I’ve discussed many things that annoy me from technology shortcomings, bad service and rudeness in business but today I’d like to look at someone else’s list of annoyances. Choice has aggregated a list of the top 32 things that annoy people the most. Like all lists this list is best discussed over a beer at the bar but we need to start somewhere so in rough sequential order I have picked out ones that interest me from the worst to the still bad.
1. Hidden fees and costs – this relates to the many financial institutions taking advantage of the consumer ignorance of contracts and legalese. Wouldn’t it be great if they took a leaf out of the Low Cost Carrier book and peeled back the onion of fees and made them all as obvious as paying for a meal or extra legroom on a plane?
3. Being on hold and not getting real people on the phone – What have companies got to lose, except customers? They should all take note of someone like Zappos and mirror their service mentality on companies that enjoy the customer relationship.
7. Door to door salespeople and telemarketers – I thought it was only Mormons who still did the door to door thing? The intrusion of telemarketers goes past the line of permission to interrupt and sell you things at the most inopportune times. Seth Godin has probably the best set of books and articles on permission marketing and the advantages of having your customers come to you. Check it out.
10. Nonchalant customer service – Captain bloody obvious and I don’t see how so many companies have forgotten the GFC so quickly. The Commonwealth Bank estimates it is 8 X the cost to replace a customer than to retain one. That’s easy maths in anyone’s language.
11. Erroneous bills – is this deliberate, as this annoyance keeps creeping up the list? Willful premeditated or just lazy data entry. Either way it’s enough reason to leave suppliers and look for alternatives. Again with the 8 X model.
15. Spam email – 90% of all emails sent globally are spam. With 247 billion emails sent daily, consider how much more efficiently your systems would run if they didn’t have to contend with that mountain of rubbish flying through your servers? Is it time to call someone like Symantec and have them take an electronic broom to your inbox?
18. Long queues at checkout lines – It bugs me too and I don’t know if supermarkets shouldn’t be shaped like a triangle with the pointy end at the deli and the fat end with endless checkouts? Is it a broken model? I’d like to add my own personal annoyance to this thinking and grizzle about the taxi lines at the airport. Under the taxi Nazi people are herded like sheep in ski lines. If there are 50 cabs and 50 people, I’m sure we can get ourselves organised and into those cabs in half the time it takes to wait for the official in orange to bequeath us a cab.
20. Poor service from airlines – how did this one end up so low on the list below number 4 tailgating and number 8 people coughing and not covering their mouth? Have we become so used to the bad service that it is now ubiquitous with airlines? No wonder Richard Branson keeps acquiring new customers.
29. Crying babies on planes – having already commented on this in a recent blog, it may be getting enough impetus for airlines to start thinking about family and single/couple aircraft.
30. Programming new electronic products – I have to believe this is only on the list for people who don’t know anyone under 15 years. After all the DNA of the iGeneration gives it special powers to not require manuals and intuitively work any electronic item built in the last 5 years.
32. Inaccurate weather forecasts – Huh? Is this from people without windows in their houses?
Interestingly, the majority of the annoyances on the list could be resolved with an increase in the level of customer service, engaging customers in a long term business relationship and listening to Tom Peters when he tells us the soft things ( decency, thoughtfulness, kindness, integrity, respect, appreciation, courtesy, listening ) are the new hard things.
For the full list go to Choice and see if what annoys you most, made it. http://bit.ly/ducuOc
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