Shopping, Suits and Surveys

Free shipping and next day delivery? I know for sure that when I don’t have to physically go to a store in a strip mall, or navigate an overpriced & overcrowded shopping mall…I am so relieved! When I see those giant starburst graphics saying “70% OFF!” or “CLEARANCE” I definitely take a second look.

It’s exciting to browse online, look at photos, save/share the images, switch the colors, compare various products and even check the prices on competitors’ sites. This all can now be done from the comfort of your…couch?

Recent Online Shopping Experience

A huge 50% off online suit sale came up recently, and I jumped on it! I do some searching, filtering and check the stock!
44 Tall? Check. Classic Fit. Check. Add to cart. Check.

Payment Method
I bring out the “retirement-busting” credit card and I’m set. Even found a gift card that I can plug in to make this deal even better!

I review my order…of course it’s not applying the gift card amount and reducing my total. I try another 3 times just to see if its human-keyboard error. Nothing changes on screen. Still charging me the full amount.

UX break down #1 — Always let your customer know what is happening and provide contextual error messages.

I try to do the live chat functionality (which is a nice feature), but that gets me nowhere. I then call the 800 number and speak with a retail agent, and they inform me that the suit that I wanted is not in stock on their system. Apparently the web site customer facing system and employee back-end system are not friends! They don’t even talk to each other! It must have been a bad breakup.

What was in stock on the customer facing web site…is not in stock on the back-end portal for emloyees. After spending about 45 minutes online and on the phone finding, pricing, sizing and purchasing this new suit…it’s not available. Gah!

UX break down #2 — Ensure your front-end and back-end systems communicate with each other, ideally in real-time

Two weeks later and another SUIT SALE!

Argument that ensues in my head….
“Forget that….waste of time…” “Well, it is another massive deal… “
In the world of user experience journey maps, trepidation, is my emotional state.

I convince myself to give it another shot and see if they’ve fixed their supply chain, back-end, and interface issues.

I get to the payment screens again, and put in the gift card number…
Doesn’t apply the amount again….deja vu….#Sigh :(

Try it again…Nope…A 3rd time because I enjoy anguish…”You bet!” Nothing…
Doesn’t work…GAHHHH

Do I abandon the deal? No! My parents didn’t raise a quitter…

I call the 800 number again. On hold for about 5 mins — not too bad considering the holidays are coming up. Speak to a very nice agent about the items I want to purchase.

We go through the process again — and he enters all of my information again, card, gift card, product numbers and validates everything. It all looks good and the discount is applied on his screens.

When I gave him the suit number and he saw it was actually in stock on his computer (back-end) showing the real inventory…he sounded somewhat surprised…”Yes! It is showing up as in stock!”
I felt like I just won at Bingo.

After reviewing the order with the gentleman on the phone, I was just happy that it was over, and that I got the sale price….3 hours 42 minutes later, I saved my 2 hundred dollars.

A day later I got a company email, and I feared the worst:

My suit was boxed with a bucket of pens that exploded sending ink everywhere? Nope.
The delivery truck blew a tire, veered off the road and my suit landed in a giant pile of manure, irreparably damaged? Nope.

It was a request to complete a survey.
This email was the sales agent asking if I could take a survey for him to review the experience and give him a rating for his own professional development. Didn’t seem like it was from the company.

“Please add any additional comments:”

Online Shopping Experience Rating (3 out of 10)

The customer facing front end and the warehouse backend need to be in sync — to the second. The supply chain management needs to be top notch, otherwise you’re going to get a lot of complaints, frustrated consumers and lost sales.
The payment processing has to be rock solid. If gift cards are valid, please show the updated amounts, immediately. If the number doesn’t work — tell me why. Don’t make me enter information and then guess why its not working.
If the transaction is not going through — because of YOUR inventory problems — don’t let me get to that payment step in the process and THEN tell me it’s out of stock (by not showing the price reflecting a discount). You compromise my trust. Tell me right away.
Once a purchase has gone through, tell me what’s happening — “Order has been placed, picked, processed”, “Order has been shipped”, and “Order has been delivered.”
Follow up — ask me for some feedback — quick rating — something simple. Do I want to spend another 5–10 minutes going through a poorly designed form to extrapolate on what was a frustrating experience? No thanks, I’m good.
And speaking of the follow up email. It should come from the company as a way of expressing gratitude, looking for satisfaction levels and asking for any type of comments or feedback, not the individual agent (although maybe they want it to seem more personal). Perhaps provide an incentive for a follow up purchase.
“We are sending your suit by Friday — do you have shirts, belt, ties, shoes (or whatever).?
“Follow this link to receive 10% off
“Fill out this 5 minute survey to receive 10% off”

The lesson through this whole adventure is that if I was easily put off, or the deal wasn’t that enticing (or I wasn’t doing UX Research) — I would not have called in twice after trying to purchase online . I would have been a lost sale. As it turns out — I purchased 3 ties to go along with the suit — imagine if the e-store was working flawlessly. (Kids education fund…..GONE!)

The importance of solid UX is more important than ever with geographic boundaries disappearing and competition for your shopping dollars — the fiercest it’s ever been.