How to turn online customer service into a lost sale

I needed to order something from Intuit's online store. I went to the site, needed a bit of assistance retrieving a past order, and used the online chat service for help.

Twenty minutes later, after two up-sell attempts, my order is incomplete and I'm looking around at other places that I can buy the same stuff.

The task should have take three minutes at the most. The intrusion of the online chat slowed everything. In my first note, I indicated what I needed for help. Three questions later, the humanoid named Ken asked if I was ready to place the order. I restated what I needed. He fetched the information and then added two paragraphs about a feature that I didn't want or need. I declined the offer.

Mid-way through the nearly-final steps, he asked again, this time offering to sell me pens with tamper-proof ink. At that point, I bailed out, concluding the chat with a statement that I didn't plan to shop at Intuit again.

Sadly, of course, they've got a near monopoly on personal (Quicken) and small business financial software (QuickBooks). Because they've reached that saturation point, they don't have good ways of increasing revenue except by trying to add marginal features wherever they can.

Wouldn't it be great if businesses could say, "We make enough money. We'll maintain our products, issue upgrades to stay current with operating systems and other external requirements, and just make stuff work well. We won't load your product with new and unneeded features until it's both unrecognizable and unusable." ? Yup, that'll happen right after the unicorn parade.

Barnes and Noble and the Case of The Missing Missing Manual

I wanted a book. I went to a book store. I came home without a book. If only it was that simple.

We were looking for some clear guidance about QuickBooks 2012.  The Missing Manuals series has been a good source of guidance on a number of topics. I had some errands to run and so added a stop at Barnes and Noble to my itinerary. I double-checked on my phone to make sure that they had a copy. They thought that they did.



They have a lot of books in the store. I wasn't looking for a lot of books. I was looking for one. Because the taxonomy put books of this type in the Microsoft Office shelf, rather than under business or finance, I had to wander a bit to find the right section, let alone the book. So, somewhat surprisingly, I asked for help. I went to the desk, explained my mission, and followed the clerk to the aforementioned section where we found no such book.



The clerk asked if I wanted to have him order it. I declined. The Barnes and Noble website didn't let me see the contents or index to make sure that it had the information that I needed. (I'd already checked the official Intuit manual on the B&N shelves. That book didn't address the topic at hand.) I ordered the book from Amazon after confirming that it had the information I needed.