Continuing on with the discussion I started in the last posting about the OfficeJet 6310, the problem I was researching had the following specific issues:

1. Scanning - when connected through a network to my Mac, attempts to scan failed 9 times out of 10. I’d start a scan, and an error message would come back saying approximately ‘the program is unstable, restart’, or it would just sit there and do nothing, or it would do the initial scan, and then when I tried to accept it, it would do nothing
2. Installation - taking the installation disks to Windows PCs on my network, it would install, but never find the printer, not even to print.

Sounds simple enough … I’d always been happy with HP, so I expected to solve the problems easily.

FIRST … I worked through the manual and followed it’s instructions for trouble shooting … no luck

SECOND … I went online to the HP web site and asked their knowledge-base, followed any instructions that seemed to apply … no luck

THIRD … I tried to send email, no reply

FOURTH … I tried online chat. First attempt kept failing. I got an email from HP asking me to try again. Second attempt, I got someone, but if he was a real person, I don’t know what he was doing. Replies were slow. I thought I’d lost the connection more than once. At one point, he indicated that he didn’t know anything but Windows. I don’t know whether I was speaking with a man, woman, or computer, but whichever it was it was frustrating in the extreme.

FIFTH … I tried searching the Internet. I found lots of reports of scanning problems and began to wish I’d done that search before purchasing the printer.

In each case where I was searching for a solution to the problem, it was hard to determine what was applicable. Having built service centers and trained service agents, I know how hard it can be to figure out a problem when someone calls in. I also know how hard it can be to build a knowledge-base that’s useful for a customer to troubleshoot themselves. These are tough jobs that very few companies do well. Many companies act as if they have the expertise available. When they fail, it’s even more frustrating.

Remember, this is a problem which I found many postings about on the Internet. The postings on message boards talked about frustration getting help from HP. HP also creates the impression that installation is simple and automated. All of this leads to some important insights for customer facing systems:

1. Many companies collectively create the impression that things will go smoothly. Marketing wants it to be smooth and promises ease of installation and no problems. Caveats aren’t mentioned. We find ourselves in the old ‘Over-Promise/Under-Deliver’ dilemma where we create an impression, intentionally or not, that something will be easy when it may not be. Hence documentation and support services are under-prepared to deal with problems.
2. Many companies don’t seem to pay enough attention to what’s going on around the Internet. When there are many postings indicating problems, those problems should be addressed directly. The cynic in me suggests that these companies are simply saying “No problem, they’ve already paid the money, bought the hardware or software, so nothing lost if there’s a minor problem”. I don’t honestly believe anyone feels that way, but it FEELS like it when you’re frustrated by something that was supposed to be easy.
3. Test suites for hardware and software too often seem to be limited and don’t search for problems aggressively enough. On products like this where the system itself is a multi-product (Scanner, Printer, Copier, Fax Machine), it’s easy to under-test. Thorough testing should be fundamental, but companies all too often appear to tradeoff testing up-front for service after the sale. Not intentionally perhaps, but that’s the effect.

It’s no mystery why companies act like this. There are lots of reasons, but many of them come down to competition for niches in the marketplace. Get something out there, get it out quick, don’t do anything to discourage people from buying. There’s never enough money for a thorough job on testing and troubleshooting and all too often, there’s a self-reinforcing loop in the process where the developers believe they’ve done everything and the marketers don’t push enough to make sure that’s true.

I’ve worked for several people whose great talent was doing things that caused software or systems to fail in unusual ways. Every development staff needs someone like that, someone who sees the unusual or tries things that other people will try. Many developers are hampered by their own knowledge of their products and they inadvertently don’t test things that they should.

Next time, we’ll go further into implications and lessons learned for Customer Facing Systems.

Categories: Call/Contact Centers, Customer Service