Why is it that businesses in the service industry get so focused on their little piece of the world that they think they are the most important thing there is?

The emails I get from Financial and Insurance companies are, well not hilarious, but in need of a sense of humor to accept them. I get a typical email from my health insurance provider every month to advise me to log in to their web site to get an explanation of my benefits.

Why? Have they changed? Wouldn’t they tell me if they did?

Or do they mean to get a statement of what they did for me? I never understood that, even when they delivered them by mail. Do they want a pat on the back for doing their job? I expect them to pay my medical bills and when, for some reason, they don’t I hear about it from the people they should be paying.

I really have to laugh – so that I don’t cry – when they say I can log in and manage my benefits. What a joke! They’ve pared my benefits down so much that I’m paying most of my routine costs out of pocket as it is. What do they think I can manage on their site? Decline any coverage at all?

Banks are just as bad. Whether it’s a checking account, credit card or loan, they make it sound like we should enjoy using their web sites to look at our accounts. I’ve got a news flash for all of them: Seeing what I can find on your web site is not my hobby. I don’t enjoy it. I don’t need to be doing it. Just give me what I need and let me get in and out quickly and be done.

And those reminder emails. Don’t tell me my statement is ready to be viewed. Just email it to me. Attach it to the same email. Send me the damnned PDF your website is going to give me anyway. Save me some time and cut a step out of the process.

Don’t cry about security. I had to log in and create the account to give you the email address. Give me some credit that I can secure my email account on my end. It takes a password to get my email, to log into my computer or to even turn it on, so don’t tell me it’s for my own good, just because some other people (Least Common Denominator) don’t protect their personal data.

The people who put these sites together are so in love with their own work that they don’t see that they are building inconvenience into them.