Iain @ Internet

Much as BA are my much preferred airline, I can’t help but feel that they pushed their luck last week when they were in negotiations over a long-planned strike by their cabin staff.

I was in San Francisco, in theory the strike was not on the day I was due to fly, but about 6 days before my flight I got an e-mail from them saying that my flight had been cancelled and that I should re-book (at no additional cost).

Needless to say, whatever happened to me and my flight from that point on was going to be sub-optimal as I had chosen when to fly in the first place based on when suited me. But not only did I have to change plans, inevitably incurring additional costs and hassle – but from the minute I got their cancellation e-mail I had the feeling that I was being used as a negotiation ploy by BA in their discussions with the unions….if they could show that they had minimised the hassle factor of having people waiting around airports then the impact of the strike was going to be reduced.

Sure enough, as we all pretty much knew would happen – a compromise was reached, the strike was called off, and both sides breathed a sigh of relief. So everyone was happy…..not quite; as ever the hassle to customers was not that high on the priority list.

There are many bad options, but the worst has to be that terrible phrase…. ‘I can only apologise, but………’ .

I’ve just had a dose of that phrase from O2 explaining why my GPRS service had not been working for a week, something to do with an engineer forgetting to do something at their end. So……i’m supposed to do without a service I pay for, spend over an hour tracking down someone prepared to resolve the issue and then another day before the service works again. And i’m supposed to feel better about it because someone ‘can only apologise’. Frankly I think they should do a lot more than that, like pay for my time, give me a credit for the service I did not receive; but no that does not seem to be an option.

Over the years, i’ve had the same wonderful phrase from BT, Scottish Power, British Gas, Apple and no doubt a plenty more i’ve forgotten. Perhaps Siebel or Salesforce.com could build the capability for a service rep to automate the phrase being dropped into a customer conversation at the appropriate time while they move on to the next call> that would save a bit more money…..and why not, it would not make the customer feel much worse than they do when they hear the phrase from a person.

I think this is going to become a bit of a recurring theme on this blog – suppliers designing processes that ‘work’ for them, failing to note (or failing to care) that what they do wastes the time of the individuals they are dealing with. Some do so deliberately (to reduce their costs), others are just not good at designing processes.

One example of the latter…… HMRC (Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs). If your call volumes are so high that you have to ask me to call back then a) don’t make me wait for a load of speel before you tell me that, and b) put more people on duty.

I was thinking of of commenting on how smoothly the acquisition of Holmes Place Gym by Virgin Active has gone……It has, in the main, but today I was not able to sign in to the Edinburgh gym with my new Virgin card – something i’ve done 40 or so times before with my old Holmes Place card.

So – what’s to blame, un-communicated policy change, or bad IS/ IT deployment; my money is on the latter.

…..no i’m not going to rabbit on about XRI, Liberty, SXIP or any of those identity technologies that attempt to enable digital identities with some functionality; this is a far more practical issue that is troubling me.

As i’ve mentioned, i’ve kicked out British Gas, and replaced them with EDF Energy as my gas and electric provider – or at least i’m trying to. The problem is an identity one, namely the identifiers for my gas and electricity meters. In order to make the change, EDF need to know these numbers, and needless to say British Gas are not that interested in giving them to me.

I think i’ve finally got them after much hunting around and several phone calls.

The underlying message – individuals need to have much better access to the unique identifiers required to run supplier relationships, and have somewhere to store them…….i’m working on that!!!!

Here we go again, another leaked proposal from government attempting to justify building a huge great database of personal information. This one is supposedly about ‘improving access for citizens’, that almost takes us back to the old entitlement card proposal – you know, the one before the ‘better statistics one, the better security one.

…I wish they would just come out and be honest with us citizens and say they want to save a lot of money in running the country. On the other hand, that does not sound sexy enough to outweigh the massive increase in privacy invasion that will go along with it.

No doubt this one will rumble around for a few months with lots of posturing and no significant discussion of the actual underlying issues – the cost/ benefit to the individual of data on them being shared across government (and beyond).

Here’s an interesting story – British Gas getting hauled over the coals in the Daily Mirror for introducing a £5 late payment fee.

Actually, they seem to have handed the announcement pretty well, giving plenty of logical explanation. That said, it won’t worry me – I kicked them into touch at the weekend for other reasons and have switched both electricity and gas in our flat to EDF Energy.

The problem I have/ had with BG is that I realised they had over-charged me by some £290, i.e. that was the amount my combined accounts were in credit when I looked. So they had set the direct debit levels at way too high a level. When I asked them to issue a credit they said they could not do so until my next bill was paid to which my response was ‘the next bill won’t be anything like that amount, so can I have my money back?’. Their answer was ‘no’, so to cut a long story short they have been kicked into touch.

I use EDF in another property and they have always seemed very responsive, so the change decision was pretty easy. We’ll see how the changeover process develops over the next few weeks…..

So, it’s been a busy year all round – surprise surprise. Here are my thoughts on how my suppliers have performed over the period.

Separately, i’ve noted a phenomenon that I suspect is common to many of us who use The Internet extensively to source goods, services and knowledge. It relates to the number of supplier I have transacted with; in short the number has gone through the roof – 266 suppliers where I have had one or more transactions that have been recorded by bank or credit card. More details of the review work i’ve been doing on this when I get back to work next week.

My Ten Best Suppliers of 2006

1) Like last year, i’d have Ten UK as my overall most valued supplier. Not quite as good as last year though, the travel service has been outsourced to Wexas and that occassionally does not work as well as the in-house variant.

2) Ocado – at last a grocery delivery service that delivers what you asked for, when you asked for it, does not cry buckets over delivering to the fourth floor of a block, and does not take the opportunity to dump a load of almost outdated stuff on their customers.

3, 4, 5) Seems to be a bit of a theme developing, in that i’ve grouped three suppliers who just do what they are supposed to do, do it consistently well, and don’t waste my time with stacks of marketing messages.

- Flickr, online photos
- Demon, broadband
- Canon, digital camera

6) Starbucks – as last year, they just do what they are good at – although they I did make the mistake of signing up on their web site so get bombarded.

7) LoveFilm – previously ScreenSelect, online DVD rental – the basic service is good, the takeover seems to have gone very smoothly and i’ve yet to have any problems with them.

British Airways – as before, no ground-breaking stuff, just good service and a web site that allows me to do what I want to do quickly, without getting ripped off.

9) Apple – if only because my laptop is now almost 3 years old and has yet to have any problems.

10) Sky – great products, especially the Sky Plus box; let down only by keeping me waiting on the line for 30 mins to re-arrange an installation appointment.

So – all in all, nothing radical happening this year on the positive supplier experiences…..but there must be something in the fact that all a supplier has to do to be seen as performing well is to do what they say they will do in the first place – preferably whilst toning down the frequency of the marketing messages.

And now to the bad experiences.

My Ten Worst Suppliers of 2006

1) Easily holding their top position – Mapfre Insurance Company in Spain. Their deliberate obstructiveness has meant that I have now just given up on the £4k that they owe me – the thought of going through a compliant to the regulator in Spain is just to much hassle. So – they are forever on my black-list (along with Sony), will never see any money from me ever again under any circumstances, and I will take every chance I can to dissuade other people from using them.

2) BT – they may be suffering in their high ranking from the 90 mins I spent on the phone to them yesterday just trying to make my broadband charge appear on my phone, but overall they remain an incredibly silo-ed organisation. I know from behind the scenes discussions that they do actually try to provide a joined up experience for customers……but they have a LONG way to go.

3) Thames Water – Water pressure in central London where we live is deliberately being reduced; so sometimes our pressure drops to a trickle. Apparently they only guarantee water pressure to the front door of a block of flats, not to the individual flats; a bit bizarre given that it is the individual flat that pays the bill. This will probably mean that our block needs to invest in a load of booster pumps – meanwhile, Thames Water mke vast profits and continue to let millions of gallons leak from pipes in London.

…to carry on the utility theme….

4) British Gas – excessive price rises; quick to go up when raw material gas prices go up, and slow to go down when they fall. Plus – crap billing system that sees me being £250 in credit as the standing orders they take are too high. Better that they get the interest on the overcharge than their customers….

5) Iomega – why produce external hard drives as external back ups that regularly fail and have to be returned?

6) Royal Mail – my delivery at home has gone from 8am to 11.30am; i’m not happy about that but I can see why they cannot sustain the earlier one without a big proce rise. My compliant is more around the new pricing policy for bigger mailed items – I have no idea how they rules work, so end up putting on more money than needs be, as i’m sure many others do.

….and now to a mini-banking theme….

7) Barclays – I opened a small business bank account with them in May, and it was shut by October. Incompetence, over-selling, complete lack of interest in knowing their customer other than what could be sold to them.

Unfortunately (as many of my peers have told me), none of the big banks are any good at all in the S of the SME sector.

HSBC – just how long can it take to establish an online merchant services account when they is no credit risk and more than enough money in the account to cover the level of processing. Perhaps having managers who openly express their lack of understanding of The Internet is not a good start point.

9) British Airport Authority – who run Heathrow Airport and the Heathrow Express….enough said.

