Wednesday, January 7, 2009

We have met the enemy..

There's a phrase " we have met the enemy and he is us " . Applies to a lot of companies . 

Watched a movie at a theater recently . The telephone number of the theater was not functional , the homepage with the show listings was inaccessible due to a server error . The movie was a recent blockbuster . It was not clear if tickets would be easily available hence the effort to make a booking . Finally the tickets were purchased a few hours prior since the theater was en route home. At the show we realized that only 25-30% seats were full . Not surprising considering that people may have tried calling the theater , found the lines ringing . And decided to go someplace else where they could ascertain ticket availability .

In a time when discretionary spending is at an all time low , when block busters are rare - here is a theater that decides to add to it's challenge simply by being inaccessible to customers .

Sometimes in business seeming small things like accessibility make a big difference . It's easy to visualize the CEO of this company making complex plans to grow sales . When just ensuring that  the phone lines and the server are functional will directly impact the sales .

The obscure we eventually see . The completely obvious it seems takes a little longer...


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