A Rant: Three Consumer Pet Peeves

It’s surprising to me how often businesses miss little things that can enhance their customers’ experiences. Most maddening about this is that addressing these little things would likely increase the establishment’s bottom line. Here are a few examples:

1.    I frequent a Panera Bread in my neighborhood. I’m struck by a problem that has existed at every Panera and Starbucks I’ve ever visited … the options for dairy to put in your coffee are put out in equal quantities but they are never used at the same rate. Most businesses that serve coffee will have three dairy options: skim, 2%, and half-and-half (or some other more “creamy” option). And they will ALWAYS have three containers – one for each dairy type. But invariably, when I pick up the cream dispenser (my go-to dairy), it is empty. And, invariably, when I go to another option, it is always near full. This truth has held up through hundreds of visits. I can only conclude that the cream is used more frequently by patrons.  So why then are there never more cream containers available? Some may argue that the cream is more expensive and that it’s a way to force me to use the less expensive alternative, thus helping the store’s bottom line. But in the end what it really does is frustrate the customer and eventually occupy a service worker who now has to refill the empty container for the patron who won’t compromise by pouring skim milk instead.

2.    I’ve referenced this before … but why in the world do airlines make it so difficult to get a receipt at some point after a flight is complete? Given that business travelers account for almost all the profit of major airlines and business travelers are almost always being reimbursed by an employer, why make it hard to get a receipt to file an expense report? The thing that is most maddening about this: I, like many other business travelers, belong to virtually all the major airline frequent flyer programs. They have all my info in their databases – my address, my credit card numbers, my name, my birth date. Yet when I go to their websites after the fact to try and request a receipt, I am often asked to submit the date of travel, the confirmation number, and (sometimes) the e-ticket number. Why? They know every single flight I’ve taken, whether I’ve ordered Wi-fi, if I’m willing to pay for an upgrade, if I have special dietary restrictions, etc. Yet when it comes time to ask for a past receipt, it’s like I’m a stranger showing up at the back door asking for a favor. Surely they know everything they need to know to let me access a history of flights and click on the one I need a receipt for? 

3.    It’s all the rage today to try and lock up customers with a subscription service. Subscriptions are cash flow manna from heaven. Often, I’m inclined to subscribe to a service that I’ll use frequently and where the cost of “a la carte” purchases is greater than the monthly fee (audio book subscription services are a great example). But if you’re going to ask me to sign up to charge my credit card automatically, you damn well better make it easy, REALLY EASY, for me to cancel it. It’s insulting when cancellation, for an internet-enabled business, entails a phone call or email. It feels like the business is trying to steal from me. I don’t want to talk to your service agent. I don’t want to have to take my valuable time to explain in an email why I want to cancel and hope that it happens. I want to click a button. If you make it harder than that, you won’t ever get my business again. 

Okay, rant done. If you have any similar simple suggestions for businesses based on pain you’ve experienced as a consumer, I’d love to hear them in the comments below. Your turn to rant!