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Lots of comments seem to miss the point of this article. The point being made is to put the concerns of the customer first before yours. I see the opposite ha

Lots of comments seem to miss the point of this article. The point being made is to put the concerns of the customer first before yours. I see the opposite happen all the time in software development. You have two systems that somehow don't talk to each other. Instead of implementing some kind of connector between them, you make the customer log in twice and transfer information between the two systems. In this case, the maker has prioritized their convenience over that of the user. This is the wrong approach. Before someone gets pedantic, obviously, if you have analyzed the costs and decided it makes sense, then go ahead and do you but don't just make default decisions to benefit yourself at the cost to your customer

amoitnga 7y ago
> Lots of comments seem to miss the point of this article. The point being made is to put the concerns of the customer first before yours. Why didn't they just say so.
- adrianmonk 7y ago
  It does say so: "he told me the experience his customers have while visiting him was very important to him and it started when they pulled into the parking lot".
- lloyddobbler 7y ago
  They did - explicitly in the section that starts "Obsessing with Customer’s Experience is a Win." That being said, when writing engaging content, it's usually better to show, rather than just tell. That's also what they did here. Last thing - they wanted to convey the message to as many people as possible. If the article was entitled "Put the concerns of the customer first before yours," virtually no one would read it (and no one on a site like HN, Twitter, or Facebook would click through to it).
  - cloudmanic 7y ago
    Great point! I title was something I considered. I wanted something provocative. (without being click bait)
  - charwalker 7y ago
    That title might even kill it in general as we'd read it, agree, then move on instead of clicking through to read the story.
Thriptic 7y ago
Exactly this. Further, I'd expand on what they are saying to say that the difference between a bad customer experience, good customer experience, and great customer experience typically lies in the little details and goes beyond the core offering. Great customer service orgs take the time to check up on you and make sure you are happy (and have it not be an automated effort), they bend the rules to fit an edge case, they always own mistakes and try to make it right, and they are fundamentally customer focused. Bad orgs treat customers like numbers and hide behind policy and contracts at every opportunity so that they don't actually have to deal with people. For example, I took my girlfriend to a nice hotel for our anniversary last year. When the hotel heard I was having an anniversary, they sent up a very nice hand written congratulatory card, a bottle of prosecco, and a selection of deserts on the house. That couldn't have taken them more than 15 minutes and cost them like 20 dollars, but it is something I will always remember; I will definitely return there in the future; and I recommend that hotel to any friends seeking a nice place to stay. That is great customer service. At a more basic level, I was at a mid tier hotel a few weeks ago and somehow I didn't get the room upgrade I paid for. The management immediately refunded me the difference without complaint and gave me a few drink tickets to use at their bar as an apology. That is good customer service. Contrast those to my experience at my former favorite steak house this year where for the last ten years I had been telling everyone to go. I went there for Valentine's day (had a reservation) and was told I had to wait 30 minutes for a table to open. While I was waiting, I saw multiple couples of the same size come in behind me and get seated. After the 30 minute wait, they tried to seat us at the loud and noisy bar. When I complained, they basically told me tough shit you get what you get. A reservation just guarantees you a table not a good one. I concluded that they were discriminating against us because we are younger than the average clientele there. Not only did I walk out and cost them my business, but I gave them a scathing Yelp review, and now shit talk them at every opportunity. I will never go back even though they were great every other time I was there, and instead always point friends to one of their main competitors when asked my opinion about local steak houses. I do this even though I know the competitor's food isn't as good. They could have given me the table I deserved; they could have comped some drinks or something; but no, they were right and I was wrong and so they lost a loyal customer instead.
