Shaping Thoughts

The Chair: scandal, bad luck or bad management?

For a Dutch translation read De stoel: schandaal, pech of slecht management?

This one is too bad to be true! It is not funny. This is very serious stuff and a case study of how companies can fail in their communications with customers or at least fail to draw the right conclusions. Ok, let me explain with a brief history.

The current chair in first class

I commute, four days a week for 2 hours per day, between my town and Amsterdam, with a train called “Sprinter” operated by De Nederlandse Spoorwegen (“the Dutch Railway Company”). Ever since this train came into operation (I think about two years ago) “consumers”, like myself, have complained about the horrible ergonomics of the chairs in the first class space. Sitting in the chairs is like sitting on a stone and the angle is much to small (almost 90 degrees) to really sit comfortably.

Then, after many complaints, came this “grand” initiative. Why not let commuters test a large number of different chairs and ask them to vote. So far so good, you would think. What an excellent way to treat customers!. Well, the testing took place and more than 2000 people were involved. Unfortunately, I could not test it myself, because the test site was really out of my route.

Today on Utrecht Central station the winning pair of chairs (first and second class) were announced and revealed to the public (press release in Dutch).

The new chair in first class (red)

Now, fortunately I was on that particular train station today, so that gave me the opportunity to test the first class chair (yes, my boss pays first class!). Well I still have not recovered from the astonishment that overtook me! I actually did not fit in the chair!
Now, I am not a big guy! I am 1,89 meters tall and weighting just over 85 kilograms, so quite the average I think. What prevented the fit was the headrest which hits the top of your shoulders before you fully lean against the backrest.

How can the voters have come to picking these chairs? Was the process of picking the chairs and drawing the conclusions correctly managed? Was the test based on a representative group of people? Did a group of “little people” (no offence!) pass by during the test period? Actually the NS employee one the scene was a little bit shocked to learn of my complaints, but quickly replied: “Sorry, but this is what the average of voters came up with”. So the voters came up with a chair that does not fit for an average guy?

Now, if only I could post a comment to the (non-existent) NS weblog or even e-mail their customer service. But I cannot. There is no weblog and there is no e-mail address. You can only call a paid phone and get a call center person or write a letter. Very efficient for getting as less feedback as possible!
The NS appears to have the strategy to only talk to and discuss with commuters organisations (like Rover), but I am afraid that is not always efficient in terms of feedback as well.

The sign reads “Please have a seat in the chair – you – chose for the new Sprinter trains”.

So now 9700 chairs are being bought by the NS for delivery in 2008 and that’s what we have to deal with. It has to be said though, that the new trains will have a number of other real improvements, like air-conditioning, security cameras and in-train information systems about the state of the overall railway system.

But this all still leaves us with the important question of the chairs. Was this a “let them test it, so we cannot be blamed afterwards” strategy? So a scandal? Or was it just bad management?

For the commuters it appears to be really “bad luck”!

• 23/05/06 update: see here
• 14/06/06 update: see here and here

Technorati tags: Customer experience, Current Affairs, Commuting, Marketing, Nederland, Netherlands

Add to del.icio.us

| posted May 17, 10:31 pm on May 17, 2006 | category: Customer experience / Commuting