If you’ve ever had Economics 101, and even if you haven’t, you’ve probably heard about this ‘puzzle’ of sorts:

You and a stranger are offered 10 dollars. In order to receive it, you must propose a way to divide up this 10 dollars between you and the stranger. If the stranger rejects your division proposal, neither of you gets anything, otherwise it is divided as you directed. You won’t meet this stranger again and this game is only played once. What division do you propose?

Economists use this to explain the concept of economic rationality. Rationally speaking, the economically correct division is 9.99 for you, and 0.01 for the stranger. The stranger, if economically rational, will accept, because 1 cent is more than 0 cents. And thus, as you are also economically rational, you want to maximize your gains, so that’s what you propose.

These same economists will call Radiohead’s offering of their new album, In Rainbows, for ‘free’ (pay whatever you think it’s worth, including nothing), a sucker’s proposal. Clearly everyone would pay nothing — you get the same album regardless of how much you pay. And yet Radiohead is reported to have made to the tune of 10 million USD inside of a month. This wasn’t even expected; Radiohead’s bold move to release the album in this way was designed primarily to sell out concerts (which it has, all 21 of them). One might claim listeners are paying to ensure Radiohead will continue to make music, but Radiohead is not the kind of group that is pressed for cash, and I think they’ll keep making music even if they had to pay to do so. Thus, a rational economic human being truly has absolutely no reason to pay for this album.

So, how’s it work then? Are there are 10 million USD’s worth of idiots on this planet?

No. Human decency is simply an effective motivator. These album sales aren’t the first time the economists were wrong about humanity’s willingness to pay money just to be fair, instead of to optimize personal gain.

Reports that record labels are reconsidering this model abound, but I don’t think the record industry can afford it: This distribution model doesn’t NEED a record label. You can just record your complete song someplace, and pay some serious hosting provider to take care of distribution, and that’s all you need to do. Costs of renting studio time and bandwidth bills don’t amount to enough to require the vast pockets of a record label. The record industry’s clout with the radio can still help launch a successful music career. However, I don’t know about you, but I never listen to radio anymore. I might have a look at the iTunes top 100 from time to time, and I check Last.fm for song suggestions.

And thus we’ve come full circle, because in a world where music is distributed on a ‘pay what you think is fair’ model, with distributed recommendation engines, is economically far more efficient. It cuts out large swathes of middle men. Giving radiohead 10 million dollars was a smart move after all!

I have been fed up with customer support for ages, just like many other people. I am amazed by the amount of companies that claim to have the best call centers, but when you call them they are just as sad as any others. I have been thinking for a while about what can be done and I have come up with 8 free and fairly commonsense ideas that will make any call center a lot better. Here they are in no particular order.

1. Tell the Truth (a.k.a. Don’t Lie)Although I just said no particular order, I do think this is probably the most important one. I have been lied to so often for numerous reasons. The most obvious one, and maybe the hardest to prove, is when the operator knows if something is in stock or not but lies about it for the sake of the sale/repair. The same problem relates to repair or delivery times: don’t lie if you know it will take 3 weeks, because sometimes people rely on these kind of facts.

This issue relates to planning on the customer side, and that brings me to the next point.

2. Keep me Informed

If you tell me something will take 1 week, and you know it is going to take more time after a few days, than tell me as soon as you know. Most customer support will only inform you after the promised period passes, which gets the customers angry.

We, the customers, are counting on certain promises and if we know a promise can’t be kept, we need to find a new solution as soon as possible. The earlier you tell us, the sooner we can respond. I actually won’t get angry about this kind of honesty, as it gives me time to prepare and make arrangements. Keeping me out of the loop just pisses me of.

3. Tell the Whole Truth

This point is a bit of a double, as it kind of touches the surface of tips #1 and #2, as with keeping me informed and telling the truth comes the responsibility to tell me everything. It won’t be the first time that an operator insures me in an informal way that everything will be OK, only to be told the complete opposite a few days later when I talk to a different operator.

