Tuesday August 21, 2007

Dollar DVDs & Down-time Design

by Matt Donovan in Article

4 comments

It seems like I’m most in the mood for a movie when I’m in between Netflix shipments. The Rent-A-DVD kiosk at the grocery store appeases my insatiable appetite for fine film without breaking my budget. I exhausted the most interesting titles ages ago, but for $1.08 I can rent Just Like Heaven and/or Reno 911 and still feel (mostly) good about myself in the morning. The DVD kiosk works like a charm, unless of course it’s broken.

Following are nine pain points I encountered trying to return a DVD to a kiosk that was out of commission.

Pain Point 1
I approached the kiosk to find a Windows desktop on the screen. “This kiosk is down for routine maintenance. To return a DVD, please call Rent-A-DVD customer service at 1-800-bla-blah for further assistance.”

Pain Point 2
I had to walk back to the car to get my phone. I hadn’t brought it in with me because I was just running in to return the DVD.

Pain Point 3
Only people returning DVDs were instructed to call this number, but I still had to touch-tone through four or five hoops.

Pain Point 4
When the representative came on the line, I told him I was trying to return a DVD and that the kiosk was down for routine maintenance. He asked for the serial number on the DVD ... and the city and state the kiosk is located in … could I please spell Fredericksburg … is that “b-u-r-g” or “b-e-r-g?”

Pain Point 5
He then asked for my credit card information. At this point I’m starting to think, “doesn’t the kiosk’s computer have all this information stored? Shouldn’t I just be able to drop this DVD off into a secure slot for a store clerk to scan it in later, once the almighty kiosk is done licking itself?”

Pain Point 6
He asked me to write down a confirmation code. “Is it really important?” I asked. “I don’t have a pen or paper.” He told me the number was not for me to keep, but to slip inside the DVD case. Grrr. Back to the car. Rummaged for pen. Found pen. No paper. No napkins. Crap. Back into store. Gleefully ripped a page out of the Rent-A-DVD catalog. “Okay – I’m ready for the number.”

Pain Point 7
After receiving the “confirmation” number, I was asked for my credit card information … again. “Didn’t I just give that to you?” “Yes,” he said, “but I’m no longer looking at that screen.” “Can’t you just bring it back up?” I asked.

Pain Point 8
Once I read my credit card information back to him for the second time, it occurred to me that a good company would eat the $1.08 for the inconvenience they’ve just subjected me to. I mentioned it to the representative and he politely explained that the $1.08 was simply what the machine would have charged me for the movie. Maybe I wasn’t clear – “I don’t think I should have to pay because this was such a pain in the ass.”

No dice. Oh well.

Pain Point 9
Having slipped the number into the case, I was then instructed to drop the DVD into the secure drop box on the back of the kiosk. Unfortunately, the kiosk was sandwiched between a coke machine and lottery-ticket machine. I nudged the lotto machine out of the way just enough to squeeze behind it and return my DVD.

Too few applications work within the framework of a well thought-out user experience. Fewer still are applications that break well.

Whether the kiosk is operational or not, returning a DVD should be as painless as renting one. Here are some things I don’t need in order to Return-A-DVD to an operational kiosk:

1. A cell phone
2. Patience for automated phone systems
3. The ability to speak
4. A writing utensil
5. A scrap of paper
6. The wherewithal to move a coke machine (or a slightly smaller lottery-ticket machine).

I shouldn’t need these things when the kiosk is down either. Instead of making me call a number, write things down, and find the hidden drop box, why not work down-time into the kiosk’s design?

1. Instead of instructing me to call a toll free number and putting me on hold, simply instruct me to return the DVD to the secure drop-box.
2. Show me a picture of what it looks like and where it’s located on the kiosk.
3. For Pete’s sake – make it accessible!
4. Apologize for the inconvenience and (if possible) provide an estimate as to when the kiosk may be back up and running.
5. Encourage me to call the customer service number if I have further questions, but instead of making me write it down, affix a post-it style stack of contact cards to the side of the kiosk.

As the customer, that seems rather painless. The business end shouldn’t be too tricky either.

• If the maintenance is being performed by a person, he should return all the DVD’s in the drop-box with a special code once he’s finished with his work on the kiosk. Since the computer has everyone’s information stored, it should automatically charge credit or debit cards from the time of rental to the time of maintenance.

• If the maintenance is performed by the machine itself, then provide the store with the key and the code. When the machine is done updating, a store clerk can return the DVD’s in the box.

Either way, I don’t really care. All I had to do was drop my DVD in the easy-to-find drop-box and go home.

What parts of your website, application, storefront, or business model could use some down-time design? The broken parts may not seem worth your time or attention, but eventually someone’s going to do it right – and then where will you be?

Comments on “Dollar DVDs & Down-time Design”

1. Todd said:

   The downtime ought to be off of peak hours. Say, just as the store is closing or opening.

2. Omar McFarlane said:

   I’m not sure if the kiosk you used was a Redbox (http://www.redbox.com) one, but I would imagine that a better solution would be for the machine to just queue all the DVDs that were returned during downtime—at which time you are informed that your information would not be updated until the machine was fully functional again.

   Thankfully, my experiences with these kiosks have been good (which I could say the same for the USPS mail stations), but I use them in the middle of the night at my 24 hour market and doubt a customer rep would be available at 3 a.m. to assist me in returning a DVD. The ordeal you went through is definitely a shortsightedness of the system and, sadly, I can only imagine that it will stay that way because it’s probably cheaper to piss off a few customers when it happens than actually improve the overall experience.

3. Matt Donovan said:

   @Todd – I agree, but only if they improved their downtime DVD return process. Like Omar said, I’d hate to be the guy trying to get ahold of a service rep at 3am. I’d also hate to be grocery shopping at 3am, but that’s besides the point.

   @ Omar – That’s one possibility. I tried to account for anything that might be wrong with the machine including mechanical malfunction. One amendment I might want to make to the scenario above would be for the notification to be a physical sign – incase the display is down as well.

4. Kevin Flahaut said:

   I’m sure the downtime could have been better planned, during the off peak hours. It seems that a better, more customer-centric plan would be in order. This makes me think of the Robert Burns quote.. “The best laid schemes of Mice and Men oft go awry, And leave us nothing but grief and pain, For promised joy!”