(really) entrepreneureal

It’s funny how big companies whose business revolves around customer service often fall flat on the issue.  Just take a look at Dustin’s revision of the American Airlines site that got so much traffic, and its clear that even some of our oldest companies are finding it hard to keep up with the changing times.

Turns out that BlueShield has the same problem and my recent ER visit is a case in point.  You would think that the service and insurance providers are experts at making sure that they get paid on time, but this isn’t really true.  Take, for example, my attempts to get new ID cards sent to me: the BlueShield customer portal is actually pretty slick, with a relatively clear layout, but with one major flaw – there is no “Change Address” option!  Speaking of which, there is no “View Current Address” option, either, so I have no idea what information they have on file.

This means that I actually have to call the main number, which I did this morning – to make sure that I actually receive the recent claim that I have pay.  BlueShield has decided to use an automated voice recognition system, which I think is an awful idea, mostly because they are so hard to get right.  Other than sounding patronizing half the time, you’re forced to interrupt the operator with answers to his (and it was a he) questions, which feels unnatural and makes for stilted dialogue.  Anyway, once I’ve gone through a few questions I’m told that my call will be “answered in the order it was received”. But once again, I have no idea how long I have to wait! At least providing a message along the lines of “average wait times are XXX minutes” would help a lot.

Then I make a blunder: I say “ID cards” as a menu selection, which then shunts me over to an automated ID card sender – which is a problem, because they still have the wrong address on file.  With no idea how to go back to the main menu, I hit “0″ and hope for the best.  Luckily, I guessed right, and a nice guy called Jonathan answers the phone about a minute later.  He changes my address in about 2 minutes, which is great, but makes me repeat all the information I used to log in online – this doesn’t really make any sense, but I roll with it anyway.  Jonathan then puts me over to another department to verify my claim, and I’m diverted off into the depths of BlueShield.

Finally, a woman called Michelle picks up, asks me for all of my information (again!), and then asks me what I need. I tell her the story about my address on file being incorrect, my inability to change it online, the nice chat with Jonathan where he changed it for me, and my current chat with Michelle to make sure everything is in order.

Turns out that Michelle’s office isn’t integrated with Jonathan’s, so the recent updated address doesn’t show up on her system.  Further, she has to forward the new address that I give her to “Member Services” to make sure that I get an explanation of benefits.  It seems a little dumb that none of the offices within BlueShield integrated their data and customer management systems.

I say as much to Michelle:

It’s interesting that you guys don’t have integrated accounts, dont’ you think?

To which she replies:

It would be so much easier!

And to top it off, I initially opted in to participate in a customer feedback survey after my call, but as luck would have it, once Michelle signed off the system hung up on me.

BlueShield: listen to your employees and get rid of your crappy system!

Word.

It’s funny how the whole idea of customer/user/consumer feedback is still totally divorced from the average day-to-day interactions of our lives.

We are fully expected to go through our daily lives, living and experiencing unfulfilling and flawed interactions with people, products and services, all without being given an avenue to provide feedback.  Sure, some interactions offer an olive branch – a suggestion box, a 1-800 number, a feedback email buried in the fine print – but most do not, and even then one feels like it’s an afterthought, that companies don’t actually want your input.

Most of the time, however, I don’t feel jipped because a company is trying to pull the wool over my eyes.  I don’t think that the average grocery store goes into business thinking “Thank god we can’t actually get feedback from our shoppers on a regular basis! Let’s bury a suggestion box back near the ice…”, or that a public transit company doesn’t give travelers the chance to let them know that their carpet is dull and dirty, or that the damn beeping noises for every station are too loud; much like Seth Godin says companies should ask our permission for every interaction, companies also need to give themselves permission – make it okay to solicit feedback from us, the customers.

Honestly, if there was some system or service where I could scan my phone or some other device during an interaction – everything from grasping a door handle to buying a coffee – and immediately rate my user experience based on some scale, I think the world would be a much better place.  Even better, imagine a service where users take photos of interactions, and they are uploaded to a Flickr-type system, where users could then describe, rate and provide additional feedback on the interaction; image-identification software would help tag the content, and companies could then seek out user feedback.  Customers get their say, companies get to improve their offering – everybody wins.

But even then, uploading to a service is one too many steps of permission required – what does the future of on-the-spot, specific service agnostic user experience rating look like?