User Experience throughout the product lifecycle

Few things have changed little since the 1950s, this is one on them. So, I randomly pick up a second (probably fourth-hand) newspaper on the underground, and I find out my hairdryer could catch fire ... when plugged in, but switched off. No problem sir, if you could just post the item to our depot with your original receipt or product identity slip,we can test it and mail it back to you. Grrr, too many moving parts – couldn’t they make it easier? Come to think of it, shouldn’t they have used a more reliable way of letting me know about this?

Throughout my 30s, I’ve been trying not to turn into a grumpy middle-aged bloke, but it is 2010. Perhaps technology could be used so that the ‘user experience’ could be maintained throughout every scenario of the product life-cycle. For instance, Australia’s consumer watchdog have suggested that shops should tweet, text and email customers to alert them to faulty products. The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) also wants retailers to place ‘tracking labels’ on products so they can be easily traced in a safety recall.

Moreover, it was suggested that retailers could offer rewards to customers who return low-value goods that are found to be dangerous. The only reward I was recently offered was not to return the low-value item and save myself a whole bunch of bother. In its review of Australia’s product safety recall system the ACCC said:

‘‘Recalls have the highest success rate if they can be traced directly to the consumer,’’.

Is a text advertisement in a printed newspaper the best contemporary way to reach the customer? As things spread like wild-fire in social media land with a mixture on online and offline communication, perhaps Facebook and Twitter could be used to advertise recalls. This chimes with what the ACCC said about ‘‘Communication channels that allow direct contact between the supplier and consumers are the most effective methods of communicating product recalls.’’

User Experience throughout the product lifecycle is not all about the customer enjoying a product, it can go much further than that. Other recent events make me wonder if there should be a rennaisance of safety. ACCC research found that customers typically return only 57% of products recalled. Shockingly, only 30% of toys — most commonly recalled due to a choking hazard — are returned. For clothes — needing to be recalled for fire or choking hazards — only18% were returned to retailers in the past three years. Last year, 779 products were recalled due to defects, or health or safety hazards. Big W recalled 35 lines of clothing, issued a public apology and donated $200,000 to the Sydney Children’s Hospital, after the ACCC caught it selling three types of highly flammable children’s nightwear, incorrectly labelled as ‘low fire danger’.

The biggest shock in all of this, is that in the era of ‘letting the market decide’ and ‘the customer is king’, the ACCC said it was needing to rely on legislation. In the future, stores could be prosecuted if they continue to sell products that had been recalled. I can't believe they aren't at the moment.