Losing Loyalty

"There is one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else."                  - Sam Walton, Founder Walmart

I love when customers engage to proactively design an improved customer experience (CX) anticipating customers' needs and expectations. At the same times it pains me as a customer to interface with businesses who are failing at the customer experience in the most basic of ways, knowing how impactful 'small' CX failures can be to a business.  Many businesses don't appear to have visibility into why they are losing customers or how preventable the CX failures are in many cases.

#1:  Multichannel Support

CX Imperative:  If you offer multiple channels, it's imperative you support those channels.

CX Fail:  I recently called my gym with a quick question and reached voice mail. The voice mail directed me to the Facebook page. I submitted the question via the Facebook in box. I received a response via email including feedback about appropriate channels for questions (not Facebook). Since I know the gym manager, I called to apologize and left a message, he responded with an email to let me know his training schedule doesn't allow for phone calls and email is the best method of contact.

70% of buying experiences are based on how the customer feels they are being treated.  (McKinsey)

#2:  At the Customer's Expense

CX Imperative:  Don't let your back office issues cost the customer, or it will cost you a customer.

CX Fail:  Last December I had a trip to New York pop-up on short notice, and as a Southern California dweller, I am rarely equipped for such weather. I quickly went online and bought some boots to round out my winter wear and selected overnight shipping. It was pricey but worth it to make sure I had boots for my trip the following week. When a few days passed and they hadn’t shipped, I called the retailer and inquired about my order. I was informed they were backordered and wouldn't ship for a few weeks. I asked the agent to change the shipping method to standard. Nope, the agent couldn’t change the method after the order was placed.

89% of consumers began doing business with a competitor following a poor customer experience

#3:  Enable Employees with Training - Technical Skills & Empathy Skills

CX Imperative:  Don't take Customer Effort for granted.

CX Fail:  It's never fun when something breaks, especially not my spin bike with streaming studio classes. I contacted customer support via email with photos of the broken part and received a prompt reply the following day "Once you reach back out confirming the address I will reach out to a tech who will contact you in 24-48 hours to arrange a day/ time to come in and replace the broken part". Excellent!

The part was express delivered to me and the rep asked me to try assembling the part myself before scheduling a tech. No problem!  I gave it a try without success and sent back a photo of the problem I seemed to be encountering when trying to assemble the part. 

Here begins the problem:  For the next 2.5 weeks the support agent twice more offered to schedule the tech, IF I'd try one more time to assemble the part myself, including advice like - "Use some force".  My photos and emails made it clear the "Apply some more pressure" approach was wrong and about to snap the new part.

Nearly 4 weeks later a tech fixed the biked in less than 10 minutes without force or pressure but following the necessary steps I could have followed if they had been provided.

79% of those who shared complaints about poor customer experience on a social networking site, like Facebook or Twitter, had their complaints ignored (CEI Report)

#4:  Minimize Jargon

CX Imperative:  Speak the customer's language, highlighting benefits.

CX Fail:  We made a trip to our vet's office on Mother's Day and had a pleasant experience as we entered the office and waited to see the vet. The staff working reception were helpful, welcoming and very friendly making us feel very at ease in a stressful situation. The experience was marred after the vet checked out our pup and sent in the staff member to review the estimate of services.

While this approach is standard, it isn't designed with the customer experience in mind. The estimate of 15+ line items totaling nearly $700 was quickly reviewed with me. Only 3 of the line items seemed to be related to the purpose of our visit. Another line item was easy to identify - nail trim. The remainder were in medical jargon and the purpose of each unclear and the benefit absolutely unknown to me.  I approved the 3 items and went out to wait for my pup.

The vet came out to inquire about the remaining line items I hadn't approved, and I let her know I didn't understand the purpose or benefit of them. She replied ‘if I loved my dogs, then they are things I would want done’.  I let her know I was uncomfortable proceeding when I couldn't see a correlation between the items and possible benefits. She responded ‘I am sure you are very intelligent, give yourself more credit’.

It is 6-7 times more costly to attract a new customer than it is to retain an existing customer.  (White House Office of Consumer Affairs)

Moral of the Stories: CX Failures sending your business down the drain may be easier and less expensive to fix than you think! 

Questions:

1. What CX Fails have you experienced as a customer that diminished your loyalty?
2. What are the most frequent CX Fails within your control? How do you know?
3. What are they costing your company?
4. What would it cost to fix them?

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:  Living in San Diego, I am the Customer Experience Practice Leader at Tribridge, headquartered in Tampa, FL. With a background in Sales, Product Management, CRM, and CX consulting, I am passionate about working alongside customers to transform their organizations and realize their unique CX goals. Connect with me on LinkedIn or join me on Twitter @JessicaJNoble.