The idea for this blog has been germinating for a while, but came to fruition during a recent trip to Washington DC. We saw things that made us scratch our head and wonder why, and we saw things that made us admire the way in which they were executed.
We'll keep this first blog short, and avoid some of the big issues that we'll get to soon. Let us share one of the head-scratchers with you...
We planned a lot of our trip using our smart phones. We were able to plan travel routes, investigate tourist spots, look at reviews, and in some cases, buy tickets online. We love the convenience of being able to check in for our flights 24 hours ahead of time, and get a boarding pass sent to our phone. No more paper boarding pass or standing in line at the airport ticket counter - simply show the boarding pass on your phone to security, and you're through.
If the big leviathan-like airlines who so frequently miss out on making customers happy can send QR codes for boarding passes to your phones, then anyone should be able to do it, right?
Wrong!
We wanted to book a night-time trolley tour of DC online. When we went to the site, we were surprised to find that if you booked online, you would need to print out a receipt to bring to check-in, whereas if you called the trolley company directly, you didn't need to bring a printed piece of paper! Where's the sense in that? How about letting me save you money, Mr. Trolley company, by using my time and resources to book online. The you send me an email (with a QR code) that I bring on my phone for check in. You merely have to scan the code (or enter the confirmation number), check my ID, and let me go on my way.
Instead, we booked with a person, and then had to arrive 45 minutes early in order for a sole employee of the tour company to look up our reservation up and print a piece of paper for us to give to the driver. It was a slow process in an unconditioned space, and obviously was designed by someone who never gave any thought to the customers or even to how they could streamline the process to save them money.
With just a little more common sense, the tour company could have had happier customers/referrals, and increased their bottom line.
Apparently common sense was an inconvenience at the time the company came up with this process.
