Paypal Europe

Recently I helped a relative to create his PayPal account in Europe. The bank took care of their part, sending the form to PayPal (in Luxembourg). From that point on no communication until I finally checked after almost 3 weeks my relative’s PayPal account. It just happened to be the day when PayPal had initiated the transfer of their 2 verification payments.

I was shocked that PayPal doesn’t have a better information communication process. I think that all key events should be shared with the customer, both by email and on their account; especially for a company like PayPal where money is involved and where a lot of people are not actually that familiar with PayPal and what they do (and how they do it).

Sony Store on-line

Recently I made a purchase on store.sony.com. After completing the purchase on-line I didn’t receive an email. After a few days I called them. The shipping had been delayed; and they didn’t send an email either. I was shocked that Sony didn’t have that aspect of customer relationship down. Every key event needs to be communicated to the customer; in particular they should be given at each interaction the opportunity to create an account or access their account.

 

HBR has a good article on the topic titled “The Truth about Customer Experience” – ”Touchpoints matter, but it’s the full journey that really counts”.

Here is an extract:

“In our research and consulting on customer journeys, we’ve found that organizations able to skillfully manage the entire experience reap enormous rewards: enhanced customer satisfaction, reduced churn, increased revenue, and greater employee satisfaction. They also discover more-effective ways to collaborate across functions and levels, a process that delivers gains throughout the company.”

“Companies have long emphasized touchpoints—the many critical moments when customers interact with the organization and its offerings on their way to purchase and after. But the narrow focus on maximizing satisfaction at those moments can create a distorted picture, suggesting that customers are happier with the company than they actually are. It also diverts attention from the bigger—and more important—picture: the customer’s end-to-end journey.”

Sears – Appliance repair service

Couldn’t they give me, the client who paid for the protection plan, complete visibility into what’s happening with my repair? In particular, what’s the history of everything they’ve done on the appliance (especially when the “overflow” team is used; by the way the client has to call two different numbers and one doesn’t have visibility into what the other group does – or so they say). And since the protection plan has some not so straightforward conditions (there are different restrictions that are time bound) before they replace the appliance, they could highlight on their website where the customer stands and how close they are to a replacement.

This highlights two wide-spread challenges:

1. integration of systems from two different companies,
2. data with agreed upon semantics.

This is a common theme especially in the context of a holistic customer experience; HBR has a good article on the topic titled “The Truth about Customer Experience” – “Touchpoints matter, but it’s the full journey that really counts”.

Here is an extract:

“In our research and consulting on customer journeys, we’ve found that organizations able to skillfully manage the entire experience reap enormous rewards: enhanced customer satisfaction, reduced churn, increased revenue, and greater employee satisfaction. They also discover more-effective ways to collaborate across functions and levels, a process that delivers gains throughout the company.”

“Companies have long emphasized touchpoints—the many critical moments when customers interact with the organization and its offerings on their way to purchase and after. But the narrow focus on maximizing satisfaction at those moments can create a distorted picture, suggesting that customers are happier with the company than they actually are. It also diverts attention from the bigger—and more important—picture: the customer’s end-to-end journey.”