The Path to Value

Yesterday, as I was preparing the garden and corn field for February’s planting; it occurred to me that tractor plowing is very like VFR flying an airplane. You fix the focal point of your attention on a distant spot and, ignoring all other cues, head directly for that spot. The view changes, the angle changes, there are side paths and distractions. Each of them contributes to your experience, your opinion, your analysis. But a straight row requires absolute focus on that goal. And unlike a plane, you have no instruments to guide you. You have to use common sense and reason to get there.

My son calls it the happy path. I think of it in terms of designing voice applications as well. Each program has the goal of serving the primary need of the caller. In most self-service applications there is one function that is the real destination—the one that gives the most return for the company’s investment. Whether it is giving directions, tracking an order status or changing the on call personnel; the flow needs to be driven towards that goal with all due expediency.

It is far too easy to get caught up in a call flow maelstrom. Not all options deserve the same weight as the primary one. The 80/20 rule applies—the path that gets most of the traffic is the path that needs to be expedited. Everything else is secondary. It is far more important to ensure that the majority of your callers are satisfied than to offer a dazzling smörgåsbord of choices and options that dizzy the mind and slow the pace to a crawl.

I quote from Eduardo Olvera’s blog I read last year, http://www.vuidesign.net/the-value-of-menu-choices.htm, “Bottom line, any choice should add value to the caller and not waste their time. ‘Value IS what the impatient caller values.’”

Disclaimer: Note that the ideas, musings, and opinions expressed here are mine alone, and do not necessarily reflect those of MTI, my long suffering employer.

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