The missing last mile for true customer centricity

‘Customer experience’, ‘Customer engagement’, ‘Customer delight’, ‘Omni channel customer centricity’ . Regardless of the industry sector we operate in, we have been subject to a deluge of these terminologies of late and a plethora of articles detailing the steps companies need to take to equip themselves to be a truly customer centric organization and leverage every single touch point of the end consumer interaction to provide a seamless integrated experience.

The millennial start-ups and firms with the disruptive innovative models in the sectors they operate in are considered more often than not as the torch bearers of customer centricity from which the traditional firms can learn a thing or two. This is based on the premise that these millennial firms have been able to challenge the status quo and upset the apple cart of a number of established industry stalwarts primarily on the foundation of this customer centricity.

Having said that, if one were to take a step back and objectively assess the same, is it fair to assume that these new generation millennials have truly understood an end to end customer experience’ journey ? A truly end to end customer experience journey if you were to ask any customer starts with the customer acquisition to the buying experience to the actual fulfillment to the after sales part. The one aspect which I believe the millennials and organizations are falling well short of at the moment in their claim to true customer centricity is the after sales aspect of the customer experience journey.

This is true of most of the millennial firms who have disrupted the industries they operate in and have  fallen woefully short on this barometer – be it taxi services, hotel booking or e-commerce.

The incredible lack of accountability which has been evidenced in a number of recent cases in the after sales cycle clearly by these firms reveal the fact that these organizations still have some way to go before claiming to a truly customer centric organization and herein lies the opportunity for the select few to differentiate themselves from the rest of the crowded pack.

In a market where innovation shelf life is short lived and the ‘me too’ products or services are quick to catch on within a few months or weeks, the after sales process and accountability has the potential to deliver that ‘customer delight’ proposition and life term loyalty over competition, all other things being equal.

Let us look at a few recent instances which will corroborate the above. Recently, a customer who booked a taxi through one of SE Asia’s largest mobile taxi booking app was left with a sour taste in terms of experience when he was asked to shell out an amount which was 4 times the normal fare he should have paid. The customer had requested for a taxi through the mobile app and when the company could not find a taxi immediately available in its regular fleet, it proposed an alternative from its more expensive partner service in a very subtle manner during the course of the mobile transaction. The transition to the partner service was so smooth within the mobile transaction that it went unnoticed until at the time of payment.

Post the payment, when the customer contacted the customer service number to lodge the complaint and request a refund of at least a certain % of the amount for not having sufficiently informed him prior to the journey and having made him subtly transition to another partner operator with 4 times the fees, the company promised to get back to the customer, but never did despite multiple follow ups including a written complaint. This, despite the customer being one of the more regular users of its service.

Imagine a situation if the company had paid more attention to the after sales part of this transaction. It should have realized that here was one of its regular customers feeling a little short charged with this particular transaction and if truly customer centric should have ensured someone responsible took the right decision by refunding the requested amount or alternatively looked at other options such as providing certain discounts for a few subsequent rides to let the customer know that there was someone listening and acting on the same. An action as simple as the above would have locked the customer for life, generated such tremendous goodwill and word of mouth to so many more. A great opportunity missed?

In another incident reported extensively on social media, a leading peer sharing lodging rental company refused to provide details of a customer to his parent who was receiving SOS calls from her son trapped in a lodging accommodation in Spain. The customer had booked the accommodation online through the company website in the US prior to his Europe trip. The youngster was now trapped in the accommodation by the owner who had locked him and refused to let him out for denying sexual favors to her! Despite frantic attempts by the mother, the company refused to divulge details of the address of the youngster citing reasons such as privacy, country was ‘out of its jurisdiction etc when all that was requested was to share the address to track him down and which was in its possession. Thankfully, the person was tracked down soon by his parents with the help of the Spanish police.

This incident makes one wonder which part of this story was not understood by the company folks?!! Any person who had been following this story on social media would never again book a stay through this firm which refused to take basic accountability – first for verifying the credentials of the person renting the accommodation and then furnish details of the address in such an emergency situation!! An unmitigated PR disaster by any stretch of imagination in this age of citizen journalism and active social media;

Last but not the least, how many instances have we seen of customers buying goods on established e-commerce sites and finding later that the goods are either defective or not working as expected and wanting to return it to the seller but left high and dry as the seller refuses to accept the goods and the e-commerce site chooses to ignore the requests and take accountability for the transaction.

If one were to analyze the % of such transactions, it would be but a small fraction of the complete traffic that flows through the website. However, the opportunity it presents for an e-commerce player to step in and take accountability and drive customer loyalty, goodwill and word of mouth is so enormous that it will far outweigh the few dollars that may have to be foregone in case the seller turns out to be hostile. Even, in that context, the e-commerce company will only stand to benefit for having eliminated a rogue seller from its website who could potentially have caused more dissatisfied customers in the future.

To summarize, I believe the ‘After sales part’ of the customer experience journey currently falls well short of a truly customer centric focus by most of the millennials and this could open the door of opportunity to the next set of disruptors to displace them just as they did the current incumbents.

 As Konosuke Matsushita, the founder of Panasonic so wisely said years back "After sales service is more important than assistance before sales. It is through such service that one gets permanent customers".