Do We Know the Cost of Information Imprecision?

I have commented on 'true but incomplete' information in the past.  Here's an example that raises the aspect of cost:  What is the price to be paid when information is unclear and confusing and fails to orient people accurately?

 

 

Having more than three decades of airport navigation under my belt, I take weather delays and the resulting rerouting in stride.  "You need the Service Center, straight ahead" seemed actionable recently in a European airport … but straight ahead turned out to feature a Service Center sign pointing directly into a freight elevator.  To be on the safe side (as opposed to trusting I could just aim in the general direction), I decided to return to the milling gaggle where another employee helpfully added "near gate 35".  A quarter mile later (or so it felt with the carryon luggage I had wisely decided on, knowing the risk of a missed connection), I reached gate 35 and saw nothing but another 'Service Center' sign pointing back the way I had come.  Like a hawk, I circled ... and around two corners stumbled upon a series of counters looking quite service-center-ish.  The lines were packed and an employee told me "the wait isn't as long in the service center downstairs".  That sounded like an option to consider until another triager instructed "you MUST go downstairs for your transfer".  Once down a level, I yet again had to ask a couple of uniformed people in succession in order to find my way (same type of sign pointing to another freight elevator!). 

If the signage designers missed the opportunity to hang a few extra signs near gate 35 and downstairs, employees might have compensated by saying, for example, 'when you get to gate 35 turn right around the coffee stand and then right again into the shopping area and go just past the jewelry store'.  It's an untoward scenario when an airport serving millions of people from all over the world supports the cost of the type of information imprecision I experienced: Adding up the employee time needed to deal multiple times with confused travelers goes only part way.  What about the airlines having to rebook people who miss connections not because of weather but because they are unable to navigate in time?  What about the impact on the travelers themselves?

 

Could it be that information imprecision, vagueness, or ambiguity might cause the organizational equivalent of missed connections and wasted time repeatedly redirecting dazed information seekers?  Airports may not engage mystery travelers to examine the clarity of their signage and the instructions employees give, but I believe most enterprises could benefit from such an investigation:  Just where and how long is the path through the enterprise or intranet maze when someone needs to find something or someone?  How useful is the immediately available information? How often must an inquirer return to an informant for clarification? How much cumulative time is needed to arrive at the correct department, person, or data inventory for proper assistance?

 

 

I want to stress how much I appreciated the employees who helped me in that airport; they were extremely pleasant, courteous, and approachable.  But an extra sign here and there - or, say, a map to hand out showing the location of the service center relative to landmarks like gates and coffee stands - would reduce the need for them to deal with quite so many harried passengers.  Said another way: I'd venture that a one-time investment in information precision (signs, maps) could pay for itself in no time and then eliminate the year-in, year-out cost of making up for its absence.

Comments

[Katinka English]

I had a similar experience recently at Pearson. The signage was probably marginally better, but I still found myself guessing where the service centre was. Perhaps airlines just don't want us to find the service centre? I write this as the other computer user in the room is a pilot. Small world!