- iamaelephant 7y ago
shermozle 7y ago
And yet everyone cites Amazon as the gold standard. Have you tried to use their disconnected, inconsistent, terrible user interfaces? It's like you're talking to a completely different company switching between departments of the same store.
- nine_k 7y ago
  The thing is that Amazon is emphatically not a small business. Amazon's customers are a pretty captive audience, and have to put up with what they got. Same with other giants / monopolies; this is why monopolies are bad for customers.
  - esyir 7y ago
    You'd say that, but the competition is worse. I put up with Amazon's issues because the competition, well, they don't quite compete.
- netsharc 7y ago
  "Get this item tomorrow and without shipping costs when you join Prime! Free for 1 year! Click this big button to join Prime! Or click this tiny link to go to the 'Are you sure you don't want Prime?' page interrupting your checkout process!"
  - MrMember 7y ago
    A while ago I started getting advertisements for Prime for Students interrupting every checkout. I graduated nearly a decade ago. Though I did recently start grad school and I did in fact sign up for Prime so maybe Amazon knew before I did.
- Kaiyou 7y ago
  True, but they're miles ahead of the "competition", thus they are the gold standard.
- playpause 7y ago
  I've never heard anyone cite Amazon as the gold standard of user interfaces.
flukus 7y ago
> I see the opposite happen all the time in software development. The software development world is plagued with the idea that developer productivity and happiness comes before all other considerations. Can you imagine a car manufacturer building something that get's 2 mpg but excusing it with "but it was quicker to build"? Yet we have electron.
- aquadrop 7y ago
  If it's 2 mpg but despite this gets wildly used it means it was right decision.
  - homonculus1 7y ago
    Crack gets wildly used. There are other considerations to be made.
    - brokenmachine 7y ago
      Crack is a very good product from the perspective of the producer/vendor.
      - homonculus1 7y ago
        SV in a nutshell, folks.
- bbatha 7y ago
  “Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black.” — Henry Ford Meet the customers basic requirements and you compete on price first 9 times out of ten. Look at the airline industry, prices have steadily declined since deregulation and creature comforts right along with them. If Americans could buy standing room only tickets they would in droves.
  - bluGill 7y ago
    Things are more complex than that. People will pay for a standing room only flight because the cost is so high. If I could fly standing room for $5 instead of $150 I'd be more interested in paying $20 a seat.
Sir_Cmpwn 7y ago
Your example isn't even the worst. How about proprietary web services which can import your data, but not export it?
triggercut 7y ago
Exactly, how do you remove impediments for the customer along their journey. Ideally once they have made their decision, they should have a front park, have the car door opened for them, and be carried at speed towards the counter for pickup whilst their order is being taken. Every moment for pause is a opportunity for them to leave the path.
blue_devil 7y ago
Point well taken. However, don't underestimate that the majority of people will often gravitate towards the most marketed thing, not the best designed (usable) thing. I'm amazed at people's tolerance threshold nowadays for software that's mind-bogglingly difficult to use. I find that technology has overall become less usable, less well-designed, more bloated, and more stuffed with eye-candy.
- GnarfGnarf 7y ago
  You are correct. And the cause is that it costs money to design good interfaces. Most people don't understand the value of craftsmanship, and are not willing to pay for it. You don't get what you don't pay for.

