Confusing e-Commerce : why the AFL through Ticketmaster and Telstra are frustrating their customers

The initial site experience

I went to renew my AFL membership online today.  I can't believe how frustrating the process is.  Considering that the Australian Football League is one of the leaders in sport and entertainment in Australia, it is really quite suprising that they provide such a poor online membership experience.

First I went to the AFL website.  I was looking for the "membership" section.  The main menu didn't make much sense to me, so instinctively I went for the search box on the top right of the site and typed "membership" in the search box - seemed like the logical thing to do. It took me a couple of seconds to realise is that the search doesn't actually even search the site at all, instead it searches the Internet using sensis.com.au (which some people might know is a subsidiary of Telstra, who manage the AFL's site - but others may not have a clue) and none of the pages it returned related to AFL membership.

So I tried again.  Taking a guess, I clicked on the "AFL HQ" tab of the site.  Hooray, some information for AFL members.  I clicked on the Morelink and it too me to a page for AFL members.  I saw an article called"2008 AFL Membership Renewals" and I clicked on it, read the information and it said to renew and pay online by credit card go to the "My AFL" site.  I realised later that on the previous page that there was a button called "My AFL Account", though I didn't at the time really know what that was about.  So I clicked on the link which openeda pop-up window for My AFL.  At first I didn't realise this, but after a bit of rummaging around my desktop I found that there was a new windows opened there and it was a third-party website, a Ticketmaster service.  It is actually a very winded address which I'd never remember even if my life depended on it, something like: https://oss.ticketmaster.com/html/home.htmI?team=afl

I did as it says, typed in my email address and my password.  Nothing. Off the screen, if I scrolled down was a message saying "This Account has been locked" and "Please call a customer representative".  I have no idea why it is locked, I've certainly never done anything to make it that way.  I can only assume that it is an error.  In any case, they could have made me realise that much quicker than stare blankly at a screen wondering what has gone wrong.

So I call the Ticketmaster help number provided.  A message answers "The office is closed today for staff training".  Doesn't even let me leave a message.  Great ... ok, where to now ?

Untrustworthy e-Commerce

More than a bit frustrated, I close the window and return to the AFL site.  Plan B, I'll call the AFL membership department by phone.  I get an Interactive Voice Response message which asks me for my membership number and my password.  I type the details into the phone pad.  The voice message tells me the cost is a couple of hundred dollars more than I paid last year.  I thought hang on, surely it isn't that much.  So I call a friend who confirms that the price should be a couple of hundred dollars.  I went back to the membership page and checked the brochures - yep, the interactive voice definately quoted the wrong price.  Are they just trying to rip me off ?  Confused, I decide not to renew on the phone.

Finally, very frustrated I attempted to email the AFL.  The contact facility could only be found buried in the footer of the page, and that the email goes to Telstra who manage the website rather than directly to the AFL.  I explained my story only to find that I had exceeded the allowed 1,000 words.  Well no-one told me that when I was composing my email enquiry.   An autoresponder answered my enquiry saying that it would be a minimum of 48 hours before I get a response, and even longer because my query was made 48 hours before the weekend.

After all of this and over half an hour stuffing around, I didn't actually get my membership renewed.  Does this company really want customers ?  Their website gave me the opposite impression.  It is one thing to save on administration time, but a human simply answering a phone would have saved me half an hour and I am the one trying to give them my money.

The right approach

Maybe they just had a "bad hair day", but it is really no wonder that the AFL has so many problems when so many third parties are involved in a transaction that should be simply be between the AFL and its customers.  But even if the agreement with the third-parties saves the organisation money, it is simply not good business to ignore your customers.

So here are some tips for organisations that do care about their customers:

•  Always integrate with your website membership system, and don't ask the user for the same information twice.
• Always shows the address bar, and make the URL non-cluttered and easy to read.
• The address must be your company website, and not a third party.
• Don't use pop-ups.  They have been proven to be ineffective and confusing, and most browsers block them anyway.
• If your phones are busy, make it easy, not difficult for yourcustomers to contact you online.  Chances are that they are alreadyfrustrated enough.
• Make your customers feel valued.  Otherwise, they'll simply think you're trying to rip them off.

If you are from the AFL membership department and you're reading this, then perhaps you could make it easy by calling me instead of wasting my time.   Or if you are from AFL management, thentalk to us and we'll show you the right way to do e-commerce. 

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