I had what I thought was a simple request.
Let me explain.
One of the nice perks of being on a certain level with American Express is gaining access to Regus business lounges throughout the world. A Regus card shows up in the mail and I use it! Not only is it a good co-working space, but they have offices everywhere. I’ve taken advantage of this perk when traveling, most recently in New York City.
So I was pleased when the perk was extended to my 360Connext teammate, Ryan. The only problem was the Regus card was sent to my business address in Illinois and Ryan lives and works in California. Here’s a perfect example of an easily overlooked minor moment in a customer journey which creates an unnecessarily negative nuisance for customers.
Being helpful is great, but not enough.
First, I called American Express. They were helpful as always, but directed me to Regus. As the helpful American Express rep looked up the phone number for Regus service, I flipped the card over and found a toll-free number for “reservations and additional information.” Aha! I confirmed it was the same number she was about to give me. And I called.
I, like everyone else, do a lot of my business online. I typically prefer a smooth digital experience to the unpredictable phone kind. However, this is where I need to reveal something. Several weeks ago, my family and I were involved in a serious car accident. We are lucky that it wasn’t worse but I did end up with a fractured hand. This means typing, computer work, and even texting are cumbersome to say the least. I’ve relied on my voice to actually produce content.
So when I called the number listed on the back of the card for service, I was perturbed to hear the recording greet me with instructions to email regarding any service at all. The email address is a long one. I decided to wait for a human. That human, while very nice, instructed me to email for my request. Please keep in mind all I’m asking is for them to send the card to the right address. I expressed my frustration and even said I had a broken hand. And while, again, he was kind and doing his best, the Regus rep was helpless.
What does this have to do with micromapping?
There’s a specific detail I find incredibly telling. The back of the Regus card has two numbers-one toll-free and one for international calls. There is no website. There is no email address. So when a customer like me follows directions I’m told I’m doing it wrong. When a customer like me is unable to access the channel they want me to accept, then I’m helpless.
We’ve been discussing micromapping a lot lately.
It’s our approach to taking customer journey mapping into deeper levels of understanding at specific points in the journey. Micromapping could help avoid customer frustrations like this one. Micromapping helps the organization and their people understand the many ways customers interact with their products, people and services. If we had been micromapping what it’s like to become a Regus Businessworld cardholder, we would have found this issue before customers did.
I do want to stress my experiences with Regus have been good. But as I sit here, the only return on my investment of time today is an automated email response telling me someone will endeavor to address my problem within 48 hours. This seems silly.
How well do you know your customer journey?
The funny thing is typically when we complete micromapping, our clients say they knew THAT was a problem but not that other thing. In this example, I bet they know 48 hours is a long time to make somebody wait for sending an email. But I bet they don’t realize that they are instructing their customers to use the wrong channel. And I bet they don’t realize that there is no wrong channel anymore. We’re living in a world that relies on multichannel access. And speaking of access, limiting your customers to one channel limits accessibility in a big way.
What’s bugging your customers? What if you don’t know?
Image credits: Kai Hendry, wwarby via Creative Commons license
