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Thursday, March 18, 2004
Truth betold 
First, don't do surveys. Just read your damn email.
| | Big company Web site user surveys invariably suck. They tend to be too long, to ask the wrong questions, and to be done by outside companies that don't have relationships with users. So I usually don't take them. |
| | HELP US BUILD A BETTER UNITED.COM |
| | As a valued customer, you have been chosen to take a short survey about united.com. We are redesigning our homepage and want to know your thoughts and opinions. |
| | The survey will take about 9 minutes to complete and works best with Internet Explorer. Please disable any popup blockers you may have active. |
| | I shoulda known we'd be in trouble right there. But I'm a highly frequent flyer with United, and there's a lot I hate about their Web site, so I thought, okay, okay... |
| | Here's what I got after hitting the Start button on the survey: |
| | Thank you for your interest in our study. Your opinions are extremely important to us. |
| | However, due to a rapid response rate, this study is now closed. |
| | We look forward to your continued participation in upcoming research studies. |
| | No you don't. (And wtf is a "rapid response rate"? And why should it be a problem?) |
| | - Get rid of the pop-ups, if you have any. (I don't know, 'cuz I block 'em.)
- Test the site and its pages, with every possible browser/OS combination. Last I surveyed a Red Carpet Club, about a third of the laptops weren't running Windows..
- Invite users to help test the site as you improve it. Some of us are interested.
- When a customer says they prefer getting Text rather than HTML mail, and their profile confirms that preference in their Mileage Plus Update Profile page, don't send them HTML mail. That's what I always get. Without exception, the spam filter puts it in the junk folder.
- When the customer profile offers up to three address to which copies of travel reservations should be sent, send copies of the damn reservations.
- Since you provide preferences for flight seating, service class, hotels, car rental agencies, types of cars and other useful information, make those preferences meaningful in the customer's experience. Near as I can tell, none of my preferences makes any difference when I book anything (car rental, hotel, or even United flights) through the UAL.com site. This might help: look into the whole subject of Federated Identity Management. It'll help.
- Test your mailings with various spam filtration systems to see what happens.
- Don't complicate flight information emails with promotional messages
- Don't put more than one promotion for the same damn thing (e.g. your Mileage Plus credit card, of which I already have two) on your home page. Or any page.
- Offer free wi-fi in the Red Carpet Clubs. Customers are already paying a pile just to be there. You don't charge for local phone calls, yogurt, coffee or use of the bathroom. Why charge for wi-fi? Especially when it's free out in the halls and concourses of some of your airport locations?
- For mileage promotions with car rental companies, don't require that the customer print out a form and bring it to the agency's counter in order to get the mileage credit. Half the time the agency doesn't know what to do with the thing. Hey, that's what you've got computers for.
- Have a Suggestions & Feedback email link on every page.
- Read the email you get from those links. If at all possible, respond personally.
- Take your survey money and put it into people who read email.
- Solicit input at the counters. Publish take-away cards with email addresses where customers can send their suggestions and feedback.
- Fix the audio in your older airplanes. And thank the pilots who let passengers listen to the cockpit on Channel 6 or 9. No other airline does that, and some of us do appreciate it.
- Clean the windows.
- Put laptop power connections in your business class seats.
- Look at what Jet Blue does for customers. Copy it.
- Some European carriers have a little flip-out drink holder on the backs of seats by the tray table. They're very useful. Install those.
- Thank you for reading. I know you don't have much choice of customers, and I look forward to flying again with you at least twice a month for the rest of my life, whether I like it or not.
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