problem is that the City did not even give us a hint of what these three variances meant to us. We were left to guess, or to contact the City for clarification.

Had the City estimated what effects these variances might have on the residents, confusion and cost (for calling the City and having its staff respond) would have been reduced.

(By the way, if a resident waited until the meeting to learn the impact of the variance, it would have been too late to object...submissions had to be made about five days before the meeting.)

You may argue that the City would be going out on a legal limb telling us how the variances would impact the residents. Nonsense...if asked, the City would have to give an answer (which would be official) anyway.

When your organization publishes any information, make sure that the receivers of that information can understand what the information means to them. Not doing so adds to the confusion, cost, and negative feelings.

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A Tough Programming Question

I have a fairly tough (and sarcastic) programming question. It's in two parts.

Part 1: How Long to Program This?

I have a 30 character ASCII (single byte characters) field. This field will have numbers and other characters, usually spaces or dashes. I want to remove any non-numeric characters (characters other than 0 through 9) and left-justify the result.

For example, if the input field is: 1234 523-67890 335
The result should be: 123452367890335

What is your estimate for an average programmer meeting this programming requirement in any one of the following languages:
PERL, C, C++, JAVA, JAVASCRIPT, Micosoft's ACCESS (database programming language)?

My guess is at most about 1/2 to 1 hour.

Part 2: The Dangerous Question

Given your answer to the above question, WHY don't Web forms which ask for input such as a credit card number permit spaces and dashes?

After all, it's easier for a human to check his/her input if it is of the form:
1234 523 67890 335

Than the usually-required:
123452367890335.

Perhaps it's security or execution time...

How to Help the World

Designers: When you design number input fields on a form, make these fields look and work the same way that the User deals with these numbers in real life.

Programmers: If you are asked to program number input fields so that they only permit digits (with no separators), suggest to the designers the more User-oriented way to accept these fields. Permit User entry of the fields the same way that the User deals with them in real life. In most cases, to permit the User-oriented entry format(s) requires only the code described in Part 1, above.

Write Correct User Documents

Overview
Any instructions for a human may be thought of as being User Documentation. Make sure that your User Documentation is correct. Correct User Documentation matches the way that the product works.

A Website Example
In this example we will call the instructions on the invoice the "User Document". The "product" is the website itself.

I subscribe to a gardening magazine. I recently received an invoice that enabled me to pay on-line. It said to go their web address, and then follow the '"Subscriptions" link' (these are the exact words on the paper invoice.

However, when I went to the website, I only found a "Subscribe Now" link. This name has a very different meaning than "Subscriptions."

• "Subscriptions" means: deal with your subscription, and possibly create a new one.
• "Subscribe Now" means: you don't have a subscription, create one now.

The correct instructions on the printed form should have been:

• Visit www.thesite.ca
• Choose the "Subscribe Now" link
• On the page that opens choose the "Make a payment" option, at the left of the page
  

etc...

Bottom Line

Go over the steps that you present to the User to ensure that they are correct; they match the way that the product works. Don't force your User to figure out what your instructions mean.