Matt Riley 
VP OF SALES AND MARKETING

A couple of weeks ago, my wife sent me an email that said,” I would like these shoes for Christmas”, with a link to the shoes in question, her size, and the color she wanted. So, being the good husband I am, I immediately purchased said shoes to wrap up and place under the tree. All is good, Christmas is saved! (Don’t worry, my wife won’t read this)

The next day, I received a promo email from the same company touting a sale on these shoes for $50 less than what I had paid just a day before. (Side note: Do you see any issues here already?) So, I called the company and pleasantly explained that I had just purchased these shoes less than 48 hours ago, I hadn't even received them yet, and I would like to get the new price of $50 less. They were equally pleasant and promised to jump right on my request. No issues.

Now, insert friction.

“Mr. Riley, we will be glad to help you; however, the shoes you purchased have already shipped and we cannot adjust anything with the order. So what you will have to do is, once you receive your shipment. take the original invoice and print the email you received with the new sale price on it and mail it to us. Then we will send you a gift card for $50 in the form of a store credit.”

I nicely explained that I was not interested in a store credit and I would like the $50 difference placed back on my card, especially since I had not yet received a confirmation email telling me my order had shipped. (See another issue here?) 

I was then told that this lengthy, non-customer-friendly “solution” was my only option if I wanted the $50 credit. I could sense the fake smile this rep had pasted on her face as she advised me, “There is nothing we can do because it’s what our system allows us to do.”

I then asked, “Can I just purchase a new pair of shoes now, at the new sale price, and then return the original order to the local store once it arrives?” 

She perkily replied, “If that’s what you want to do, you can do that too”. 

I then executed on said plan.

Now, was I angry? No. Disappointed, yes.

Was I wronged by this company? Am I going to go online and leave a bad review? I’m not, but most customers would!

In the future, if I see the same product at a different store for basically the same price, will I consider buying from that competitor? Yes. 

All because it wasn’t easy to do business with them. In fact, it was somewhat painful. The company and its systems/processes caused friction in my customer experience. They made ME go out of my way to take advantage of their sale. It seems reasonable that a seller would want to clear the path to purchase, eliminating all obstacles.

Most companies would look at my experience and say, “The customer got what they wanted, so all is good.” They might choose to delude themselves into believing they did a good job serving the customer.  They would be wrong. And it would be a costly mistake.

If this company had a good system in place, they would have seen that I had just created a new customer account and that I had never done business with them in the past. They had the opportunity to absolutely wow me with their dazzling customer service. 

But they didn’t. They let their “status quo” system of inflexibility insert “friction” into my buying experience.

Take a hard look at your company and ask a couple simple questions: 

Am I offering what the customer wants and values?  

Am I easy to do business with? 

Do I make it easy and enjoyable to spend money with? 

Get your policies and systems in line with these simple principles and figure out the logistics later. Your customers will thank you, and so will your bank account!