Replace User Experience With Trust
I moved to Vancouver 26 years ago. One of the first things I did after I took care of accommodation is arrange for utilities. I’ve…
I moved to Vancouver 26 years ago. One of the first things I did after I took care of accommodation is arrange for utilities. I’ve registered with BC Hydro and got my electrical power hooked up. Today, 26 years later, I have to say that this service is absolutely outstanding. I think I’ve had only a few short outages in the span of a quarter of century. Also, the electrical power is quite affordable. This affordability/reliability combo is unbeatable.
From the user experience perspective, the interesting thing is that I had none whatsoever. Save for the initial on boarding, I’ve never ever had to interact with BC Hydro. I’ve arranged with the utility company to take monthly payments from my bank account. After that, I had no other reasons to contact them. I even stopped being aware of them (unless, of course, I’m writing an article about them).
What made this uneventful situation possible? One word — TRUST! Once myself and the utility company established trust in each other, everything was OK. And I am quite pleased with the way things are going.
Why am I mentioning this boring episode? I think the level of quality of service I’m getting from BC Hydro is the best possible. I also think that we must demand the same quality of service from software products we subscribe to. The most important thing is that the software we subscribe to is of high quality. Once that’s established, it is easy to get to the point of trusting each other. And when the trust gets solidified, there is no need for further user experience. Same as with the utility company, we buy quality service and we then set it and forget it.
If we have to be ever mindful of the service we’re using, that means that the service is of poor quality. Having to babysit and hold hands each step of the way is what user experience is. The less user experience there is, the better the service gets. And the key to that level of quality is trust.