When customer journeys go wrong

Holding on to customers is a primary concern for most businesses, but does the journey they take with you lead them easily to their required destination, or are they frustrated by delays? Matt Henkes embarks on some customer voyages to find out.

By Matt Henkes, staff writer

Mapping the journey your customers take with you from end to end can strategically build on each interaction point to ensure every experience the customer has with your organisation is a positive one.

Typical interaction points include the viewing of marketing and advertising material, human contact by telephone or e-mail and physical contact, whereby the customer visits your premises. Each process within that journey - taking their order, agreeing costs, signing contracts, delivering the product or service and billing the customer - is a point of contact at which it’s important to build good relationships.

As Jan Carlzon, former president of Scandinavian Airlines, pointed out in his 1986 book Moments of Truth: “Any time a customer comes into contact with any aspect of a business, however remote, it is an opportunity to form an impression.”

In other words, these ‘moments of truth’ are opportunities for you to either win your customer over or disappoint them, knocking their loyalty when you could be reinforcing it.

Interior designer John Gardener travelled a long and painful road with his local council. It all began when he wanted to get his council tax bill reduced because he believed large scale building works in his area had greatly reduced the living conditions in his property.

Although the council contact details were well displayed, the telephone queuing system was a greater challenge to overcome. When he finally struggled to the front of the queue, he had barely finished explaining his problem before he was given a different number to call. “I hadn’t expected it to be easy,” Gardener admits, “so I wasn’t surprised at being given the run-around a little bit.”

However, it was when he got through to the correct department that the fun really began. After explaining his problem to a very understanding woman who sympathised fully, she told him there was no way he could apply for a temporary reduction on his council tax bill because, in her words, there was no box on the form for her to tick.

“To be fair, she was very apologetic,” says Gardener. “She gave me the contact details of the relevant department head and advised me to write to him.” But that didn’t solve his problem either. Two letters and several more phone calls later, he is still waiting to hear if a temporary reduction will be possible.

“My contact with them has been friendly. The people I’ve spoken to have been honest and tried to help,” he adds. “The frustrating thing is that no one seems able to give an answer.” For Gardener, his journey had hit a dead end.

A brighter style of journey delivery

Unfortunately, because of the nature of government and local councils, there is no one else to take your business to if the service is lax. But the same isn’t true of customer-centric companies.

Katherine Baines, an entrepreneur who runs a florist business, realised the contract on her mobile phone was about to run out and spied a new Nokia mobile phone on a TV ad. “It just looked really trendy,” she says, “I thought, 'yeah, I could see myself with that phone.'”

Her first action was to carry out some internet research. “I check the reviews before buying most things,” she says. “The general opinion seemed to be positive about this phone, which encouraged me to find out more about it.”

Once Baines had decided to purchase the product, she set out to find a contract that would not only supply the phone, but would also have all the other components that she enjoyed with her current deal. “I wouldn’t have been willing to sacrifice my current contract terms for the sake of a swanky new handset,” she admits.

That was why the first call to her existing operator was a knockout blow for her brand loyalty: the company was unable to offer her the same deal with the phone she wanted. Undeterred, Baines fought through the long, automated queuing system. When she eventually got through, however, the frontline sales person she spoke to was less than enthusiastic about her enquiry and put her through to a manager. “I felt like I was being passed around like some kind of trouble maker because I’d ordered something that wasn’t on the menu,” she says.

The company seemed reluctant to lose her custom, but just as reluctant to give her what she wanted. “The conversations I had with them were increasingly frustrating,” says Baines. “They were constantly offering me more expensive alternatives and not listening to me when I told them what I wanted.”

In the end, she was forced to try another provider, Orange, who were also unable to give her the exact deal she wanted. However, after the sales person explained that the phone was only available on a more expensive contract, she decided to allow herself a compromise. “The previous company had already told me this,” she says, “but something about their attitude had irritated me.”

Baines admits she was partially swayed by the reward of free extras on her tariff if she signed up, but it was the fundamental difference in the way her call was handled throughout the points of contact by the two companies that won her over in the end. “It’s possible that I could have got the same deal from my original provider,” adds Baines. “With Orange, I felt like I was having the facts laid out clearly for me, instead of just being handled like a problem.”

There are a myriad of touchpoints in a customer's journey - from seeing marketing materials advertising a deal, to contacting a sales team, agreeing a deal, signing a contract, receiving the product and being billed. As demonstrated above, however, each of these can be an opportunity to improve the relationship, damage it - or even lose it forever.

Read more features, practical case studies and white papers about customer experience management.