In other words, don’t obscure the truth with weak promises and mumbo jumbo talk if you know better. It again comes down to us, the customers, having to plan our life around your procedures.

4. Remember Who I Am

Ok, so this is really about phone operators. Most of the time when I call a support line I end up with the wrong operator (see tip #5 for why this is). After explaining my long problem to the operator I tend to be redirected to another operator, which most of the times doesn’t seem to know who I am, what I want or that I have been redirected.

The first and second problems are “expectable”, but the last one is really ridiculous. How hard is it to have some system (I know that all these helpdesks have very complex systems running already) that know that I just spoke to Operator X, and that I have been redirected because of an issue surrounding Item Y? This should be so easy to implement and really removes the stress of the customers, and even gives a more personal experience.

5. Replace the Computerized Menu (with a Receptionist)

I think it happens to most people that when they call a number and get a computer menu, they just don’t seem to get to the menu they are looking for. Not only is this bad design by the makers of these systems, but it also leads to groups of people that either just do something, or people that go for the “press 9 to speak with a real person”-option. This is why I tend to end up it with the wrong operator and have to explain things over and over to the next operator.

I had a far better experience a while back when I called a company that had a real person pick up the phone, ask you for your intentions and then throw you in a queue that fitted the issue. This made so much more sense, as it saved me and the company time. In addition it also felt more personal, as I knew for sure I was in the right queue and in good hands. I think I was even less eager to hang up if the queue happened to be long.

6. Call me Back

British Telecom recently showed me that there is a better way to handle long phone queues, by having the option to be called back after pressing a simple code. This really made it less tiring to wait. I did still have to wait an hour before they called me back, and after that I even ended up in another queue, but at least this time it was on their costs.

In The Netherlands a minister recently wanted to introduce a law that people only pay phone costs for conversations, not queues. This is technically a bit difficult to accomplish, but a call-back policy would do just fine too.

7. Don’t be Afraid of a Smart Customer

I am a Mac user, as are the other FourStarters authors, and I know from experience that every time you call some kind of IT involved helpdesk and mention this fact, they totally stress out. A while back I called the Orange support line for my router, and after a few steps through their routine the operator wanted me to do something Windows only. I asked her what she wanted me to do, so that I could copy the process on my Mac (she wanted me to do an “ifconfig” command). On the word “Mac” she totally stressed out and dropped all responsibility and before I could say a word I was in a queue for Mac users.

The point here is that I happened to have a lot of knowledge in the area that I was calling about, and that is probably why I am even on a Mac. In other words: I was a smart customer that should have been handled with a different approach than a John Doe that just ordered his first internet connection. This goes with non-computer-related topics too as my father, who is a car technician, has the same problem when he calls a car company with some questions. In the end we are probably the easiest users to help, so don’t be afraid of us.

8. Take Responsibility

My last tip is a bit general, and affects many areas. Responsibility is an important issue to me and I want a company that I buy things from to have a lot of it. One example of where this often goes wrong is the example I mentioned in tip #7 where the operator used the “not my responsibility”-argument to throw me in a queue to another operator as soon as she could. It is just so easy to throw a customer from one operator to the other, but it doesn’t help the experience for the customer.

This also goes for inter-company issues, as when I buy a product at company A I would never like to be referred to a different company for my issues. A good (or is it bad) example are shops that tend to refer to the manufacturer for all your problems, making it unclear for the client what he needs for his guarantee, and increasing the amount of calls that have to be made. Not to mention the amount of throwing around between two companies that people have to endure.

When I buy a product or a service at a company, I buy it with them because I trust in them to take care of me. For any service I hope to be served through them, and with some proper respect. Again, it is just so easy to send a customer from one helpdesk to the other, but it doesn’t help the experience for the customer.

Conclusions

In the end I think we can conclude from my tips that it isn’t always all about reaching a goal, but also about the process. It is good if a helpdesk has a 99% success rate for solving everyone’s problems, but it has little meaning if it takes the customer through hell and back before they get there. The customer will probably even be nicer to the operator if the experience was pleasant.

