When you have multiple communications channels within your company, whether it’s employee to customer communications or even internal communications, are you sure that the messages are being delivered consistently? Ensuring that policies are running smoothly and customers are getting accurate, consistent information across the board is key to customer satisfaction. Confused customers don’t stay customers very long, so you often times have one chance to make it right.
A friend recently shared an experience that drove home this very point. She was placing an online order for a gift for an out-of-state family member. This was her first visit to the online store and loved their products. She placed the order well in advance of the family member’s birthday, and quickly received an email confirmation that the order had been placed.
She became concerned when the delivery date was fast approaching and she didn’t receive further communication from the company, as she is used to with other online merchants. She pulled out the confirmation email, which had a tracking number. After reviewing the information, she learned that her order had been canceled “due to inventory.” She didn’t get an email notification about this, and had she waited, this could have turned out badly.
Because the family member was out of state, she had very little time to find another gift and had to pay quite a bit extra for rush delivery. In the end, the family member got the new gift item and all was well on that front.
Still upset with the experience, she sent an email to the company asking why she had not been notified of the inventory issue or the fact that her order had been canceled. After waiting several days, she got this response: