What makes a good customer experience?

A good customer experience – 10 lessons learned from my recent house move…

I haven’t written a blog post in a while – as well as having my normal break during the school holidays, this summer we moved house. I thought I’d share some thoughts from my experiences of the move on what makes a good customer experience – and what doesn’t…

We needed to find and select a removal firm. Based on this, here are 10 lessons learned that may be useful for all of us in terms of how we present ourselves and/or our businesses, and what our (potential) customers experience.

What makes a good customer experience..?

Initial contact

I probably tried to contact 15 removals firms. Many didn’t answer the phone and there was often no option to leave a voicemail(!) 

[As an aside, I recently changed mobile phone network provider and recently found out that during the switch, not only was my phone not working, it was a while before I had voicemail switched back on – sorry!]

Some companies had options to complete an online form – although some websites took so long to load, I was tearing my hair out!

(Several that I left details with online, never got back in touch…)
 
Of the ones that got back in touch, we managed to arrange a survey of the house contents with six companies in order to get a quote. The overall discussions and quotes were broadly similar (apart from one that was double the price of most of the others).

Little differences…

One firm didn’t send a quote for a few days – i.e. until after we had selected an alternative. Another sent a quote on a carbon copy template form, completed by hand, by post. A third quote was very simple (no logo, no T&Cs, no cost breakdown… and spelling mistakes…)

Other quotes were more standard with breakdowns of costings, explanations of what’s included, information on how and when to pay.

In some cases the company followed up the quote with a phone call, or called ahead to say what was in the quote.

Some of the representatives came to visit us in branded polo shirts and handed me one of their leaflets with contact details as they left.

Some came on time, some were early, some were late.

Choosing who to work with

One evening we needed to make a decision between the last 4 firms that came round who could do our new moving date. We couldn’t remember the company names during our discussion (- I did have it all written down!) which went something like this:

My husband liked the conversation with ‘the last guy’ – but we didn’t have the promised quote (and I was concerned about the description of the packers ‘who all lived together a couple of miles down the road’ – I’m sure it was meant to be a positive, but…)

We had been impressed with ‘the lady with pink hair’ – but their quote was quite a bit higher and there were lots of ‘per item’ costs that I felt might escalate on the day.

We both liked ‘the guy in the blue (branded) T-shirt’ and my husband preferred him over ‘the guy who smelled of onions’…(!)

10 lessons learned

– or reinforced for me through this process:

What makes a good customer experience?

1. Answer the phone. (Or make sure it’s easy to leave a message
.)

2. Reply to emails, voicemails, contact forms. (Even if it’s to say you can’t help…) 


3. Make sure your website loads quickly and is easy to navigate. (e.g. have your phone number visible everywhere, ensure potential customers need only one click to get to your ‘contact us’ page or a form to complete.)


4. Show up or get in touch when you say you will.


5. Consider what you’re wearing (and what you smell like!) Consider: how do you want to be remembered?


6. Have something to put in their hand as you leave. 


7. Have a professional looking quote/invoice. Explain what’s included but not in too fine a detail
.

8. Make sure T&Cs are clear
.

9. Make sure payment options are clear and easy
.

10. Follow up.

What do your customers experience?

I found the above (now that we’ve moved and I can look back rather than being in the thick of it!) really interesting from a customer experience / customer journey perspective. It got me thinking – what do my customers experience?

What about you? What do your customers, or those that (might) work with you / employ you, experience?
Let me know by adding your comments below.

To understand how to give the impression you would like, and to be remembered in a good way, please get in touch via the contact form or call me on +44 7526 740486.

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Best wishes!

Sian

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