Carlos San Juan de Laorden is seventy-eight years old.

Carlos is a retired Spanish doctor and unlikely activist with Parkinson’s disease. His shaking hands make it hard to push buttons so he naturally finds it difficult to withdraw his money from an ATM.

When his bank reduced its retail opening hours, they told him the only way to reach a customer representative was by making an appointment using a poorly designed phone app he found too complicated.

He’s banked with the same bank since he earned his first paycheck fifty-one years ago. It pains him to see the world put pixels and profits before people.

So Carlos started an online petition he called “I’m Old, Not an Idiot”, arguing that banks and other institutions should serve all citizens, rather than sideline the oldest and most vulnerable members of society in their rush to cuts costs and push online services.

In two months, his petition gathered more than 600,000 signatures, attracting the attention of the local media and eventually forcing the banks and Spain’s government to respond.

Spanish authorities and banking associations pledged to offer better customer services to senior citizens, including extending branch opening hours, giving priority to older people to access counters and simplifying the interface of their apps and websites.

Spain has one of the world’s fastest aging populations, with 9.3 million people over the age of sixty-five who now account for one-fifth of its citizens.

Why should older people have to put up with poor service and crappy design? Why should older people suffer because of an organizations’ failure of empathy, failure of inclusiveness and failure of customer strategy?

Designers of new online services dismiss older people as a fringe market. Which is ridiculous given the market size and expansion. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development forecasts that over-65s will account for more than a fifth of its member countries’ citizens by 2028 and the percentage will continue to rise.

What Spanish authorities and bank associations have pledged is baseline, mere table stakes. Smart businesses and organizations will seize the opportunity to produce superior digital and analog experiences for older customers. It’s an investment in a growing market.

You’d have to be an idiot to think otherwise.

References

“‘I’m old, not an idiot.’ One man’s protest gets attention of Spanish banks” The New York Times (2022)

“Population projections” Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (2022)

“Soy mayor no idiota” Chnage.org (2021)