The one thing where I agree with cable companies about is the risk to consumers accidentally canceling all or multiple services when they intend to just cancel one. It will be hard to explain that a package price will no longer apply if one part of the package is canceled.
However- it can be addressed with a well-designed cancelation instruction screen. This is a constraint to the communication and process design; it is not an insurmountable barrier like the cable companies are suggesting.
I have a feeling they’ll make it difficult to use. Then when people do it accidentally because of they’re shitty UI, they’ll point to that and say, “see?!”
No one will ever be in danger of accidently cancelling everything. The system will be intentionally designed so that you can only cancel one thing at a time, and that will be obtuse as possible. There will be a great risk of thinking you’ve cancelled something when it hasn’t been cancelled, which will only be resolved by calling customer service.
You’ll go through six to eight pages to cancel each item, and when you’ve done that you’ll get a confirmation email that will require you to click on something, log in, and confirm the changes for them to actually apply to your account. If you get the confirmation email and do nothing, your changes will not save.
There will be a slew of angry customers calling customer service, who’s job it will be to give back as little money as possible and retain every customer that calls. That job will be so awful that someone working that job will commit suicide because of it. The cable company will see that and market it as a success to their shareholders, and as an “easy cancel anytime” in advertising.
The one thing where I agree with cable companies about is the risk to consumers accidentally canceling all or multiple services when they intend to just cancel one. It will be hard to explain that a package price will no longer apply if one part of the package is canceled.
However- it can be addressed with a well-designed cancelation instruction screen. This is a constraint to the communication and process design; it is not an insurmountable barrier like the cable companies are suggesting.
I have a feeling they’ll make it difficult to use. Then when people do it accidentally because of they’re shitty UI, they’ll point to that and say, “see?!”
No one will ever be in danger of accidently cancelling everything. The system will be intentionally designed so that you can only cancel one thing at a time, and that will be obtuse as possible. There will be a great risk of thinking you’ve cancelled something when it hasn’t been cancelled, which will only be resolved by calling customer service.
You’ll go through six to eight pages to cancel each item, and when you’ve done that you’ll get a confirmation email that will require you to click on something, log in, and confirm the changes for them to actually apply to your account. If you get the confirmation email and do nothing, your changes will not save.
There will be a slew of angry customers calling customer service, who’s job it will be to give back as little money as possible and retain every customer that calls. That job will be so awful that someone working that job will commit suicide because of it. The cable company will see that and market it as a success to their shareholders, and as an “easy cancel anytime” in advertising.