GUEST POST from Geoffrey A. Moore

Some of you may know that early in my career I taught English at the college level. The freshman writing requirement was always a challenge as textbook publishers struggled valiantly to find some reading material that would actually help students write better. One of their best efforts was an essay titled “How to Write an F Paper.” It turns out we learn better from failure than from success—who knew?

With that thought in mind, and taking liberties with the title of one of my favorite children’s books, I want to review an actual user experience delivered to me by the manufacturer of a luxury automobile. The vehicle itself performs admirably, so kudos to the product engineers. It is the customer experience team that needs to be taken to the woodshed.

Here’s how the experience starts. I get in my car, start it, and back out of my garage, benefiting as always from the rear camera system. The system stays on when I shift into drive until I get onto the road and have gone perhaps fifty yards. At that point, the multimedia display presents the following:

An update is ready for installation on your multimedia system. The following conditions must be agreed to before installation.
(READ NOW) (LATER)

Well, I am driving the car, so I don’t think READ NOW is a very good option. I hit LATER, the screen returns to normal, and I get on with my day. To tell the truth, I forget about the whole experience until the next day when, after backing out of my garage and getting onto the road, I get a replay of the same message. Astoundingly, I am driving my car again, so again I push LATER.

Now, as my spouse will testify, sometimes I am a slow learner, so it is not until the better part of a week has passed that I realize the only time I am going to get this message is the first time I start the car in the morning and have driven around fifty yards. At this point, I decide to pull over and push READ. Here is what I got in reply:

Software update for your infotainment system — In order to read the terms and conditions, please park the vehicle safely, switch off the ignition and apply the parking brake.

Well, as it turns out, the reason I got in my car and drove that first fifty yards is that I actually have someplace I need to get to on time, so the idea of switching off the ignition does not appeal. I go back, push the LATER button (feeling a bit like Neo in the Matrix at this point), sub-vocalize a few choice words for the vendor, and carry on with my day.

I won’t testify as to how many days after I had the same introductory message appear and pushed LATER because you guessed it, I actually had somewhere to go and wanted to arrive there on time. But, one day I had the opportunity to be parking somewhere for a good while, so that day I did not push either button until I got to the lot. (“You can fool some of the people all the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.”) Once parked, I did switch off my ignition and applied the parking brake, and was rewarded with the following messages.

Software update for your installation system

Notes
The installation process requires several minutes and cannot be canceled or closed. Individual functions and buttons in the vehicle are not available for use during the installation or their use is limited. The multimedia display does not support display messages.

In the unlikely event of a technical error during installation, functional restrictions of the multimedia system and the above-mentioned functions may persist and make it necessary to consult a workshop.

This is what happens when you let the legal team review the customer communications text. Fresh from their latest efforts with the Safe Harbor statement from the prior quarter’s earnings call, they are fiercely protecting their enterprise from any and every liability risk. Heartwarming as these words were, they actually felt they were not protection enough because they were followed by:

Warnings

During installation of this update, the multimedia system is not available. In particular, this includes systems such as the navigation system, phone, reversing camera, 360 camera, Active Parking Assist, Remote Parking Assist, PARKTRONIC, and the switch for DYNAMIC SELECT.

There is an increased risk of accident.

Installing the update while operating the vehicle may distract you from the traffic situation.

There is an increased risk of accident.

Carry out the installation

And yes, that last line is a call to action, clearly meant to benefit from the wave of inspiration created by the earlier sentences. My only surprise was that it did not append the phrase “at your own risk.”

Now, to be fair, I did carry out the installation, and it took about seven minutes or so, and it was fine. So again, the product engineers know what they are doing. But where in the name of all that is holy is the customer experience engineering? Who in their right mind would ever want their customers—and remember this is a luxury vehicle with some pretty high-end customers—to go through such an experience? And most importantly, what are the takeaways that will keep us from going down the same path?

Here are three that come to mind:

1. Design the experience. Work backward from the end in mind, making sure each element is contributing to the desired outcome.
2. Test the experience. Make this a real-world test, not a lab test. Recruit vehicle owners to participate. Capture their feedback.
3. Eliminate friction. All hygiene processes entail some amount of friction. In such situations, your job is not to delight your customers here but rather to avoid annoying them. Do so by respecting their time.

In this case, what if the car company had sent me an email first? That could have included all their liability stuff. It also could coach me on when and how to best install the update. Once I replied I had read the stuff, then they could have sent a much simpler message over the multimedia system, or maybe just triggered the download on my behalf when my car was safely in my garage. The point is, there was clearly a better way, and just as clearly, nobody at the car company cared enough to advocate for it.

That’s what I think. What do you think?

Image Credit: Pexels, Geoffrey Moore

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