Thoughts

Design for a trust

Tomasz Onyszko

Apr 6, 2020 — 2 min read

I see plenty of cases where the company is losing customers. Every single day. They drop them when they don’t have to.

Lot’s of it is because of bad customer experience. I’m not speaking about UX. I’m talking mostly about processes and little things that are designed for the wrong purpose.

Oh, I’m sure those are designed for the purpose. On second thoughts, probably some of them are not. They are just created.

There is one group that caught my eye recently. Processes designed with a lack of trust in mind (or just squeezing a lemon a bit more now).

Example. I have a lease on my car. Every month there is a payment.

My choice. I don’t use automated payments. Various reasons.

Every month I get an invoice, and I cover it. Last month I was skiing (a great trip). The invoice came into my inbox. I saw it, but I missed it on payments.

Happens. That’s on me.

A week later, I got an e-mail. It said: we’ve sent you a mail (yeah, this paper thing coming to your mailbox) with a request for payment. Request for payment in PDF was attached to the e-mail.

I made a payment right away. It was 1 or 2 days after the payment was due.

They got my e-mail. The company knew I got an invoice. The company knew I’m late on the day the payment was due. They could send a reminder:

“Hey, dude. Remember about this car. We care about it too. Check if you have not missed the payment. Have a nice day (yeah, we know you are skiing probably)”.

That would be it.

I know why they have not done it. Later I got another invoice. The company charged me 20$ for this mail they sent me. All according to T&C of the lease.

Am I angry about those 20$? Nope.

What I see is a poorly designed process, NOT DESIGNED FOR TRUST. It is designed to squeeze a bit more on the population of customers.

Will I finish my lease with them. Yes.
Will I be their customer again. No.

Of course, if they will beat others on the market with their offer, I will consider them but not as a first option.

I see it in many places. Things designed with “we don’t trust you” or “we assume you are cheating” assumption. Chance is designed with no assumption at all. Or not designed. Put in place to maximize the current $ churn and not for the long run.

It is easy to lose the customer. Don’t lose them over stupid things.