[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BlogPosting","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2018\/08\/24\/customer-experience-fails\/#BlogPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2018\/08\/24\/customer-experience-fails\/","headline":"Epic customer experience fails:\u00a0You cannot make this stuff up!","name":"Epic customer experience fails:\u00a0You cannot make this stuff up!","description":"Competition is a click away for unhappy customers. Why are there so many customer experience fails when brands have the data needed to make consumers happy?","datePublished":"2018-08-24","dateModified":"2021-02-19","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/contributor\/fred-soller\/#Person","name":"Fred Soller","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/contributor\/fred-soller\/","identifier":296,"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d24f2976940691f0ac894f28aa5a55e5c9dff8164dfc494d6f57a2ed3ec216ea?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d24f2976940691f0ac894f28aa5a55e5c9dff8164dfc494d6f57a2ed3ec216ea?s=96&d=mm&r=g","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"The Future of Commerce","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/logo-foc-schema-app-1.png","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/logo-foc-schema-app-1.png","width":172,"height":60}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/thumbnail-28bfb53b1720097d9a709f5372406d71.jpeg","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/thumbnail-28bfb53b1720097d9a709f5372406d71.jpeg","height":375,"width":1200},"url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2018\/08\/24\/customer-experience-fails\/","about":[{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/customer-experience\/","name":"Customer Experience","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Customer_experience","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q984142"]},{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/customer-experience\/customer-experience-general\/","name":"Customer Experience","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Customer_experience","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q984142"]}],"wordCount":1108,"keywords":["Customer Experience | CX","Customer Revolution"],"articleBody":"I speak about customer experience on a daily basis with numerous companies in different industries, and I always hear the same thing: We care about our customers. We want to better understand who they are, and anticipate their needs.So why do so many brands still consistently deliver poor experiences? We see and hear all the stories about oversold planes, missed service calls, incorrect bills, and frustrating interactions with companies we sponsor regularly. According to market research, 67% of customers who have a poor brand experience will never come back, and the majority of them will go to a competitor.I debated whether to share a personal story, and the immediate and long-term revenue impact to this particular company. I don\u2019t want to be seen as complaining and I don\u2019t want revenge (well maybe). I do want this to be cathartic and to end the night terrors.And, more importantly, I want to simply discuss how important a good customer experience is to your business and what it means to turn loyal brand advocates into customers for life.Customer experience fails: A true storyIn the midst of moving homes, we were looking to transfer our existing television and internet – the same service that we\u2019ve had for over 15 years. I called our provider, whom I spend greater than $200 per month with, in addition to other services that our family uses. (Don\u2019t judge me that I still haven\u2019t cut the cord!)After a 25 minute conversation, the transfer was set to happen on June 16th. Unfortunately, there were a couple of challenges with the purchase of the new house and the move was delayed, so I called back on June 14th and spent another 30 minutes on the phone simply to change the appointment until 10 days later. \u201cNo problem, you\u2019re all set\u2026and would you like to hear about our other services, promotions?\u201d Just want to change the appointment today, but I\u2019ll keep it in mind, thanks.Saturday morning, 2 days later, I awoke to a family who hated me. They had not processed the change, and had disconnected my existing service. So, 8am on a Saturday, not having anything better to do, I called the company and spent 40 minutes discussing the situation and what should\u2019ve happened.I was told that if I rebooted the system in 15-20 minutes, we\u2019d be all set. Of course, I then received a call from the technician who was headed to the new house to hook up service. (Memo to all: Truck rolls are expensive, and wasted ones are even worse.)My wife and I ran a few errands, discovering upon return that we were still without internet or tv, as my 3 year old and 15 year old daughters engaged in an all-out WWE like smackdown. (My money was on the 3 year old.)Back on the phone, I was told 15 minutes, 30 minutes, then, after an hour, \u201dwe have completely wiped your account.” I had to ask my wife to talk so that I could go for a bike ride before I lost my mind.Two hours later\u2026My loving wife of 19 years, who is patient and understanding began sounding like a crazed lunatic after speaking to five other people, \u201cYou\u2019re financially current so not sure why we can\u2019t turn it on\u201d, \u201cWe need to set you up for a new 12 month contract\u201d (I\u2019m in a contract already!)\u00a0 \u201cWe can get a tech there on Thursday!?”…and again, \u201cit will be up and running in 15 minutes.\u201dFinally after the service wasn’t turned on, I decided to call back and cancel the service altogether. 45 minutes into this call, moving up the from 21 to 6, the phone disconnected. You can\u2019t make this stuff up! At this point, I began searching for alcohol. Luckily, the agent actually called me back (awesome!), saying he’d spoken to the back office (heard that previously), and that we\u2019d have service within four hours.When Monday arrived, I decided I\u2019d had it with this vendor, and went to their competitor\u2019s store, and signed a new 2 year contract.The moral of the story: Unify customer profiles for outstanding CXUnfortunately, many of us can relate to this type of experience. Why is it the case? There are a number of reasons, and at the center is data.Companies don\u2019t have a single view of customers because of bad data and disconnected systems and processes. It\u2019s 2018 – if we can build self-driving cars and send them into space, we should be able to provide a seamless customer experience with each interaction, creating brand advocates and customers for life.A good experience starts with trust, and more particularly, trusted data. If we allow customers to choose what to share, and how they\u2019d like to interact with us, we can then then build accurate profiles and a more complete view. Once we have access to this data, however, a connected front and back office is required to allow data to flow freely through all interaction points and allow our employees to provide more personalized experiences.I cannot believe that everyone we spoke to that day was simply incompetent. They were simply hamstrung by disconnected systems themselves.Imagine if you will a different situation for my former vendor. When I called and provided them my details, they had a holistic view of my account, complete with spend for ALL their products, and were empowered to not only turn my service back on, but offer a refund, rebate, or promotional rate they knew I could benefit from, making me feel better about them.I\u2019m certain they wouldn\u2019t have lost me as a customer. Or, better yet, I could\u2019ve spent 5 minutes changing my appointment online through self-service, and not wasting precious time speaking to IVRs and agents who were multi-tasking. We do live in a digital age with over 3.5B internet users globally.More importantly, it\u2019s clear that we consumers are willing to pay for a better experience, and are brand loyal if that experience adds value. Just look at how many airline and hotel rewards programs you participate in today. And, companies like REI, Zappos, and others have built tremendous success through defining a new experience paradigm.So what\u2019s needed for your organization to capture and leverage the data in order to provide better customer experiences and a better bottom line. And why haven\u2019t you done it yet?  Every digital moment matters.Are you making the most of them?1,000 business leaders dish on how to stand out from the crowd with a great CX. Get the details\u00a0HERE.\u00a0\u00a0"},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"2018","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2018\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"08","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2018\/\/08\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"24","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2018\/\/08\/\/24\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"Epic customer experience fails:\u00a0You cannot make this stuff up!","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2018\/08\/24\/customer-experience-fails\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]