I hope this will help some helpdesk-managers or technicians come up with some proposals, as I really feel that a lot can be done to remove all these frustrations.

This weekend I got a Sony Vaio which came with a pre-installed version of Windows Vista Home Edition. Windows Media Center is part of it, so I took it for a spin. I’m not a big fan of Windows Vista, but I must admit: the Media Center interface is not bad at all. Recording your favorite TV show and showing off your holiday pictures is quite easy.

However, people don’t buy a Media Center to enjoy the interface. According to Microsoft, people buy such equipment because they want an enhanced entertainment experience. A friend of mine who actually owns a Media Center agreed with that.

Yet this very same friend has spend days - if not weeks - installing and maintaining his Media Center. Over the last months he had issues with its sound card, hard disk, network connections and so on (it’s not even home made - it’s a proper Acer Media Center). As if this is not inconvenient enough already, he also has to deal with a buzzing machine in his living room whenever he wishes to watch TV, play music or see holiday pictures. All together that’s not exactly my idea of an enhanced entertainment experience.

Even if it would work flawlessly, I still don’t get it. The simple fact that I have to turn on a Media Center - which takes forever, a receiver and a TV to just listen to music doesn’t appeal to me at all. Considering that a decent Media Center setup will set you back several thousands of Euro’s, I’m wondering: what’s Windows Media Center’s right to exist?

Yesterday I buckled down and got a new cell phone subscription. I have been a loyal customer of T-mobile for the past seven years. The only effect this loyalty has had was to give them an effective carte blanche to screw me over. Their philosophy probably is that if your customer is too lazy to switch, you’ve got to incentivize them.

I identified Orange as being a lesser evil and took the cheapest one year plan from them I could get. I’ll pay €7,50/month which will be effectively doubled and all my actions will be substracted from that €15.

The customer service at the orange shop was of course dismal. This wasn’t in their flagship store but in their tiny retail outlet in Delft city centre.
They had no clue what HSDPA is and couldn’t tell me if and when Orange is planning to roll it out (Orange hasn’t released anything about this yet). They also couldn’t inform me about the availability of the Nokia N95.

I never want to be tied to a mobile operator for longer than a year. Usually I forget to cancel on time because every operator imposes a three month cancellation period so that means I’m stuck longer. They do everything to tie you down and squeeze the most possible money from you.
This time I am going to cancel my plan immediately. It would be nice if they would have offered that service in the shop.

My 3310 —proclaimed by some to be the greatest phone ever made— is not really cutting it anymore in this age of GMail apps and Jaiku presence. This means I’m looking to get a new phone.

N95

The N95 though very expensive looks like the mobile phone to get (look at the review on YouTube). But reading the review at GigaOM shows that it is everything but that battery life isn’t.

Builtin WiFi is nice to escape data costs when you are at home and at work. But the things I would be going for mostly are the excellent photo/video capabilities and the media features.
I’m looking for a pocket camera and combining it with a cell phone would seem to be the best utilization of pocket space. For unobtrusive shooting and shooting e.g. while sporting or going out a 1kg DSLR is too obtrusive. The N95’s GPS would mean that pictures could be automatically geotagged. It does all this and more.

The N95 is simply too expensive and the next runnerup candidate is the N73.

Rabo Mobiel

The other thing I had been considering is to take a mobile plan from Dutch bank the Rabobank called Rabo Mobiel. Rabobank has recently been offering very affordable mobile plans to its customers with the promise of digital mobile payment options for the future.

Payment possibilities here in the Netherlands are in the dark ages compared to the far east or even with the Nordic countries. I’m guessing that uptake will take a while but Rabobank are trying to get people on board with very competitive pricing (appealing to the Dutch) and a very well done advertising campaign.

This offering is cost efficient, sympathethic and promises to bring you to the future of payment. Still I didn’t take it because seeing is believing and switching banks is nontrivial.

See the introductory ad: