#197: From my unlocked diaries: Solving the empty toothpaste box problem !

I logged into ICICI Bank Internet Banking website recently to make an electronic payment.? I selected the payee, entered the amount and clicked on IMPS mode of payment.? As expected it prompted for the OTP (One Time Password), which I promptly entered.? And the next screen was the dreaded step of entering those ‘grid numbers’ from the back of my debit card against randomly chosen alphabets.

This is the step that I dread the most as a customer of ICICI Bank. ??One, because of my poor eyesight, I find it so hard to read the grid numbers without my specs.? The second reason, and the most frustrating one, is the trial & error method that I go through entering these grid numbers onto the payment screen.? You are wondering why … ? ?As the alphabets above the grids on the payment screen are too close, I have a hard time clearly reading them.? For example, the letter ‘L’ looks like ‘I’ as the lower part of the alphabet is too close, just above the grid box on the entry screen.?

I am sure those who have trouble with their eyesight must have encountered similar problems…?

For many years, whenever I was at this step, I always thought with some level of frustration about the person who designed this particular screen and wrote the software code for it - why can’t they just make it simple by providing a clear gap between the alphabets and the grid numbers, so that it is clearly visible, to avoid all the trial & error hoops that users like me go through…? In fact many a times my debit card grid has been locked due to incorrect number entry, and I had to make calls to the calls center to get it activated. I am sure all this not only leads to additional 'cost of servicing' for ICICI Bank, leave alone the customer dissatisfaction around fund transfer transactions.

It is such a small fix, why don’t they get it right - I have often wondered… ?? If done right, it can actually reduce a lot of ‘customer friction’ and ease the process so much.

But when I logged into ICICI Bank website today morning to do a fund transfer, to my pleasant surprise, the grid line screen looked different !? They had fixed it .. !!

The screen looked much clear, like the above, with a visible space between the alphabets and the grid boxes.? Don’t know why this issue was not fixed by ICICI Bank for so many years, despite having the muscle, money and I am sure technical expertise to spot & resolve such simple irritants…??

I am reminded of a story that I heard a few years ago, and here it goes…

Due to complexities in their manufacturing line, a popular Japanese toothpaste company would occasionally, accidentally ship empty toothpaste boxes to their customers.? Not only did the boxes cost money to ship, but more importantly, when the customers received the boxes they would often complain and show irritation.

Ultimately the toothpaste company began to lose customers as they would seek out inventory for their stores from other, more reliable suppliers.

One day the factory gathered their top managers & creative minds and told them they would need to focus their efforts to solving this ‘empty box’ problem.?

After nearly six months and lots of money spent on research and ideation, the factory came up with what they thought was a fairly smart solution to their problem. ?They added expensive and highly sensitive scales to the factory line. ?Any time an empty box would reach the scale it would be weighed, the line would stop and a loud buzzer would sound, at which point a factory worker would need to walk over and remove the empty box.

Problem solved, right?

Yet the company quickly ran into another issue; just a few months after rolling out the new scale system there were no empty boxes being reported? The scales weren't encountering any empty boxes at all. ?Confused by the results, the factory manager, travelled down to the factory from his city to see what was going on …?

He noticed that just a few feet before one of the new scales, someone had placed an inexpensive desk fan. The manager noticed that as boxes rolled down the line, empty ones would merely be blown off the belt by the desk fan !

When asked about the fan, an employee on the factory line standing nearby explained: "Oh that? We put it there when we got tired of hearing the buzzer ring and walking up every time to take it off the supply line."

The real difficulty of creative change isn't the implementation. ??

Be the small change regarding the gap between the alphabet and the grid number boxes that ICICI Bank missed for many years, or the empty toothpaste boxes – it’s easy, once you know ‘what’ needs changing and being able to see the real problem you are attempting to solve. This is particularly true when the problem is poorly understood or explored.

?For the toothpaste factory manager, going down to the factory to witness how empty boxes travelled across the floor may have opened their mind to concepts they couldn't see when they were up in their offices, trying to solve the empty box problem with whiteboards and dollars.?

Friends, let me know if you have encountered any such problems which have got fixed with rather simple ideas & fixes ?

June 16, 2024

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(The views, ideas and opinions are of the author alone; they cannot & do not represent the views and opinions of the author’s employers, nor do they represent the view of organizations, businesses, or institutions the author is, or has been a part thereof – either present or in the past)

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