Are you lazy? You’d probably say no. You go to the gym, ride your bike, and sometimes get outdoors for a long walk. But when it comes to using the Web, we’re all lazy.
So, I can’t see why companies insist on treating us any other way. In a moment of weakness, I clicked “Live Help” on the US Airways website. That’s something I’ve been trained not to do, because the Web really doesn’t have real-time down yet. But I clicked it this time, and I was unsurprisingly disappointed.
Catch that? Close this window… Click the ‘Live Help!’ link again. I know they can’t have an agent at my beck and call, but the least they could do is retry for me automatically.
I followed their directions. I closed the window and clicked again. I did that exactly once. When I got the same window, the one that doesn’t acknowledge that I’m lazy, I gave up.
Bad service is as expected from an airline as it is from a credit card company. For that reason, I was surprised when Capital One gave me a lazy option the last time I logged in.
First, a little back story. I have two Capital One cards. They each have separate logins, which makes it sort of a pain. But dangit, I’m just happy to have access to them online, where I can avoid long hold times and pitches for payment protection. So, imagine my delight when I saw this:
The process took a couple of clicks. They did almost everything for me, and now I have access to both accounts from one place. How’s that for simple? And lazy.
The problem with the “live chat” windows is that they are so poorly executed. I doubt there has been much time or energy spent on training customer associates.
Equally bad in my opinion are the constant pop-up help window. Close the pop-up on the first page and move to look at products/services on the next and it pops up again. I’d like to be able to close it once and be done with it.
I totally agree, Kevin. There is so much room for services to be smarter and learn from our actions as much as what we tell it. Good thoughts.