journal features

service and complexity

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Tokyo, 2009.08.04

Twice in the past two weeks, Mari and I have tried and failed to engage the services of different companies. We failed in both cases because the services were delivered in such a fantastically complicated manner that the sales staff can not close the deal. In both cases, the staff had to wade through fantastically complicated sets of options and conditions. They had to consult with third parties. They had to check with electronic data sources. The had to seek clarification of this and that.

One of the services was the scheduling of what should have been a simple round-trip vacation to Hawaii. The other was a new Internet service that would allow us to have a home phone. Neither of these things should be beyond the ability of the sales staff. But in both cases we walked out after the staff told us they couldn't help us because they couldn't sort it out! In both cases we sat there for an hour with a squirming child answering questions and wondering what was going on.

This is no way to run a business. I vow that in any business(es) I create, it will be different. I'll never expose my internal processes to the clients if those processes dissuade those clients.

rand()m quote

If I had my life to live over, I'd try to make more mistakes next time. I would relax, I would limber up, I would be crazier than I've been on this trip. I know very few things I'd take seriously any more. I'd certainly be less hygenic... I would take more chances, I would take more trips, I would scale more mountains, I would swim more rivers, and I would watch more sunsets. I would eat more ice cream and fewer beans. I would have more actual troubles and fewer imaginary ones. Oh, I've had my moments, and if I had to do it all over again, I'd have many more of them, in fact I'd try not to have anything else, just moments, one after another, instead of living so many years ahead of my day. If I had it to do all over again, I'd travel lighter, much lighter than I have. I would start barefoot earlier in the spring, and I'd stay that way later in the fall. And I would ride more merry-go-rounds, and catch more gold rings, and greet more people and pick more flowers and dance more often. If I had it to do all over again - but you see, I don't.

—Jorge Luis Borges