The CX Blog

Mulling the news today re a Harris poll and the problems with online shopping, specifically:

Forty-two percent of consumers who experienced problems during an online transaction switched to a competitor or completely abandoned their effort….

Another 52 percent who have experienced bad service from a contact center after they had a problem online have completely stopped doing business with the company, the survey found.

It’s amazing that so many companies miss the mark with online customer experience and support–haven’t we had some really great examples of how this is done well?  Amazon? Apple?

Many things about Apple seem like magic to me. The ease of use of their products for example, from opening the box to getting the new laptop up and running–I’m usually prepared, trained by other products, for a difficult and tedious process, and as a result, I’ve been caught up short, making things more difficult than they have to be, failing to recognize that the internal systems or the online process at Apple.com has “already thought this through,” and made life as easy and intuitive as possible.
Here’s a recap of a dazzling experience:

The iPhone

I bought an iPhone back in July when they were released. I purposely bought one online so I could experience the process. Other than a few days’ delay in getting the online purchase process up and running (yes, it’s entirely possible Jobs wanted to drive traffice to the photo-op stores first), the process couldn’t have been easier.

I ordered the iPhone and it arrived a few days later. I was expecting a horrendous experience trying to port my number over from my previous service and get everything set up. I was not prepared for the slick 15 minute process from start to finish, in the middle of which, a text box suggests I take a few minutes to get to know my iPhone while they take care of business. They’d let me know when the process was done and they did a text message indicated that my old number had been ported, old account closed, new account open, and I was free to go about my business. All online, all in 15 minutes. Clear process, clear instructions, setting correct expectations, and internal processes all lining up.

The online credit

When Jobs announced a credit for early adopters of the iPhone a week or so ago, following an infuriating announcement that the price of the phone would drop $200, he drove traffic to the web by posting his open letter to users on the home page of the Apple site, and promised to have the credit details worked out within a week. True to his word, though close to the edge, the announcement came out Friday afternoon of the following week. It directed users to an online app page.

The beatufitul part: the online application page could not have been easier. Here’s what we need; here’s where you find it on your iPhone; after you enter it online, we’ll process the information which will take up to 5 minutes, so you might want to go do something else for a minute.  The next screen you’ll see will be your credit number and pin with instructions on how to use it followed. Crisp, clean, flawless and all in 5 minutes total.

The Retail Store experience

Friday night, armed with my new credit numbers written on the notepad app in my iphone, I decided it was time to get the MacBook Pro I’d had my eye on. I also wanted to see if the retail stores were in sync with the online store (I’ve noticed some issues with that in the past). After test driving and playing with lots of Apple toys at the store (Michael Dell could only dream of the atmosphere in an Apple retail store on a Friday night–who knew it could be such a party), I purchased my MBP. Upon checking out, I told to clerk: “I’ve got a credit from the iPhone deal.” Admittedly, he did blink, and hesitated a little, seemed just a little bit flustered (the credit was still very new), but then said, “Well, we can go online and get a hard copy of that.”

I handed him my iPhone with the number and pin on the notepad and he said, “Well, cool, that helps!” It seemed the only glitch in the system is that the credit number is pretty long and his interface required him to enter it twice..it took a little while to get it entered correctly, but once it was, voila, all systems go.

Got my MBP home, opened it and got everything running in under 5 minutes. Opened my old Powerbook, accessed .Mac and synched calendars, contacts, and mail. Networked the two computers over my wireless and downloaded pictures and files between the two. Watched a movie. Easy. Effortless.  The welcome interface had thought through each step to guarantee a “magic” experience, one focused on the beauty of the product, not the usual teeth-grinding experience of trying to figure out how a new technology works.  And last but not least, they finally have the retail store and online issue of records together–my purchase invoice was in my inbox by the time I got home.

Magic? Or Method….

Now for the most part, I’m not talking about computing products here. I’m talking about having the customer in mind at every step of the way, from purchase to pushing the On button. Apple hasn’t always been this good–their retail stores and online stores haven’t been as linked as they currently seem to be. Their online support has been good, but not this good. I have to believe that Apple spends as much on user testing of its support processes as it does on its hardware and that is unusual in most fields, not just computing hardware.

While this approach may cost more upfront, in the long run (and not too long, I suspect), they reap massive benefit from such a flawless experience and support process.  I have warranties with them, and I’ve used them once or twice, but basically they sit and gather dust–their online tools, their user processes, their application specific help prompts are all very very good.  And their backend customer facing processes leave me happily using my Apple toys rather than waiting in a phone queue for 20 minutes or more, costing the company $$ by the second and ultimately wearing my loyalty thin.

Apple’s execution was brilliant.  They guided me through each step of each interaction I had with them–in a language that was consistent and understandable, with processes that matched the expectations they set. Each encounter I have with Apple just blows me away, again and again. They are the poster child of successful customer experience, and while it feels like magic, I don’t think it is. Like a magician, it’s clear that Apple works very very hard to make the experience seamless, so I can focus on my own experience of the product rather than a series of fumbles and near-hits as is often the case with technology companies.