Are you making life too complicated for you and your customers?

I have had to travel to London by train three times this week. Getting the tickets has been challenging. Like many people, I use an app to buy travel tickets. However, for each journey, there were different ticket options. It didn’t take long for me to be confused about which ticket to buy. Eventually, I opted for one, only to find that this type of ticket could not be loaded onto my phone and that I would have to collect a printed version at the station. I mean, how 20th Century is that?

Rail ticket confusion is nothing new. Neither is the complex world of flying. Ryainar was in the news this week because it fined a passenger ￡75 as her carry-on bag was deemed too large, even though it had fitted into the bag checking device in the airport. The bag would have been OK if she had travelled by British Airways, but probably not on EasyJet. There is no standard across airlines, making life very confusing for passengers.

It’s just as confusing getting a coffee. If you want a big mug of coffee in Costa, order “Large”. But in Cafe Nero, you must ask for a “Grande”. Meanwhile, if you head to Starbucks, you will only get what you want if you ask for a “Tall” coffee. Even in the supermarket, buying coffee is confusing. For example, Tesco sells 278 different coffee products. According to the consumer research firm Kantar, the second most popular coffee in the UK is sold by Aldi, where the choice is highly restricted.? If you only want coffee granules, you are limited to those with or without caffeine. Simple.

Perhaps the new boss of Starbucks has noticed this. In the UK, Starbucks sells less coffee than the bakery store Greggs. Although in the USA, Starbucks is the market leader, that’s not the case here in the UK, where the company is a third of the size of Costa. Despite an increase in coffee consumption, Starbucks has been struggling. Indeed, recent research in the USA shows that the brand that most coffee drinkers remain loyal to is Dunkin’ Donuts.?

This week, Brian Niccol, the new CEO of Starbucks, effectively said enough is enough. He wants to “shake up the menu” because it has become too complicated. I was in a Starbucks only recently, and there was so much on the menu that it filled the entire wall behind the counter. With a queue behind me, I felt pressured to make a quick choice, but all I could see were words on the menu. I had no idea what they meant. Any idea what a “Dragon Coconut Refresha” is…? Or what “Emporor’s Clouds” are? You can get them in Starbucks today if you want.?

The notion behind these ideas is to give customers the feeling of choice and make their brand stand out from the competition. But like complicated rail tickets, all it ultimately does is confuse and annoy. The customer experience consultants Merkle found earlier this year that only half of the companies they studied see things from the customer's perspective. Even in firms seen as “customer experience leaders", only 60% focus on the customer first.

You will discover that choice is unimportant when you see things from the customer's perspective. What we want primarily is convenience and efficiency. Classic research from 25 years ago shows that we are more satisfied and happier when we have fewer choices. Simplicity makes us feel better. Plus it is easier for you as you do not have to administer all these choices and complexities.?

In my academic work, I have seen this in action. We used to give students many more choices about the modules they might want to study. We have restricted that choice, and students are happier. In the past, they had anxiety about the choices they were making. They found it challenging to make the decision. Often, they wanted to change, having made an initial choice. Lack of choice has made it easier for them.?

Could someone tell the rail industry, the airlines and supermarkets that giving us choices and making things complicated is the reverse of what they should be doing?? Keep things as simple as possible, and you will have much happier customers. You can ponder that as you drink your Aldi coffee this morning or get your Tall, Grande muguccino with pumpkin spice.?