10) Myserverworld – have gone from saints to sinners over the years through not keeping up with junk mail filtering technology. Their lack of investment means I need to waste more time; i’d rather pay more for the service.

Could do better:

1) Glasgow Rangers – such high hopes for the season, disappearing through some pretty pitiful signings.  David Murray might get a bit of a shock come season ticket renewal time – every year till now he could rely on the ones giving thier tickets up to be replaced from the waiting list; this year I suspect that won’t be an option.

I’m just thinking about my review of the past year, so thought i’d re-post my review from the previous year – which i’ve not yet gotten round to copying over from my previous blog site.

Here’s the 2005 review, we’ll see what’s changed….

Supplier Review of the Year 2005

Ten Best Suppliers to Me in 2005

1) Ten UK, my buyer-centric ‘concierge service’ has to top the list. 95% of the time they do what is asked of them, well, with minimum fuss, and the rest of the time is not far behind – well worth the money.

2) Apple, their computers and dot Mac service continue to improve, Dot Mac in particular with its tight integration of basic stuff like e-mail, back ups, web site publishing etc makes it a service I don’t ever envisage being without.

3) Myserverworld – they host 8 web sites for me; simple to use, good value for money and very rarely any down time.

4) Starbucks, ‘always the same’ I agree, but their coffee, blueberry muffins and wireless internet work for me – from Sydney to Soho Square.

5) Marks and Spencer – consistently good food, even if their portions do shrink mysteriously after a new product/ version is first launched.

6) Hilton – My preferred hotel chain, very consistent – and in Hhonors the best loyalty programme around.

7) Adam Street Club, London – top notch club off The Strand, well geared up for small businesses and not too stuck up – unlike most of their peers.

British Airways – the best fleet around and good web site and loyalty programme – only held back by the weaknesses of Heathrow Airport.

9) Historic Scotland – the main supplier to our wedding, some minor hiccups but you can’t fault the property assets they have to offer.

10) Ridgeback – makers of my new bike, very impressive.

Ten Worst Suppliers to Me in 2005

1) Mapfre Insurance Company – straight in at number one, the insurer of my property in Spain. After a robbery in March 05, we still do not have the claim settled, un-paralleled degrees of in-competence and intransigence; i’ll have a lot more to say about this shambolic crew when I finally get the claim settled.

2) Spanish Builders – continuing the Spanish theme, don’t ever believe a Spanish builder when they give you a timetable.

3) Palm – the Treo 650 smart phone is a great idea, only problem being that it does not really work as a phone; and mine has had to go back for repair twice within 7 months. How did such a ground-breaking company allow themselves to churn out such half-baked products?

4) British Airport Authority (BAA) – i’m sure they try hard, but how come Heathrow Airport just continues to be a painful place to travel through? Far too many times this year i’ve spent 45 minutes or so sitting on the ground waiting for a place to park the plane. Passport queues get worse, food outlets are bland – and all in an airport that I used to regard as the best. That’s what comes from being too successful I suppose…

5) The Heathrow Express – This BAA subsidiary also merits a top ten place – just how many times can the prices go up by far more than the rate of inflation before the government (who paid for the thing in the first place) call a halt!!!

6) Wedding Photographers – Why should a photographer retain the copyright to pictures from my wedding – i’ve no idea but it is a model that has to break down before much longer. Bring on the guests with good digital cameras and save a bit of money!!!

7) John Lewis – another wedding supplier. How many separate deliveries does it take to deliver a complete set of about 100 wedding gifts. I’d never have believed it would take the 10 that it did, or the multiple trips back to the store with damaged or faulty goods.

Property alarm companies – I have experienced two of these this year, both were only interested in winning the business and after the installation don’t want to know. ….You know who you are….

9) Tesco Local – how to make a mess of what till then had been a nice looking street (Marylebone High Street).

10) First Direct – I had £900 stolen through ATM fraud, and for the first 36 hours of the experience I was treated like I was the criminal, and the assumption was that I had given my card/ PIN to someone. So why would I do that then when there was nothing in my long account history to suggest it. I got the money back, some 3 weeks later – but went right off First Direct in the process.

‘Could Do Better’

Here’s some organisations ‘in the middle’ that with a bit of effort might make my top ten.

1) Glasgow Rangers – a nice league win on the last day of the season, but what a down-turn. Sort it out, we’ll have a new manager in the summer please and I big clear out of the players that are simply not up to the job. And you know who you are too……

2) British Gas – why such a mix of great service staff and occasional duffers?

3) PPP – make up your mind, are you just an insurance company or are you actually interested in my health? The former judging by the lack of new health-promoting activity/ offers.

4) BT – what a great brand, what a reliable network, when are you going to do something interesting?