The Story of a Schizophrenic Customer Experience
A couple of weeks ago, I got an SMS informing me that my Telco provider could not charge my bill because my credit card had expired. So I immediately activated a new one. All I had to do let my Telco know my new credit card details. Easy thing, uh? Well it should be! But unfortunately, I’ve been stuck within their customer support channels for some days.
That’s what happened…
One Brand – How Many Personalities?
First of all, I tried a self-service option, searching for the solution on their website. You know the drill. After a couple of minutes I landed on the right page where I could update my payment details. I immediately updated my credit card details, then clicked the ‘SAVE’ button. The button though, did not save any change. And I tried 3 times with different web browsers.
Therefore I opted for a support channel (LIVE CHAT) because I thought that a quick conversation with a customer service assistant would lead to the resolution of this issue. Well, I was WRONG! In fact after explaining my issue to the Live Chat operator, she was only able to tell me that I had to call the contact centre -(
As I know by experience that reaching them on the phone takes a lot of time, I went the ‘social way’ – sending them a tweet that concisely detailed the issue. Even though they replied in just 30 minutes, they told me that another colleague would call me the following day to get everything fixed.
The following day I did indeed receive their phone call. The operator kindly asked me my new credit card details but she could not complete the operation. Guess why? She was typing on the same page that I’d unsuccessfully used 3 days earlier! Nobody had informed her that there was a software problem hitting that page.
Finally the next day I received another call where I was informed that the problem had finally fixed. Hooray!
So, my schizophrenic customer experience journey lasted a total of 7 days covering different channels: website > Live Chat > Twitter > phone > then phone again.
5 Questions Weighing on Customer’s Minds
Well, after such an adventure, any customer would have questions or doubts. So I ask you to put yourself into a customer’s shoes by answering these questions:
- How would you rate this overall customer experience?
- Were you able to identify a clear, unique brand personality?
- Would you be more or less inclined to buy further services from them?
- Should you need information in the future, which support channel would you definitely avoid?
- Would this customer experience elicit your trust? If so, why?
Over to you
I hope that you’ve found this schizophrenic customer experience useful. It’s real and it’s happened to me. But it might have happened in some way also to you or your customers. So the lesson learned here is this:
Always focus on reducing customer’s efforts – regardless the support channel you’re providing them.
I’d love to read and reply to your thoughts in the comment section below.
Have great conversations.
You may also want to read: How To Manage Customer Service Triggers
Stop Wasting Your Customer’s Time If You Want To Keep Them
Featured image: Copyright: ‘https://www.123rf.com/profile_dolgachov‘ / 123RF Stock Photo
Paolo Fabrizio
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