By Doug Fouts- Managing Director at Xapsis Integrated Marketing
I have always been a fan of a certain fruit-themed
computer/electronics company, and over the years I have contributed my fair
share financially towards buying a myriad of their products (at one time I
owned two of their digital music players, one of their laptops, one of their
tablets and two of their phones). I have
always felt that the products were of high quality and the performance was top-notch,
so even though the cost was higher than going with a competitor I paid the
price and didn't really mind it because of what I felt I was getting.
Jump forward to just recently when it came time to finally
upgrade my phone, after waiting way too long to take the leap into the latest
version. I went in, paid the money, took
home the product, turned it on and there was a major issue with one of the
primary phone functions. No worries, I
thought to myself, it is obvious there was a defect with the product (a fact I
confirmed through forums online). I’ll
just take it back and exchange it for a new one and things will be right as
rain! (Insert foreboding music here)
Unfortunately, what I thought would be a simple and painless
rectification turned into a day-long ordeal!
First the network provider from whom I bought the phone, and
have used for years, told me that they were not able to do ANYTHING until the
tech center had walked me through some steps to try to fix the issue. The follow-up statement was that THEIR (provider)
tech center was unable to help because the manufacturer had tied their hands
and would only allow the consumer to deal with the brains at their
(manufacturer) geek squad by phone.
Needless to say, after talking on the phone, following all instructions,
waiting hours for call backs and jumping through every prescribed hoop I still
had a phone that did not function correctly.
All I wanted was an exchange and I could be on my way, but the
manufacturer seemed bent on not allowing that to happen. After days of this back-and-forth, I took the
phone back to the network provider and told them I simply wanted to return the
phone, period. I was then informed that the manufacturer had instituted a $35
restock fee for returned merchandise.
That’s right…I would now be charged extra for returning a
product that didn't even work!!
At that moment I felt like I would pay $100 just to set the
defective phone on fire, so I paid the restock fee and instead bought a
competing product that worked right out of the box perfectly…well, what do you
know!?
The moral of the story?
You can have the greatest product in the world, and even
have a loyal following, and completely destroy those relationships with poor
processes. Even if the end result turns
out to be a quality service or good, if the road to getting there is so frustrating,
infuriating and/or feels, at times, “fruitless,” you will lose your reputation,
your loyal clients, your credibility, your market share - the list goes on and
on.
Work on perfecting your product, absolutely, but hand-in-hand
with that, make sure your client process/experience is being-fined tuned as
well. If you can make both equally of
high quality, odds are your business WILL grow!
