Have you ever received bad customer support or you were left unsatisfied by a service or a product ?
Here is what happens when companies do not adhear to certain customer experience guidelines.
In a capitalist society customer experience is an integral part of successful business. The better the customer experience, the more engaged customers become with your brand and the more likely they are to recommend you to a friend.
What does Customer Experience mean ?
Customer experience is the product of an interaction between an organization and a customer over the duration of their relationship. This interaction is made up of three parts: the customer journey, the brand touchpoints the customer interacts with, and the environments the customer experiences (including digital environment) during their experience
Simply stated, customer experience is the feeling you are left with after interacting with the business. As we know this feeling can be affected by anything, even the smallest details.
The Tale of Bad Customer Experience
Recently I have received some bad service and it significantly affected my experience. I had the chance to observe how businesses prevent their own growth by providing bad products/services. I was like "Wow, imagine how you much you could grow by just caring a little bit more about your customers"
A week ago, I went to this small fast food chain and I immediately saw a potential for customer experience improvement.
There was so much tension between the staff members and they were even shouting at each other in an angry manner. They also miscarried my order and the prices on the menu were understated. I do not think I will be eager to go there again or recommend it to a friend.
A month ago, I ordered some products from various online vendors and I expected them to arrive in 2 weeks or so since it was an international delivery. Unfortunatelly, there was a miscommunication between the delivery guys and the vendors so I ended up without my package and they were even about to return it back to where it came from.
I mean, stuff like that happen. Everyone could probably fix this with a simple phonecall. What I found ridiculous was the website of the delivery guys. The user experience was utter trash. A child would have done a better job. I spent 40 minutes looking for a way to contact them since they had different phone numbers for different types of services. I ended up with the correct phone number only because of Google (I found it there).
Before you go...
The devil is in the details
If you are an entrepreneur, you intend to be one some day or you are just the guy who is trying to improve customer experience, please, i cannot stress enough how important details are.
If your customer is not happy, your business is happy.
If your customer is moderately happy, your business is happy and you have pretty good chance for him to return.
If, and only if your customer experience is excellent, your customers are bound to come back and create a long term relationship with your brand because brands are a tied to experience and perception. They are also highly likely to share with friends.