March 15, 2004
Customer Service Hint (for Warner Mycal)
Here is a tip for Warner Mycal cinemas in Japan, and indeed any other organization struggling with how to deal with the move to online payment/booking etc: don't charge customers more for making your job easier!!
The amount in question here is only 100 yen, but here goes the rant.
Warner Mycal in Japan is a chain of multi-screen cinemas. The sound is great, the screens are great, and you get assigned seats (this contrasts nicely to the older-style cinemas here where people just rush in when the doors open, try to find the best seats, then put jackets and bags all over the place to make it impossible for latecomers to sit down).
Recently, Warner Mycal has decided to improve the lot of customers even more, by allowing online reservations with credit cards. You choose your seats online, you pay with your credit card, then at the cinema, you swipe the same card to get your tickets. Simple, painless, and efficient.
So why am I complaining? It's the 100yen they charge per booking for this 'service' that disappoints me.
Of course they had to invest in card-swiping machines to make this happen. They also had to revamp their web-page, and introduce card payment, with all the security and data protection issues this change brings. BUT SO WHAT??? That is nothing to do with me, the customer. As far as I am concerned, I have saved Warner Mycal the cost of the salary of the young lady who used to dispense us with tickets. They could get rid of the ticket booth altogether, and use the space to sell more obesity-inducing fast food, for all I am concerned. I have no idea how they came to the decision to charge customers more for managing their own purchase. Imagine if your bank charged you more to manage your account online than to go into the branch. Imagine if booking a flight online (doing a lot of the booking agent's work) cost you more than calling the agent or going into the airline office. It would remove the whole basis of a lot of e-commerce.
So, in a nutshell, Warner-Mycal, you are getting there, just please don't charge extra for online bookings.