Please release me

I took the dog out for his walk recently.

Our route took us down a quiet street, where we came across a parked delivery van – a household name, three letters (not that one, the other one).

As I got closer, I saw the back doors rattling. I assumed the wind was causing this because it was pretty windy, and the driver was doing a drop-off nearby.

I decided to look closer and see what was happening because it looked odd.

We got about 10 yards from the van, and I heard a muffled, “Help, help. Is anybody there? I’m locked in the back of my fxxxxxg van.”

Me: “Hello—are you all right, mate?”

Driver: “The wind slammed the fxxxxxg doors shut on me, and I’m locked in. Can you get me out? I’ve been here for fifteen minutes with all these fxxxxxg parcels.”

Me: “Sure thing; what do you need?”

Driver: “The doors are locked but still ajar, so you need to take my keys, press the lock button, and put the little metal thing on my key ring against the other metal thing on the door."

Me: “No problem.”

The driver then passed me his keys through the gap in the bottom of the doors and did his best to point to the correct keys/devices/buttons on his key ring.

Following his instructions, I locked his van and tapped the little metal thing on his keyring against the metal thing on the back door of his van, and he was, again, a free man.

He was furious, frustrated and behind schedule but was able to laugh about it.

Due to thieves regularly targeting vans, HQ had decided to fit all vans with locks that only drivers with the correct fob on their keyrings could use.

This double-locked the van, but because these fobs don’t work from the inside, this guy had been locked in his van for the last 15 minutes.

To compound the situation, as the vans were lined with wooden boards, he couldn't get out of the back across the front seats.

He said that several drivers had been locked in their vans like this—both accidentally by the wind and by kids messing about and that it was becoming a real problem.

They’d fed all this back to head office, but this got them nowhere, as feedback had gone unheard. Furthermore, the drivers hadn’t been involved in any of the processes that led to these new locks being fitted, so they hadn’t had a chance to add their views.

Rather than feeling involved and included, they felt unheard and disenfranchised—and who wants to feel like that at work?

Two things I’ve learned when working on user-centred projects.

1. Don’t assume you have all the answers; take time to listen and learn from people working at the sharp end of customer service—in stores, on the phones, out in the field, wherever.

Their insights, views and experience can be gold dust.

2. Treat everyone in the process like they’re your customer.

Something for this driver's colleagues back at HQ to think about.

The pic is of my dog, Luca, who was with me at the time and witnessed the whole thing.