I have been a long time supporter of the mighty Bombers and this year, have staunchly defended them in the BrandHook offices.  So, this somewhat attacking blog, written by me, should come as a surprise to my fellow colleagues and while it will give them more ammunition to attack the Bombers, I felt it important to share since the role of simplicity is a hot topic in the office.

This blog was meant to be about the creation of a new C-Suite – the Chief Officer of Simplicity – a position designed to ensure that simplicity was at the heart of each customer experience.  This was borne from my frustration within IKEA where after successfully negotiating the maze that is their store, I found a staff member who informed my that the office desk wasn’t in fact available at the Richmond store (although the website said it was) and then proceeded to tell me that despite the fact I was going to pay for delivery, I would have to go to the Springvale store, pick up the table, wheel it 2 metres to the delivery counter and organize them to deliver to BrandHook HQ.  Where’s the simplicity in that experience?  Yes, some people like the store experience – I don’t but can get over that.  What I still can’t fathom, is why there wasn’t the simple process to assist me rather than getting me to repeat the entire process at Springvale.  Surely a single phone call between stores and me providing delivery and credit card details would have been simple? Why make it difficult when all I want to do is spend money with your brand.

We have just created the Net Simplicity Score™ for a new fashion client.  Basically we are measuring the ease and simplicity of doing business with that brand.

BT introduced something similar in the UK.  They have added this metric to their tracking with the Managing Director stating quite simply “If you make it easier for our customers day in, day out, we can be number one for customer service”.  Literally, it’s an easy measure that brings the customer and the customer experience into the boardroom.

So back to the Bombers.  They certainly made it easy for me to renew my membership, which I intended to do.  So I clicked the clicked the link to review the package and up came the TOTAL INVOICE AMOUNT with the PAY NOW option – again – really easy.  It was only when I wanted to look at what the total amount actually got me that I noticed included in my Tax Invoice was OPTIONAL donation towards new club facility for $60.  If it’s OPTIONAL (their capitals, not mine), why is it hidden and selected already?  Certainly not easy and bordering on deceitful as wanting simplicity in a renewal process, more times than less, I would have simply clicked the PAY NOW.  Could you imagine if Caroline Wilson was a Bombers member.

How do I wrap this all up?  First, I will renew my Bombers membership (#standbyhird) but any goodwill or intention to help with the new club facility is well and truly gone based on my customer experience.  There’s simplicity and there’s putting the customer first and there’s a disconnect between those objectives in the current experience.  It’s also shown a light on the fact that no one really knows what simplicity means and how to incorporate it into the customer experience.  We would recommend starting by asking or immersing yourself in the customers world and then building the journey with them but what do we know … we are still at the Richmond IKEA wondering how to get out.