I was reading some articles today about various programs here where the companies are getting rid of paper forms in favour of having people going online and submitting the information digitally. While for many this is alright, at the same time a lot of people would say it is unfair such as requiring those who normally don’t use a computer to buy one. As expected this created bad press for the company too. What was interesting was that they anticipated this before where they were weighing the pros and cons on whether or not it made sense to lose those people who probably will never agree with it simply because of tradition.
I think as usually whenever you suggest change you will never be able to appease everyone. It made me wonder too what is the best way to gradually get people like in this case to go digital if you still have a significant user base that has yet to embrace the technology. The only thing have really seen so far is that some companies still give people the option to do things the old way. However, what they do is they stop advertising the old methods it all together so that all their new customers get adopted to the new digital methods. That way you keep the old and new happy where eventually the people using the older method will shrink.
Kind of makes sense in many way if you are trying show sensitivity I suppose to everyone while at the same time looking out for what makes financial sense for the business. Eventually I often seen businesses offer incentives for people to switch too such as giving people discounts where financially they won’t be losing anything. More effective than simply dropping a bomb on people I guess you can say.