WHEN THE PROCESS IS RIGHT AND THE CONSUMER EXPERIENCE IS WRONG!

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“Imagine you are an 80 year old consumer of this product. You are a loyal consumer, you have been using it for years.

One day you find that there is something wrong with it. Let’s say you start getting an allergic reaction from it. Your reaction is not severe enough to call a doctor or a hospital but it is worrisome.

You pick up the product and look for the customer service information so you can call and ask what you are supposed to do. There is no phone number (strange, you remember there being one).

There is no physical or email address. Only a URL: www.somecompany.com/contact. You get on your computer (if you have one) and type it in. You struggle with finding / as you have never used it before.

When you finally get to the page, it is only in English. Your English is ok so you can understand pretty much what is required.

You need to fill out 15 different fields! One of them is a number that has been printed on the box but the printing is faint so you cannot clearly make out all 12 digits.

It takes you about 10 minutes to fill everything out and send it. You receive an automated response that someone will answer you within 3 business days. It is a Friday.”

I ran through this scenario by the consultant that was hired to set up the new web based solution that was meant to replace all other means of communication, so as to put into perspective what it was that he was implementing (read the first part here).

I asked him what he thought and his answer was “But the process is right” to which I answered “Yes, but the consumer experience is wrong”.

Coming up next: How to make the experience right! Stay tuned!

2 Replies to “WHEN THE PROCESS IS RIGHT AND THE CONSUMER EXPERIENCE IS WRONG!”

  1. Kim Golden-Malmgren says:

    It’s so interesting with this. I recently had an experience in which the only contact I had with the company was a chatbot. And it was this very scenario — a cosmetic I used caused an allergic reaction. It took two weeks to finally get in touch with an actual human at the company. Companies need to realize that we consumers want to deal with an actual human when it comes to these situations — not a chatbot and definitely not a form to fill in with no guarantee that anyone from the company will ever actually contact us. A good process can help develop a website — but not factoring in people and the intended consumers is problematic.

  2. Melina says:

    I totally agree with you Kimmy. An allergic reaction is serious as well so not being able to get through to anyone that can help is problematic indeed. What is also frustrating is getting through to a human who is inadequately trained and is mostly concerned about the time it took them to close the issue! More on this, coming up!

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