Some people eat on short-distance trains. Not just snack on short-distance trains – I mean properly eat on short-distance trains. I am defining (without any justification) short-distance trains as those that run for 45 minutes or less.

For some reason it tends to be fast-food that is consumed. I guess the convenience of grabbing a burger and covering travel and dinner at the same time is compelling. For some.

The act of filling up a train carriage with an overwhelming smell is a wonder to behold. Some are able to filter out the smell and concentrate on something else. Sometimes (and I guesstimate it is in a minority of occasions) there are people who smell the food and think – wow, I’m hungry, I will definitely get some fast-food when I arrive.

I see a mix of repulsion, toleration and inspiration.

Let’s look at other instances where this is apparent – take internet advertising for example – from homepage ‘takeovers’ to standard banners.

Some find them repulsive – others tolerate them – a few are inspired to take action.

Actually, you can apply this to anything that invades personal space, and that you had no control over happening to you.

I find it interesting that, as we now live in personal space devices; any non-self-controlled circumstance runs a probability risk in the combination of repulsion, toleration and inspiration. What odds can you determine?

If you are in the business of commercial communication (advertising and marketing), try it yourself.

Grab yourself a greasy, smelly burger and walk onto a packed train in rush hour. Watch for reactions.

Some will hate you, others will put up with it and a few will want it.

If you think that the risk of the haters is worth the love of the few, you are good to go.

If, however, you feel that the advocacy power of the haters and tolerators is perhaps stronger than those who are inspired, you have a problem.

Either way – you are the person with the burger – you are emitting the smell into a carriage of personal experiences – you will suffer the consequences.

I find it comforting that we can make our own fortune in this way.

On the 31st March this year I wrote a quick post about problems opting out of EasyJet’s email system.

I sent the mails to ’spam’ as the process was too long-winded.

Somehow, the mails have now managed to dodge Google Mail’s incredible spam filters and yet again I awake to annoying orange emails again.

So – here is an open letter to EasyJet’s Customer Experience Team. If anyone reading this knows who that is, please do pass this on.

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Dear Customer Experience Team:

I have been having trouble unsubscribing from your database. This is the current process (I am sure you are aware, but as this is an open letter I feel it important for the rest of the world to know precisely how it works):

I receive your emails as below (despite being labeled as spam):

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I navigate to the tiny print at the base of the page:

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The link takes me to this page:

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The password I used doesn’t work so I assume I have forgotten it (actually I haven’t but lets go with that) so I click on the ‘forgotten password’ link. Despite getting to this page from clicking a link inside a personalized email (see first graphic), I re-enter my email address (which again, you can see in the first graphic):

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I click on the send reminder button and this screen appears:

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This is strange as the email I entered was the one you sent the email to..

Now on the right of the screen there is this little information box:

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I note down the code imp02iex and duly head to your ‘help’ section to look for a contact page. Actually, there are two. One which expands to show options, the other which doesn’t. Odd:

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So I click on the ‘help you’ link and I get presented with these options:

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None of these match my need so I use the search box to find anything related to the code you asked me to use. Sadly there are ‘no answers available’:

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I then see the ‘Talk to us’ option – great, surely there is a phone number so I can talk to you (as promised). But sadly no – its an email contact form:

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Now I face a challenge as you previously state my email isn’t registered, despite the fact it is (see first graphic). Nevertheless, I (yet again) enter my email address. In a truly serendipitous moment, the first option under ‘Tell us about your email’ is ‘I want to unsubscribe from newsletters’. This is interesting – I guess this is a popular issue for you.

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So – I then enter a link to this post you are now reading, along with a covering note, in the ‘Your feedback’ box and press submit.

Rather than getting confirmation, I get to a ‘Create a New Account’ screen. This is strange as you would think I ‘had’ an account due to receiving emails sent to my account address (see first graphic), that sadly doesn’t exist (see fifth graphic):

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I fill in the details to create my new account (it is worth remembering at this stage I am still trying to unsubscribe). I then receive this screen:

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There seem to be no suggestions provided for an ‘instant answer’. From re-reading the above, I still am not sure what things I will ‘find helpful’ as this graphic is the entire screen content.

Anyway – I click ‘Finish’ and get the below confirmation:

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Now, it seems, I wait up to 5 business days. Whatever your reply is, I will add it to this post and re-publish it on my blog.

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So here is the deal. The above listed process is 14 steps and what I have achieved is to set up a ‘new’ account with you under and existing account address that you say isn’t recognised, all with the intention of opting out of your emails.

This is the least intuitive, worst user journey I have ever experienced in my life. This is the antithesis of ‘Customer Experience’ and if you really do have a whole ‘Team’ I would recommend you enter an extreme level of education on customer experience, or better still – choose a different career.

For any others reading this email, considering whether to subscribe to your newsletters, I hope that the above gives you an idea of what that entails.

You have lost my custom forever and I truly hope the custom of others too.

Yours sincerely

Jonathan MacDonald

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—–POST UPDATED—-

30 minutes after sending the above, I received the below from the ‘Customer Experience Champion’:

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So I sent this to the Press Office:

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A while ago I wrote about 11 traps that most commentators, companies and/or individuals fall into regularly.

