I just love great experiences. Having a WOW experience as a customer is very satysfying. Having an opposite experience very close to the WOW experience makes it stand out even more.

Expferience 1
I recently wrote about getting a new Nespresso machine. The buying experience was good, but getting the 50€ rebate was even better, since it was an online registration and a couple of days later my new user account was credited with the promised amount. I could have used my 50€ online, or even better using the great app on my iPad or iPhone.

What made the experience great, was my visit to the Helsinki boutique. A beautiful young lady was by my side the minute I stepped in. Good, but the seamless integration of the whole purchase-online registration-brickstore service-online account process is what really made me pleased. The sales personnel was helpful and instructive and guided the customer towards using online services, as well as welcoming to the store to have a taste. No channel jealousy at all.

 Experience 2
I bought a new pair of glasses about a month ago at instrumentarium. I just couldn’t resist the offer of getting a pair of sunnies in the same deal. Now I have my first pair of Ray Bans ever, made to my prescription.

The shopping experience was ok, I would have liked better advice on how thin my lenses should be. The discussion quickly centered on the price difference between alternatives, and I wasn’t the one who was interested in price. My concerns centered around weight and the reading area of the lense.

My specs were ready about two weeks ahead of the given estimate, which made me very pleased. My happiness turned sour about a week later  with the compulsory customer satisfaction questionnaire landing in my inbox. This was of course simultaneously with the Nespresso experience.

The email promised me a 3 minute feedback experience and I had about ten to spend. Problem 1: the questionnaire was not optimized for mobile use, and it was very slow. Problem 2: the amount of questions. A lot of the questions focused on finding out if the store performed the service process according to the given script. Yes, they did, no worries.

The real letdown came at the end of the survey. As a thank you, the website gave me a coupon that I was supposed to print out AND fill out some customer information AFTER printing. As a second alternative, I could forward the coupon to my email. It’s still a stupid form, since I have to fill it out AFTER printing.

Now you would think, that since instrumentarium has all my customer information, it would be easy to give that to the unprofessional surveyor and have them link the information to the coupon. And even better, link it to my customer information since I don’t carry around any bonus cards or coupons. I have credit cards and mobile apparatus. Join me in the 21 st century.

Which impressed me more?
Nespresso, hands down. Even if I can’t log in with my Facebook account, the minute I had paid in the store, I could see all my purchases in my app. I didn’t need to print anything and everything worked like a dream.  Don’t get me wrong, the optician at the store did well, but the company as a whole didn’t quite perform to my expectations. They should have left the customer satisfaction survey undone. I’ve given them feedback and can refer them to a professional for a better job.