Ever wonder why some technology companies take off and some don’t? Here’s an example.
The Lincoln Journal Star began as a newspaper. We are in the digital age now. This means the newspaper is now a technology company that delivers information via digital modes (email, website) and the original method of delivery of a printed product. But even the printed product is now a product of digital technology.
Along with the digital age comes digital methods to manage your account. And this is where the Journal Star is in the stone age.
On the JournalStar.com website there is an option for Customer Service, which in turn provides an option to manage your subscription. I have first-hand experience with this feature even though I live in Seattle. I pay for a subscription delivered in print form to the house of an elderly person.
When I log into my account to manage my subscription, I cannot find the correct delivery address of the print subscription. I say “correct” because I can find an incorrect address in two places. No where is to be found a section that clearly identifies the delivery address — unlike any other online retail organization that delivers.
Why has Amazon taken off? Convenience in online shopping. You can find and add products easily AND you can easily manage delivery addresses.
Here’s a view of the Journal Start interface.
The only two places to find an address — which is wrong — is in Update your Credit Card Information and in Contact Us. (And to be clear, the address is NOT the billing address, which is in Seattle).
The Customer Service link at the beginning screen makes sense:
The next screen has reasonable options, including Manage Your Subscription :
The Contact Us page shows an INCORRECT address — not the billing address nor the delivery address:
The screen after clicking Manage Your Subscription from the second image above:
One of the options from the screen above is Update Your Credit Card Information. The card update page is on paypal, and the same incorrect address (not billing or delivery) is sent to Paypal:
Adding more frustration into the mix is this: When I called the toll-free customer service number, the representative pulled up yet a different, incorrect address that has no relation to the billing address or the delivery address.
Organizations that cannot or will not get their technology act together will, simply, wither and die.