CX Agony Uncle: Three Stories on Transparency

When you do what I do – that is, make a big fuss about customer experiences and use social media as a therapist for such issues – you get sent a lot of examples by others.

Often, this is them also needing a cathartic release from the frustrations they’ve had. But sometimes, enjoyably, it’s about great experiences, too.

Recently, I’ve had three sent to me that all had the same things in common. They were of companies communicating with customers in a wonderfully open, human, and transparent way, showing vulnerability, and building a deeper relationship as a result.

So, I thought I’d do my best to embody a 1990s tabloid agony uncle and share them for you to see.

Story One – Tom’s Pillow

‘I bought a pillow a few weeks ago after developing some neck and shoulder pain, a Groove Pillow. ￡30. It wasn't for me, didn't allow me to sleep in a natural position.

They have a 'no quibble' returns policy. You pay the postage to send it back. But they also offer the below and I thought it was quite an interesting and impressive route for them to take in order to meet their sustainability goals, especially given that as word spreads they are laying themselves open to people unscrupulously getting a 50% refund on the pillow even if they love it.’

As a show of gratitude for your purchase, we are pleased to offer a?50% refund if you choose to keep the product?for your own use or to give it to someone else. We believe that the pillow may still bring comfort to you or someone you know, and we are happy to let you keep it.

Moreover, please know that all of our returns are directed towards charitable causes, which is why we suggest considering keeping the pillow or sharing it.

Additionally, by keeping the pillow or passing it on to a loved one, you're helping reduce the carbon footprint associated with returns.

What a brilliant idea. Returning items is a pain for customers, but a bigger pain for businesses, who have to process the refund, repackage it to resell it or, in many cases, just destroy it as it can’t be resold.

So, good for the customer but for the business. 50% of something is better than 100% of nothing, and they get more of their products out in the world, too.

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Story Two – Graham's Garden

Graham, a long-term Honest Burger eating partner, sent me this letter last week. It’s from Garden Trading company, being brilliantly open and honest about how poor things had been for their customers in the past few years.

It’s not only an apology, but more importantly, it makes clear that they understand what’s gone before isn’t good enough, giving customers some assurance of what to expect in the future.

Compare this to companies who give a bad experience, but seem to think that’s ok. I’d rather go for the one that’s shooting for the stars.

Story Three – John’s Journey

OK, so this is my example rather than someone else’s, but it’s always better to have three than two, right?

A few weeks ago, I had a slightly odd experience on a train to Birmingham. Someone was sat in my reserved seat. I gave them the official commuter look and tut. Nothing. So I got out my ticket, waved it in his face. They were unmoved. Instead, he calmly reached into his pocket, pulled out his own ticket, and showed that he, also, had the seat reserved.

The Train Manager blamed this on Trainline. Trainline blamed this on Avanti. So, a long complaint emailed followed. And the response was excellent.

They dealt with the complaint in exactly the right way - they owned it, explained it, and resolved it.

And it’s that explanation that’s so important. Because that’s the bit that shows they understand, not just offering some compensation and hoping you move on. It shows that they might, just might, do something about it not happening again.

So there we go, three stories, three great examples of customer experience, three companies choosing to be open, be honest, be human. And for all three, even though their responding to something going ‘wrong’, the way they handle it show’s a willingness to have an adult-to-adult relationship - and is surely more likely to earn them more customer decisions in the future.

Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed it, please do share. And if you need any help with improving your organisation’s customer experience or creating a more customer-led future, come and find me and the team at The Foundation.