customer experience

Whenever I’m in the midst of a frustrating customer service exchange, I find myself reaching for a sketch pad.

Last week it was Nespresso, but I think what happened is commonplace and illustrates some of where customer experience frequently falls short.

I placed a simple coffee order online that turned into a lengthy web chat a week later when the order still hadn’t shipped. The customer service agent was very responsive, but her response was hamstrung by process, systems, and different departments that didn’t talk to each other.

As a marketer, I could imagine all of the moving pieces and different departments involved in a complex business to understand what could have gone wrong with my order. But as a customer, I didn’t want to see behind the curtain. I just wanted the coffee.

It reminded me of a cartoon collaboration I worked on last year with Hubspot co-founder Dharmesh Shah. He put together a manifesto called “The Customer Code”, which they recommend companies use as a report card to continually rate and improve their performance.

One Tenet is “Solve for my success, not your systems. Don’t make your process your customer’s problem.”

Dharmesh goes on to explain:

“I’m a technologist. I solve problems with technology. I like systems.

“But customers don’t care about phone systems or industry-standard triage processes.

“Customers don’t care about where they are on the “buyer’s journey.”

“Customers don’t care about our departments (or those departments’ dysfunctions).

“Customers just want you to deliver on what was promised — that they would be more successful with your product than they were without it.”

Here are a few related cartoons I’ve drawn over the years.

“Mapping the Customer Journey” May 2018

“We Appreciate your Business” August 2012

“Your Call is Very Important” August 2011