One of the things that we user experience professionals do as part of our modus operandi is to examine processes. Namely, the tasks needed to complete a goal, for example, the number of steps involved in completing an online purchase.

Our aim is to make any process as simple as possible. This has a benefit to the user and a benefit to the business. For the user it means that they can achieve their goal (e.g. buying a book) quickly and easily, and for the business is means happier customers and more successfully completed transactions (the less steps it takes to buy your book, the more likely you are to complete the checkout process).

This is something that many websites have researched and improved, and most successful eCommerce sites have streamlined checkouts. This is not something, however, that seems to have translated to traditional bricks and mortar businesses, which was highlighted to be spectacularly on two occasions recently!

The Broken Boiler Repair Process

Our boiler gave up the ghost between Christmas and the New Year, so we called the gas company and they sent out an engineer. He came and here is the process that he undertook:

1. he looked at out boiler,
2. tinkered with a few things,
3. looked up the model on his computer,
4. told us that 1 of 3 things was causing the problem,
5. said that he would have to order the part,
6. told us that he’d be back in a couple of days with the part.

2 cold days later he returned with a part. He installed it, and the boiler still didn’t work. He said he’d need to order another part and come back in 2 days.

Frustrated and Screaming2 colder days later he returned with the second part. He installed it, and the boiler still didn’t work. Once again he told us that he’d need to order a part and would be back in 2 days. 2 frozen days later he was back, fitted the part and returned our home to a more temperate climate.

It’s obvious that the process here is broken. It required 4 visits to fix an issue which could have been resolved with 2 visits. Instead of ordering just one part after the initial visit, he should have ordered all three (which may have fixed the problem) and tried them on his second visit.

This would have had a two-fold benefit. To us, as the users, our problem would have been fixed in a fraction of the time, leaving us with a warm an fuzzy feeling inside and out! To the Gas company, they would have had a visit-to-resolution ration of 2:1, instead of 4:1 – freeing up resource to assign to other customer faults.

Simple you’d think! Something that the leaner and more agile online businesses excel at and profit from.

Registering for the Dentist

I recently moved town, out of London and into the suburbs. I wanted to visit the dentist and called one locally to make an appointment. I was told that before I could make an appointment that I’d need to register. I was told to do that I’d need to come into the surgery.

Here’s the process that I was made to go through:

1. I went into the surgery,
2. filled out 2 very short forms,
3. stood there as the receptionist typed what I had written into the computer system,
4. was given an appointment.

Here’s another wasteful process. I can understand the need to register before being given an appointment – it reduces people making appointments and never turning up (having no incentive to do so, as the dentist has none of their details). However, forcing people to attend for a redundant task like filling out a form is wasteful and will cause nothing more that user ire.

So, what can be done to improve this process? Well, allow users to register online – this could be done with something as simple as form-to-mail. The receptionist could read the email, enter the details in the system and send a reply saying something like this:

Dear Alex,

You have now been registered with us, please contact us to make an appointment

Your sincerely,

Orin Scrivello, DDS

I can then make an appointment and the only time I need to take time out of my schedule is to attend for dental treatment. The user/customer is happy as they have registered quickly and easily, and the dentist is happy as s/he will get more customers as the barrier to registration is lower and staff spends less time on registration and more time on other things.

It amazes me that these principles of simplifying the user experience seems to have not yet caught on fully in traditional business models.