User Experience - Dont miss the Printing needs
(Disclaimer : I am a former employee of Zoho Corp (AdventNet). The views expressed below are my professional opinion as a UX Designer and not as a former employee.)
The recent discussion in Zoho CRM's linked in page revealed a niche error which is mostly overlooked in today's web application development life cycle.
While most communications happen via Email, Social Apps etc, many businesses still use a lot of printing as part of their daily work. For some, printing is the lifeline. Recently Zoho CRM rolled out a major update which altered the font sizes and layout in one of their CRM module. While the intention was said to deliver a better UI and experience, it backfired for one of their long term customers, who became unhappy with the way the reports got printed. Looks like the print layout was not good, is imperfect with mismatched font sizes, and as per his opinion - he feels the new print layout is forcing him to go for hand-written tickets.
After filing the support ticket, all he got was the standard template reply like "We will look into this..". Frustratred, he posted in Linkedin discussion forum. Many of the fellow members tried helping him. But nothing worked to his satisfaction. Finally it took Zoho's product manager Mani Vembu to solve it by acknowledging the issue, and promising to give a quick fix. A quick fix was given in the following days, and the customer is happy now. End of story.
There are a few lessons to learn from this incident, especially for User Experience designers, Support and Product Managers.
1. Keep in mind the PRINT LAYOUT, when designing a UI. No matter if that is a Tablet App or Desktop App, there are people who need to print something.
2. Test the PRINT LAYOUT before you roll-out the app.
3. Template reply such as "Thanks for reporting. We will look into this.." is a definite no-no. It just frustrates the customer more. If that is a pressing issue for customer, be more specific and keep him updated.
4. It does not require great guts to acknowledge the fault. The product manager acknowledged that, and it got appreciated. It actually made the customer relax and wait for the update. Example of how a simple apology & acknowledgement can turn the situation win-win!
5. Remember, If you acknowledge the fault, you are winning it. Customers are ready to forgive. If you fix the fault immediately, you are ensuring that your customers will renew the subscription / license happily.
6. Dont let the customers scream in public forums or social media to get your attention. Every support mail must be tracked and followed up.
The recent discussion in Zoho CRM's linked in page revealed a niche error which is mostly overlooked in today's web application development life cycle.
While most communications happen via Email, Social Apps etc, many businesses still use a lot of printing as part of their daily work. For some, printing is the lifeline. Recently Zoho CRM rolled out a major update which altered the font sizes and layout in one of their CRM module. While the intention was said to deliver a better UI and experience, it backfired for one of their long term customers, who became unhappy with the way the reports got printed. Looks like the print layout was not good, is imperfect with mismatched font sizes, and as per his opinion - he feels the new print layout is forcing him to go for hand-written tickets.
After filing the support ticket, all he got was the standard template reply like "We will look into this..". Frustratred, he posted in Linkedin discussion forum. Many of the fellow members tried helping him. But nothing worked to his satisfaction. Finally it took Zoho's product manager Mani Vembu to solve it by acknowledging the issue, and promising to give a quick fix. A quick fix was given in the following days, and the customer is happy now. End of story.
There are a few lessons to learn from this incident, especially for User Experience designers, Support and Product Managers.
1. Keep in mind the PRINT LAYOUT, when designing a UI. No matter if that is a Tablet App or Desktop App, there are people who need to print something.
2. Test the PRINT LAYOUT before you roll-out the app.
3. Template reply such as "Thanks for reporting. We will look into this.." is a definite no-no. It just frustrates the customer more. If that is a pressing issue for customer, be more specific and keep him updated.
4. It does not require great guts to acknowledge the fault. The product manager acknowledged that, and it got appreciated. It actually made the customer relax and wait for the update. Example of how a simple apology & acknowledgement can turn the situation win-win!
5. Remember, If you acknowledge the fault, you are winning it. Customers are ready to forgive. If you fix the fault immediately, you are ensuring that your customers will renew the subscription / license happily.
6. Dont let the customers scream in public forums or social media to get your attention. Every support mail must be tracked and followed up.
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