When busy companies still look lazy

I doubt many companies are sat back relaxing thinking that they couldn’t be bothered to make a few changes to their products, or services or processes. No, I’d guess they have a to do list that never gets shorter and everyone is flat out changing things, doing things, fixing things and so on. They probably have little celebrations when a new process or app is launched, or share the positive customer feedback they get.

Yet the question remains about why they come across as lazy at times. In my view it is down to lazy thinking. Thinking only about the next step or the ideal process and not taking a bit more time to consider the implications which leads to customers’ expectations being raised about what else they believe should be available.

So here’s one example selected at random (OK it happened to me yesterday and I’m still annoyed). You order a product online and receive a succession of emails from the retailer to confirm your order has been placed, and has been picked, and then from the courier to say it’s on its way and will be with you between 4pm and 6pm on a Sunday. This last email includes a reference number and a nice big button to track your order. So far so good.

Then there is silence. There is no delivery in the time slot, so you go back to the last email and click on the tracking button. You are taken to a screen which tells you that there was an issue with finding the address and you should try and get in touch. My immediate thought is why was there not an email to prompt me to check the tracking at this point rather than me just happening across it when I looked later. Surely if the driver has an issue he’d be in the area and would have appreciated some quick guidance?

I try to get in touch as per the message on the screen but I am told I need to go to the help section and then another page to find out more. Why not give me a direct link within the message?

When I finally find the instructions to get in touch I discover that as a customer of a retailer, rather than the delivery company, I have limited options. The first is to call an automated number which tells me my parcel has been delivered – I think not. The second is to use the chat function which is now shut after 6pm.

This company has spent lots of man hours to set up the automated line – yet it gives me the wrong information. It will have invested time to set up the chat function yet I am directed to it when it is shut. To me this strikes me as lazy thinking.

Even this morning when it is open, it asks me for my tracking reference to start the query. Unfortunately the bar code in the tracking email from the courier company is not recognised by their own system that I have been directed to! Having failed to get the most out of the automated chat functions a human gets involved on their side and is still asking for references I do not have before finally finding my order by the postcode (how old fashioned for a delivery firm to have this back up). I am advised there was a problem with the address (then how did they find the order) and that once I reconfirm my address they will try again today.

I sit and wait. I have not received email confirmation of this chat update, and the old tracking record still says there was an issue last night and gives no further update. I am not hopeful.

But my point remains that I can see all sorts of systems in play and communications triggered, yet the experience makes me feel that the company has been lazy in not providing a better end to end experience.