Technology products are often evaluated on their "ease of use" as though this concept is universal. The deeper issue, however, is the degree to which a customer finds a company easy or hard to to business with.

I just installed a dsl modem for a friend, and it was extremely frustrating to have what should have been a fifteen minute process turn into more than an hour. The problem is, everything went according to plan. However, the ISP has wrapped the install process inside a "must be using one the following versions of windows" installation program. This software 'wizard' not only harvests an excessive amount of personal data, it upsells, explains how to put a modular plug in a jack, changes home pages in browsers, and dumps dubious  "utility" programs to the hard drive.

The company has turned what should be a very simple process into a tedious, pedantic waste of time. Such practices may survey well with novices and poorly with "experts", but do not misinterpret these results. The novices know of no alternative. If they successfully finish their self-install before they get hungry or before nature calls, they will write this off to the complex nature of technology, and not to poor business practices.

Now, I know how to work around such time wasters. If I had three-in-a-row of these things to set up, I would take a look behind the wizard's curtain, identify the essentials, and pop these out like cookies. I have done it before, but every time they "improve" the install wizards, you have to go back and check your assumptions to see if an 'add' to the script is a new requirement of doing business with the company, or an 'up-sell' in disguise. But, why should I have to figure this out?

Now, I don't want to exhaust your attention with too many "difficult do to business" stories, but here are a few teasers to broaden the scope:

• Businesses that claim their accounting systems cannot generate an invoice until AFTER you pay. (True story!)
• Equipment model numbers that make no rational sense, and are designed to obscure true product differences and product obsolescence. (Be honest folks. It's LAST YEAR's Model!!)
• Tedious authentication and security practices that are easily subverted, but are perfunctory hurdles that honest customers must jump just to get the answer to a FAQ.
• Voluminous contracts for small purchases that hide important considerations in a sea of words that recapitulate the obvious, the usual and the customary.
• Incessant meaningless customer surveys from companies who have no obvious mechanism to submit complaints and unsolicited feedback. (Tell us how good we are doing.)

...and more.

Setting aside those who would misrepresent under the cover of legal cleverness, there are two obvious drivers that cause "ease of doing business" to trend in the wrong direction.

First, in an effort to cut costs, companies sometimes make life harder for customers. They transfer costs to the customers by requiring them to spend increased time "following company processes" or simply waiting in que for services. Difficulties in doing business are  a hidden cost, and new customers do not take this into account when they judge a product's price and value.

Transferred costs do not have the "sticker shock" of a price increase, but money is time and hidden costs do not remain hidden. "If I had known then what I know now about comapny xyz...., I would have done without their product." That's buyer's remorse! It gives a competitor who meets and exceeds customer expectations an opening to say, "Do business with us and you won't be disappointed."

Second, and more fundamentally, there is a rampant mis-understanding of business "process". I'll put the truth as clearly as possible. Business process is what your -company- does, not your customer. If you do it right, your company will look to your customer like a big soft drink machine. "Put your money in. Make your selection. Take the product. Enjoy!" Good process architecture makes this miracle happen and a customer need not know or care what goes on behind the "employee" entrance.

Note that I did not say, that customers -should not know- about business processes, only that they -need- not know. The degree to which business processes should be transparent varies by industry and has legal implications as well as policy and strategy considerations.