In my blog I tend to share my own experiences. As someone who works in the Customer Experience space daily, I have heighted senses and I am analyzing my own private experiences quite a lot. Just recently I had to purchase a new case for my smartphone. After some initial research and investigation, I chose a product and then started looking for the best price. Usually, I end up buying at the big online retailer that starts with an “A” 😉. But on the website of the manufacturer of that that case I could get a better price due to subscribing to the newsletter and an active promotion. By the way, the mechanic to subscribe to a newsletter for a discount feels very odd to me. Especially on goods that I don’t consume on a regular basis, and phone cases, at least for me, fall under that category, there is no need to get a regular newsletter. So, at the end I cash in the reward and after the delivery I unsubscribe. Could be that I am the only one that is doing it like that, but I would invest that money into other processes. But back to my story: Purchase happens and one day after that I partly regret my decision. Why? Because I am used to getting my goods the next day, at least if I order from that huge retailer with that prime services 😉 Checking the status shows that the phone case is being shipped from abroad. Great, so that is what I bought with the additional discounts, a delay of a few business days.
Days go by and my package is being delivered, the case is a perfect fit and although I waited longer than expected, I am a happy customer. But only until a few days later when I notice that the case is starting to dissolve. Obviously, there are different layers and the top one starts to peel off. For sure it is not a high price item, but it was not on the lower end either and has fantastic reviews. That turns out to be a huge let down. Maybe that was just a coincidence, and I got a defective unit, to check that I contacted the support via email and attached the invoice as well as photos of the case. Hit the “Send” button and exactly three minutes after that I got a message, a system generated message that my order has been received. Wow, I had expected an auto reply, like a lot of service systems have, but that their systems are so badly wired, I was irritated. Did I send it to the wrong address, or did some internal routing went wrong? Do I need to contact them again and say: Hey, please put that message into another queue, I want to get a reply sometime?
While I was thinking about it, I got another message, just to be precise: that was four minutes after my sending of the email, from a service desk agent that he is sorry to hear what happened in regards of the case and he already triggered the process of sending me a new one as a replacement 😱
I was shocked, because I had thought there was a problem with their process, but after three minutes they had triggered a new case for me. And do you know what the best thing was, that item was shipped from another location and the next day I had it in my hand. This was really a truly amazing experience and something, for the first time ever, a positive one that I told my friends and family about. And of course, I shared that with the company itself, impressive. They even replied and thanked me for the positive feedback. Not sure how much that process was automated, but they blew me away and overachieved in terms of expectation.
In one of my other blog articles I tried to capture the essence of a sticking customer experience. If everything goes as expected, even if it is already on a high level, people tend to ignore or forget about it. But if the experience alternates, in a good or bad way, then this is being recognized and has the potential to stick. Here in my case, I thought about a negative alternation, but was surprised with the other end of the spectrum. To create memorable experiences companies need to surprise their customers, hopefully in a good way! Do you agree, if so, or in the case you oppose my view, please drop me a comment and let me know! Appreciate your feedback.
