It really doesn’t take much to make a great customer experience.
January 5, 2017
It really doesn’t take much to make a great customer experience.
How often over the holiday period did you want to scream at a sales assistant or yell down the phone at a call centre operator? The run up to Christmas is tough. A time where we are meant to feel excited for the long break ahead but all too often we find ourselves stressed and stretched.
It is also hard to find brands or brand stories that demonstrate real empathy to their customers during periods of duress. And there are lots of those times – like pre-Christmas, ‘school is back’ time, product returns, broken technology and just day to day stuff that can make life tough.
During this period, I have unfortunately had a variety of bad customer experiences. From an unhelpful carpark attendee in a busy shopping centre, who shrugged when I asked where the best place to park would be, to an airline having me call four times to sort out a refund for a flight they moved, plus an app that wanted to charge me for finding out the next train time.
And then I saw this on twitter:
Recently bags of jelly beans were handed out to the passengers on the Belgrave/Lillydale line who have 5 weeks of taking the bus during their level crossing removal works. It’s the smallest of gestures that can make a huge difference.
In relation to my experience – the parking attendant could have easily smiled and said “let me guide you to a place where there might be a park”, the call centre operator could have warned me that the process would be a hard slog and to proactively call me with a result once it was reviewed, and the app could have allowed 10 go’s before asking for payment…
All I really wanted this Christmas was a bit of understanding in my brand experiences and maybe a bag of jelly beans.
Written by Pip.