You can read my suggested traps here. Or see below:

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1. Paralysis by analysis trap – discussion at the expense of action

2. The knowing-doing trap – failing to execute the decision despite knowing it needs to be done

3. The ignorance and complacency trap – resulting from a culture of blame, low responsibility, bad delegation and/or poor communication

4. The anchor trap – giving disproportionate weight to the first piece of information received, colouring the remaining data, regardless of its relative importance

5. The status quo trap – maintaining the current situation and not venturing out of our comfort zone

6. The sunk-cost trap – repeating past mistakes

7. The confirming evidence trap – seeking and biasing information to justify an existing decision and to discount opposing information

8. The over-confidence trap – overestimating the accuracy of forecasts

9. The framing trap – when a problem or situation is incorrectly stated

10. The recent event trap – giving undue weight to a recent event (similar to the anchor trap)

11. The prudence trap – being over-cautious and risk averse (similar to the status quo trap)

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This post is aimed at the commentators and the traps they tend to fall into:

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In recent times, many people ask me about Blyk.

They ask for my opinion, my view, my judgement or my prediction for the mobile network I helped create, and that has been under such intense scrutiny over a considerable period of time, often by people who are willing it to fail as it blows apart common thinking on what effective commercial communication is. Change is the arch-enemy of the competent.

So – mainly that I can now direct people to this post, rather than repeating stuff in email/SMS/verbally, here is my opinion, view, judgement or prediction. Delete as appropriate – my top 3 are:

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1. Blyk has fundamentally changed what commercial communication via mobile means. Forever. This isn’t a comment on ‘perfect-ness’ this is a comment on paradigm shifts. Different league. Yes, perhaps harder to comprehend. That doesn’t invalidate reality. Just check out Communities Dominate Brands book by Tomi Ahonen and Alan Moore – the blog and book links of which are here

2. I strongly suggest that commentators separate an infrastructural business model from the market-beating engagement rates/advocacy scores found within Blyk’s permission, preference and profile approach. The advertisers saw return on investment like never before. People loved and trusted the service like never before. By doing so, the real ‘game-changer’ that Blyk is, will shine through – if it doesn’t (in some people’s minds) it will be down to personal bias and those that slam it will miss out on all the fun in the future. Really.

3. The model contains a myriad of complexity that is tremendously difficult to easily replicate and I urge those who look on, to, at least, consider that the mechanisms are more profound than obviously apparent.

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To summarize though, I refer back to my original 11 traps, originally published offline, many years before Blyk existed. The most common traps that commentators on Blyk fall into are: 4, 7, 9 and 10:

4. The anchor trap – giving disproportionate weight to the first piece of information received, colouring the remaining data, regardless of its relative importance

7. The confirming evidence trap – seeking and biasing information to justify an existing decision and to discount opposing information

9. The framing trap – when a problem or situation is incorrectly stated

10. The recent event trap – giving undue weight to a recent event (similar to the anchor trap)

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Interestingly, these 4 traps which many are falling into, cause (at least) traps 1, 2, 3, 5 and 11.

As I said a while ago, disruption quietly grows in the dust clouds of speculation.

Yes – models can improve – but I urge you not underestimate the effect that Blyk has had, and will have, on the communications industry.

Onward and upward.

Today an overlay window opened in Google Mail alerting me to the new drag and drop system for mail (finally it works like Outlook). Click below for details:

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This shot was taken in Tesco on Marylebone High Street yesterday.

Companies spend heaps on getting a brand ‘right’. Heaps on making sure products are correctly placed at sight level. Heaps on creating exact replica stores so one experience is ‘as good as’ another experience.

Companies employ incredibly clever people to come up with incredibly clever strategies to gain market share. Incredibly clever location choices to grow revenue incredibly quickly.

And then, a store manager who is 15 rungs down the ladder from those in Bentley’s, sets up an in-store display by ripping the top off two old boxes and slapping on a price ticket…..and in that moment, the store environment is instantly de-valued to the price of a cardboard box.

Fabulous.

I often speak about the fact that humans are tuned in to a radio station called WiiFM.

No – its not anything to do with Nintendo, it stands for ‘What’s in it For Me’.

Part of my ‘Rules of Engagement‘ is ‘Value of Incentive’ and interestingly, this is quite often the most overlooked and underused mechanic in communication.

I see very little chance of success in any communication that contains no value proposition. There simply has to be a transparent, easy to understand and relevant value of incentive before many will engage.

The above picture of of a poster inside the mens bathroom at The Hospital Club where I often meet clients. In the club that is, very rarely in the toilet..

I looked at the poster for a while and tried to work out why I would follow @thehospitalclub on Twitter.

Because I use Twitter?

Because I like Tweeting?

Erm…no.

What’s in it for me if I follow them?

I imagine one use of Twitter for The Hospital would be to have conversations and feedback from members.

I imagine another would be to communicate new member benefits, film screenings, gigs, happy hours, DJ sets etc.

But no – none of these seem apparent. If you like Twittering and tweeting, you are a prime candidate for following them. No actual value proposition at all.

I wonder how many people will follow them?

Its a wonderful thing..so proud of my boy Nick:

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