DARIEN GRAHAM-SMITH
Technology has got Google this far, but it’s customer satisfaction that keeps companies on top
After 20 years, it’s time for Google to buck its ideas up.
I’m writing this on the 20th anniversary of the establishment of Google Inc. Do you remember where you were when Larry Page and Sergey Brin made it official? I’m sure you don’t, because even in the middle of the dotcom boom, the arrival of a new web-search company was hardly newsflash-worthy. I do, however, remember the occasion when Google first came to my own attention. It was during an email exchange with an old friend of mine named Dan Smith – now a high-flying litigator, then a hard-working law student. The details of the conversation are lost in the fuzz, but I clearly recall his mentioning that he had looked something up on Google – not “on the web”, as one might have said at the time, but specifically on Google. Well, I thought, if a chap as fastidious as Dan is buying into this new site, it must be worth a look. And to this day Google remains my own go-to search engine.
Yet I can’t say I’m in love with the company. My issue isn’t its business model; some of my friends take offence at the way the company makes money off the back of their personal data, but among the endless scammy app developers, clickbait publishers and other abusers that plague the web, Google seems fairly well-intentioned. In 20 years, I don’t feel that it’s ever tricked or coerced me into anything.
No, the problem with Google isn’t malice, but thoughtlessness. One expression of that is the way its apps and web services keep abruptly changing and mutating in the dead of night. Tim Danton tells me off for banging on about app updates, but I wouldn’t keep talking about it if it didn’t keep happening. As a former IT manager, just thinking about it makes me anxious and angry.
And it’s not just about change. As far as I can see, Google isn’t even very interested in whether the user experience gets better or worse. I lose count of the number of times the company has rolled out a new version of something – often a flagship app such as Gmail or Google Calendar – which introduces new features that I didn’t ask for, while deprecating the ones I use every day. A recent case in point is the Google Fit app, which I have been using to remind me to go for regular walks. The latest update introduces a new activity metric called “move minutes”, but removes the step-count goals and notifications that brought me to the app in the first place.
Sure, you can click the feedback link and express your dissatisfaction, but don’t expect it to make a blind bit of difference. Because that’s another thing about Google: it’s incredibly unresponsive. Yes, G Suite administrators get phone and email support, but if the likes of you and me hit a problem, we’re on our own. I’m not just talking about free services, either: last year, I paid several hundred pounds for an Android Wear watch with a specific feature set. Now, after a series of mandatory updates, some of those features no longer work. I search the web for answers and all I find is other customers posting the same problems. Google simply isn’t listening.
It seems baffling to me that a company that has produced such incredible technologies – and which is staffed by some intimidatingly brilliant people – can be so pig-ignorant when it comes to the customer experience.
But when you look at Google’s history, perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising. From day one, it has been a success story – first off the back of its exceptional search engine, and then through a burst of inspired business moves, which saw it launch Gmail, acquire Android and snap up YouTube all within a two-year period. Consequently, it’s never really had to worry about growth: it has had the privilege of being able to take customers for granted from day one. Do we think that might have had an effect on the company’s internal culture?
Google can’t play the autocrat forever, though. Most of us know and, broadly, trust Google products. But when I talk about the company with my friends and colleagues, I detect very little brand loyalty – none of the passion with which people defend Apple, nor even the better-the-devil-you-know Stockholm Syndrome that keeps most of us on Windows. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if, in a month or a year, I get an email from Dan mentioning that he’s decided to give Bing or Edge a try, or that he’s switching to the iPhone – because why wouldn’t he? The tipping point could be much closer than we realise.
I’m not saying I want to see Google laid low. All right, I admit, when I run up against another one of Google’s infuriatingly careless user experience blunders, I do sometimes find myself wishing that someone would give the company a bloody nose. But as I’ve said, Google is far from the worst-behaved business in its industry, and its competition with the likes of Amazon, Apple and Microsoft drives things forward for all of us. I would much prefer to see it survive and thrive.
And there are encouraging signs. On the smartphone side of things, Google finally seems to be addressing one of the biggest frustrations of its platform: with Android One and Project Treble, we’re on our way to a future where Android devices have a consistent look and feel, and receive timely updates, even after the manufacturer has lost interest in them. It’s taken far too long to get here – can you believe it’s eight years since Steve Jobs originally damned Android as “fragmented”? – but if Google can turn the same clear-headed customer focus to its apps and services, its next 20 years could be even better than the first.
As far as I can see, Google isn’t even very interested in whether the user experience gets better or worse