In a previous post about winning your customers' hearts we learned that every interaction creates a personal reaction. This means that every customer experience needs to be as positive as possible. Gaps in your customer experience derail any positive momentum you created with prior interactions. They confuse your customers and create a perception that you are unreliable and inconsistent.
A Gap at The Gap
Recently, my wife had a problem at The Gap that is a perfect example of an inconsistent customer experience. She went to a Gap store to purchase a cardigan that was on sale. The store didn't have her size in stock, but they told her they were getting a shipment in two days (on Tuesday) and would have more available at that time. They took down her name and number and promised to call when it arrived. They were even willing to put it on hold for her. Everything sounds pretty good so far, right?
Tuesday night rolls around and no phone call from The Gap, so my wife calls them and they say they have it in stock and will put it on hold for her. No big deal at this point. They failed to deliver on their promise, but no harm no foul...yet.
The next day my wife drives to the store and walks up to someone at the register. They know nothing of the item that was supposed to be on hold and they don't have any in stock.
Houston, we have a problem.
Of course, the nice thing about a massive clothing company like The Gap is that you have many resources at your fingertips to solve issues and turn angry customers into evangelists. Or so you would think.
The rest of the experience went something like this:
My wife: I drove over here because someone said you had it in stock and would hold it for me.
The Gap: I'm sorry ma'am, I don't know who told you that.
My wife: Can you check online and see if they have it there? I believe I saw it still available on the website.
The Gap: Let me check. Yes, it's available online, but it's more expensive than in the store and there's a $7 shipping charge.
After some more back and forth with the store clerk, the end result was that the issue was created by the brick-and-mortar store and there was nothing the online store could do for her. It was a store issue, not a Gap online issue.
You see the problems here? The customer doesn't see an online Gap and a store Gap. They just see The Gap. They had a golden opportunity to turn a problem into a great story. Instead, after creating a problem by failing to deliver on a promise, they decided to compound it by being unreasonable and illogical. Why, at the very least, would you not comp the shipping charges? Why would you not work with the store and utilize every resource you have to create a happy customer?
We're not talking big bucks here either. We're talking about a $7 shipping charge. Gap did $1.05 billion in sales in May 2010. That's BILLION. In one month. They created an angry customer and negative word-of-mouth over seven dollars. Brilliant!
What do you think Zappos have done in this situation?
A Customer Experience or Leadership Gap?
What's interesting about The Gap is their claim regarding a customer-centric culture.
They state on their corporate website that they think about the customer first:
We make decisions with our customers in mind. We connect with our stores and create the quality our customers value and expect.
It is supposedly a core value that defines their culture. The question is whether or not that core value is really cherished by and communicated to the customer-facing employees. It would seem, at least in this case, that it is not.
A recent statistic from Linda Ireland's Customer Experience for Profit blog revealed that 72% of C-level leaders claim there is a definition of customer experience that is well understood across their organizations, however 52% of director level leaders said there is no definition of customer experience that is well understood across the troops.
If more than half of "director level leaders" say there is no definition of customer experience in their company, then what percentage of front-line employees understand the concept of customer experience? The answer might scare me, but I think it's a question I'm going to start asking.
