Comments on: Free as in chicken, an experiment in terrible usability

By: steev

steev — Tue, 12 May 2009 21:09:50 +0000

we ran into the same problem that everyone else had–the website basically stopped working after noon that fateful day. one woman came in at 10am and printed off 14 coupons (or at least hit the “print” button 14 times). that was it for our computers. nobody else who tried got one. i was VERY annoyed that we had to install some kind of printing software. one lady blamed our staff and even suggested to me in a phone call afterward that we either turned off the printer or stole her coupons. thanks, oprah. thanks, KFC.

By: Nomad

Nomad — Mon, 11 May 2009 20:54:27 +0000

free greasy chicken is usually a good thing, i just hesitate to stand in line for an hour to save five bucks

By: Martyn Lowe

Martyn Lowe — Sat, 09 May 2009 06:09:20 +0000

I’m pleased to say that nothing like this exists within the UK, but then again I’m a vegetarian.

However: – While such promotions might bring people in to public libraries, it might cause some other problems for those of us who work within them.

From my experiance it is not the PCs which cause most problems, but the printers.

The issue of having to show people how to use PCs is more to do with low staffing levels than anything else.

By: Rachel

Rachel — Fri, 08 May 2009 02:52:50 +0000

They’ve semi-pulled it -

http://www.kfc.com/coupons/raincheck.asp

It baffles me that they were oblivious to the Oprah effect… hellooooooo.

By: KFC Coupon « McMillen Library Staff Blog

KFC Coupon « McMillen Library Staff Blog — Thu, 07 May 2009 22:28:43 +0000

[...] http://www.librarian.net/stax/2815/free-as-in-chicken-an-experiment-in-terrible-usability/ [...]

By: Diana

Diana — Thu, 07 May 2009 21:38:47 +0000

Apparently, people were rioting and staging sit-ins at a Manhattan KFC due to this: http://gawker.com/5242778/oprah-kfc-coupon-riot?skyline=true&s=x

By: Meg

Meg — Thu, 07 May 2009 21:03:39 +0000

It seems to me that KFC might be (or should be) interested in hearing all of the problems this caused so that the next time they run a promotion like this, they don’t repeat the same mistakes.

In that spirit, taken from http://www.oprah.com/article/oprahshow/20090430-tows-kfc-coupon-download :

Please email KFC.PublicRelations@KFC.com with any problems concerning your KFC coupon.

I suppose if you were particularly disgruntled, you could call 1-800-CALL-KFC. Just remember that the poor customer service person at the end of the line didn’t plan the escapade.

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Thu, 07 May 2009 19:15:41 +0000

Chris, it’s newsworthy because it’s high profile and it adversely affected a lot of libraries in a way that might say “hello, teaching moment!” to a bunch of people. I’m not surprised that it was ill thought out and not surprised that librarians reacted but I am a little surprised that this is one of the first real big one-day-only things like this that highlighted a usability lesson that many people can understand.

By: sammy

sammy — Thu, 07 May 2009 17:04:28 +0000

Its incredibly bad planning on many many levels; and it is incredibly foolish for any chain, frankly, to be advertising something like that on Oprah because it is pretty much guaranteed to cause a run on most stores that they simply can not sustain. (I mean, most coupons like this have a note that states “whiles supplies last” or “at participating locations only” or some other disclaimer, but most customers don’t note that or care, and it their anger falls on the poor employees.)

And libraries, in these times, don’t have the time, staff or resources, to devote to make sure everyone who wants one can get a coupon. They are too busy dealing with all the other issues and problems that hit their desks every day too. Its a nightmare.

By: Sharon

Sharon — Thu, 07 May 2009 16:35:06 +0000

By the way Keri, the coupon I printed is not just black & white. The KFC logo has the trademark red bucket.

By: Sharon

Sharon — Thu, 07 May 2009 16:32:57 +0000

My aunt sent me the URL & I downloaded with ease the required add-on. I then printed ONE coupon which I plan to use tomorrow. We don’t have KFC in this rural Alaskan town, but I happen to be making the three hour drive to Anchorage tomorrow (Friday) where I hope to save $4 by getting this meal free. Woorks for me! And even if it hadn’t… is this really something we should be getting angry about?

By: Keri

Keri — Thu, 07 May 2009 15:02:45 +0000

OMG — this sucked. And tell me how you can see the difference between a printed black and white coupon and a photocopy of a black and white coupon? My staff said “Well, maybe each of those barcodes are different on the coupon.” And I said, “What, the one that says 001234567891234? I think not.” Comparison of previously printed coupons proved me right. ;)

By: Colin

Colin — Thu, 07 May 2009 15:02:34 +0000

I’d love to sit on a design meeting for one of these promotions. I bet it goes something like this:

Exec: Let’s give away free stuff!

Accountant: Ye–es… But not *too* *much* free stuff.

Exec: Right, right. Not too much. How much is too much?

Lawyer: Well, everybody who meets with the spirit of the promotion is acceptable, and those trying to game the system fall into the too much category.

Exec: Okay…

Lawyer: Just tell the engineers to ensure that each coupon has a unique barcode so we can track the usage of each coupon and limit it to a reasonable size. Say a family of four.

Accountant (through probably not): Any chance the cost of over-engineering this will be more expensive than the occasional extra piece of chicken?

Exec: What’s the alternative? Give store managers some kind discretion or authority to refuse people who seem to be gaming the system? I think not!

By: Arlene A.

Arlene A. — Thu, 07 May 2009 14:53:28 +0000

And here is the kick in the teeth P.S.: talking to my customers who pulled their hair out yesterday to finally get coupons at one minute after closing, they told me they went to two KFC’s who had signs posted, “No More Coupons accepted today.” They drove into another city, found one still taking coupons, waited in line over an hour…and did not get the full meal advertised in said coupon — only the chicken and one side.

This was an irresponsible and immoral campaign.

Don’t know where you are but I am in South Florida. My typical customer now is unemployed and on food stamps. This coupon meant FOOD to them and to go through this fiasco — heartless and thoughtless.

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 07 May 2009 14:50:20 +0000

Sorry but, why is this newsworthy? Frontline lirarians deal with technological issues like this EVERY DAY. Most of my time at the Reference Desk is spent trying to figure out how to help people navigate through different types of software to do what they need to do. We have been doing our best to provide excellent customer service while trying to explain to our Tech departments what’s going on. Maybe the tech people need to spend a little more time working with real customers so they get a better understanding of the conditions we operate under each day.