amoitnga 7y ago

> Lots of comments seem to miss the point of this article. The point being made is to put the concerns of the customer first before yours. Why didn't they just say so.

adrianmonk 7y ago
It does say so: "he told me the experience his customers have while visiting him was very important to him and it started when they pulled into the parking lot".
lloyddobbler 7y ago
They did - explicitly in the section that starts "Obsessing with Customer’s Experience is a Win." That being said, when writing engaging content, it's usually better to show, rather than just tell. That's also what they did here. Last thing - they wanted to convey the message to as many people as possible. If the article was entitled "Put the concerns of the customer first before yours," virtually no one would read it (and no one on a site like HN, Twitter, or Facebook would click through to it).
- cloudmanic 7y ago
  Great point! I title was something I considered. I wanted something provocative. (without being click bait)
- charwalker 7y ago
  That title might even kill it in general as we'd read it, agree, then move on instead of clicking through to read the story.

Thriptic 7y ago

Exactly this. Further, I'd expand on what they are saying to say that the difference between a bad customer experience, good customer experience, and great customer experience typically lies in the little details and goes beyond the core offering. Great customer service orgs take the time to check up on you and make sure you are happy (and have it not be an automated effort), they bend the rules to fit an edge case, they always own mistakes and try to make it right, and they are fundamentally customer focused. Bad orgs treat customers like numbers and hide behind policy and contracts at every opportunity so that they don't actually have to deal with people. For example, I took my girlfriend to a nice hotel for our anniversary last year. When the hotel heard I was having an anniversary, they sent up a very nice hand written congratulatory card, a bottle of prosecco, and a selection of deserts on the house. That couldn't have taken them more than 15 minutes and cost them like 20 dollars, but it is something I will always remember; I will definitely return there in the future; and I recommend that hotel to any friends seeking a nice place to stay. That is great customer service. At a more basic level, I was at a mid tier hotel a few weeks ago and somehow I didn't get the room upgrade I paid for. The management immediately refunded me the difference without complaint and gave me a few drink tickets to use at their bar as an apology. That is good customer service. Contrast those to my experience at my former favorite steak house this year where for the last ten years I had been telling everyone to go. I went there for Valentine's day (had a reservation) and was told I had to wait 30 minutes for a table to open. While I was waiting, I saw multiple couples of the same size come in behind me and get seated. After the 30 minute wait, they tried to seat us at the loud and noisy bar. When I complained, they basically told me tough shit you get what you get. A reservation just guarantees you a table not a good one. I concluded that they were discriminating against us because we are younger than the average clientele there. Not only did I walk out and cost them my business, but I gave them a scathing Yelp review, and now shit talk them at every opportunity. I will never go back even though they were great every other time I was there, and instead always point friends to one of their main competitors when asked my opinion about local steak houses. I do this even though I know the competitor's food isn't as good. They could have given me the table I deserved; they could have comped some drinks or something; but no, they were right and I was wrong and so they lost a loyal customer instead.

iamaelephant 7y ago

shermozle 7y ago

And yet everyone cites Amazon as the gold standard. Have you tried to use their disconnected, inconsistent, terrible user interfaces? It's like you're talking to a completely different company switching between departments of the same store.

nine_k 7y ago
The thing is that Amazon is emphatically not a small business. Amazon's customers are a pretty captive audience, and have to put up with what they got. Same with other giants / monopolies; this is why monopolies are bad for customers.
- esyir 7y ago
  You'd say that, but the competition is worse. I put up with Amazon's issues because the competition, well, they don't quite compete.
netsharc 7y ago
"Get this item tomorrow and without shipping costs when you join Prime! Free for 1 year! Click this big button to join Prime! Or click this tiny link to go to the 'Are you sure you don't want Prime?' page interrupting your checkout process!"
- MrMember 7y ago
  A while ago I started getting advertisements for Prime for Students interrupting every checkout. I graduated nearly a decade ago. Though I did recently start grad school and I did in fact sign up for Prime so maybe Amazon knew before I did.
Kaiyou 7y ago
True, but they're miles ahead of the "competition", thus they are the gold standard.
playpause 7y ago
I've never heard anyone cite Amazon as the gold standard of user interfaces.

flukus 7y ago

> I see the opposite happen all the time in software development. The software development world is plagued with the idea that developer productivity and happiness comes before all other considerations. Can you imagine a car manufacturer building something that get's 2 mpg but excusing it with "but it was quicker to build"? Yet we have electron.

aquadrop 7y ago
If it's 2 mpg but despite this gets wildly used it means it was right decision.
- homonculus1 7y ago
  Crack gets wildly used. There are other considerations to be made.
  - brokenmachine 7y ago
    Crack is a very good product from the perspective of the producer/vendor.
    - homonculus1 7y ago
      SV in a nutshell, folks.
bbatha 7y ago
“Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black.” — Henry Ford Meet the customers basic requirements and you compete on price first 9 times out of ten. Look at the airline industry, prices have steadily declined since deregulation and creature comforts right along with them. If Americans could buy standing room only tickets they would in droves.
- bluGill 7y ago
  Things are more complex than that. People will pay for a standing room only flight because the cost is so high. If I could fly standing room for $5 instead of $150 I'd be more interested in paying $20 a seat.

Sir_Cmpwn 7y ago

Your example isn't even the worst. How about proprietary web services which can import your data, but not export it?

triggercut 7y ago

Exactly, how do you remove impediments for the customer along their journey. Ideally once they have made their decision, they should have a front park, have the car door opened for them, and be carried at speed towards the counter for pickup whilst their order is being taken. Every moment for pause is a opportunity for them to leave the path.

blue_devil 7y ago

Point well taken. However, don't underestimate that the majority of people will often gravitate towards the most marketed thing, not the best designed (usable) thing. I'm amazed at people's tolerance threshold nowadays for software that's mind-bogglingly difficult to use. I find that technology has overall become less usable, less well-designed, more bloated, and more stuffed with eye-candy.

GnarfGnarf 7y ago
You are correct. And the cause is that it costs money to design good interfaces. Most people don't understand the value of craftsmanship, and are not willing to pay for it. You don't get what you don't pay for.