??? ? What you can learn from *YOUR* bad customer experience...

I went on holiday last week and honestly, it's probably the first time I regretted it. But it was a good exercise in customer experience and empathy - or lack thereof...

For someone working in SaaS UX, it's *fascinating* to watch how the level of service affects your experience. As one of our Product Drive speakers,?Else van der Berg?said: "Working in ‘customer centric’ companies has the health hazard of being deeply disappointed with the real world…"???

Here are some common real-life customer experience pitfalls & what you can learn from them for your SaaS:?

• Nobody's ever asking for your?name?- it's the easiest hack in the book which helps you establish instant connection with someone and costs you literally *nothing*.?People buy from people they know, like and trust.?But most salespeople simply couldn't care less. I'm not saying they should be cringe and ask for my name when selling bread, but with less transactional purchases - e.g. a coworking space (that claims to be all about community!) I would expect that. Now think?about it - your B2B SaaS customers are going to potentially leave thousands of $ with you every year. Is it so hard to?personalize your SaaS experiences?at least on that basic level? To personalize your outreach so it doesn't sound like another generic message sent to 100,000 people? Now, there was an exception I will remember - we stayed at a small guest house somewhere in the Albanian countryside and as we were going up the driveway - an elderly lady greeted us from the balcony by calling my name. She kissed me on the cheek when we were checking out. A total overkill for some but also an experience I won't forget!?

• You're booking for a couple but getting twin beds.?Like c'mon, seriously? Yes, booking for two can mean different things...but is it really so hard to ask? But that's exactly what SaaS companies do with?ignoring their user's job to be done.?When was?the last time you were asked about your use case and then the onboarding flow was really personalized to your needs? Grab this?JTBD framework template?to help you fix this.?

• "I am the menu" situation -?nothing like experiencing the "talk to sales" button on the pricing page in real life. Believe it or not - in some places in Europe you will get that treatment in a restaurant. Frustrating, scammy,?confusing and something I'll just never get.?Being up-front about your pricing means you don't waste time on having demos with people who could never invest in the first place.?
• Where's the key??What's?the wifi password????- I hate when I don't have the self-serve check-in option in an Airbnb. Trying to navigate the meeting time between delayed flights, unreliable public transport, and where data costs so much that you're considering just checking into that airport hotel instead of sending that Whatsapp message - you know that jazz. So why aren't you providing?self-serve support?and upgrade?experience for your users?! And it's never been simpler - you can just drop a?Resource Center?with your help docs, Read this?post about self-serve support portals?to learn more.?

• Going the extra mile -?again, it costs so little to wow your customers...I stayed in a few places where the host went the extra mile and left a little "nice touch" - some bottled water, coffee and cookies waiting on arrival; a surprise drink on the house in a beach bar...what do you do to wow yours? Sending your best customers swag, physical Christmas cards or?Amazon vouchers to celebrate their anniversary with your company?has never been easier.?
• Empathy -?your guest is stuck in the hotel for a few hours after the checkout waiting for their flight, why not let them keep the towels so they can still use the pool etc.? We've had a situation when our account got instantly blocked due to one failed credit card payment on a bank holiday in the US, preventing out team in Europe from sending a very important campaign??? ♀? What did we do? We churned. And it wasn't delinquent churn anymore - it was a deliberate decision.?

To learn more about improving your customer experience, check out these posts:?

• High Touch vs Low Touch Engagement Models For Customer Success Managers
• How to Measure Customer Engagement In SaaS: Methods And Metrics
• 18 Best Customer Success Tools of All Time [In-Depth]

And check out Busra Cokuner's talk on?"Connecting business goals and user outcomes: Your next step towards being more product led."?at?Product Drive 2023!

See you all next week!?