Are you checking every step in your company’s customer journey to make sure that the passage is smooth and rewarding, and in fact, DELIGHTING for your customer? DELIGHT takes so much work by so many people – the product, the website, the employee service training. And DELIGHT is what builds lasting loyalty.

And it can all, unfortunately, be spoiled by a minor detail.

A recent example shows how even the best processes need to be updated and monitored to make sure every step works.

In this case, the example product was sold on a full featured and high graphics website, which clearly explained the product features and offered easy navigation. The order process was flawless, along with an upsell of additional features if the customer wanted them. Delivery day arrived with no issues, the product worked as advertised, and all was well. Or was it?

This product offered a trade in of the old product. That also went well. An e mail was sent out to the customer saying their account ending in 7776 was being credited.

So, an awesome product experience. The customer loves the new product. The trade is fairly valued and received. But what’s this – the customer never heard of the 7776 account number!

Suddenly the buyer’s reverie is broken. In the age of phishing and web fraud, it looks like someone else is getting their trade in credit. A call to the customer service line results in a 20 minute wait, then an “answer” that “a supervisor will call you next week”. The customer is not happy. It turns out the Company’s internal software switched the last four digits of the internal order number with the customer’s credit card number in the outbound email. So in fact, nothing was wrong, but it sure looked wrong to the customer.

The result? A great experience ruined, the customer thinking next time another brand and website.

One little step. Better training and documentation for the first customer service person could have solved this in 10 seconds. “Oh, no worries, that’s our internal number, your credit card ending in ……. has been credited…..”

Customer expectations are high. All of the great web and product design, all the process support, all of that can go down in a minute with a missed or poorly executed step.

What to do? Do an audit of your process, every step, every piece of information, every training module for your team. Get it all right and your loyalty will skyrocket. Get it wrong, well you know…..