Ways and Means

I recently learned that New Jersey and Pennsylvania are putting in new toll benefits for seniors. Good, you think? Well, these benefits are changing form. The benefits will now be tied to EasyPass, which not all seniors use.

This reminds me, for some reason, of when Digital Equipment Corporation was trying to get people to stop using the PDP-11. Try as they might, people really liked the workhorse, and didn't want to change. Of course, this meant that DEC was selling less hardware than they would have liked, and spending a fair amount of their customer service resources supporting 'old technology'.

There are ways and means of motivating people to move to a new system. Usually, the young among us is more open to these changes. They haven't gotten used to the old ways. We move to new things, too, when they seem significantly easier than our old ways.

For the tolls in these mid-Atlantic states, the means to move the seniors to this new program seems cumbersome. Even if they already have EasyPass, they can't simply add a senior option. If they have been using coupons, they are forced to apply for EasyPass, even if they are skeptical of using electronic systems for tolls. It would be like telling people we no longer accepts checks.

When times comes to ask users to make a change, always consider the two most successful paths: new users and the new system being easier than the old. Otherwise, you'll find yourself in the situation that DEC did - new product, loyal customers, but not enough profit on the new product.