The Customer Experience Gap That Businesses Still Aren’t Bridging, and What to Do About It

I had a faulty broadband connection. I was in a hurry to fix it as I had a presentation coming up that afternoon.

So, I tried reaching their customer care, and I was put on hold for more than 20 minutes. I explained the issue, got transferred, again put on hold for 10 minutes, explained again, and was told to reboot the modem again.

I made two more calls, but there was no resolution. So, I booked a shared space for that afternoon, and I took the presentation from there.

I decided to switch the provider. I subscribed to another broadband provider, and this time around, I decided to have redundancy. I didn’t want to use my existing provider even for redundancy. Till such time I got the other two connections, my issue was not resolved.

I felt that I made the right decision.

Now, both the new providers called me to check if everything’s working fine. This provocative touchpoint made me feel good about my decision to switch.

Now multiply my frustration and delight with thousands of customers, and you will get the difference between switching and staying. It all comes down to how seen, heard, and remembered you feel.

Unfortunately, most businesses are still not in the frame to reduce the experience expectation gap.

We Still Don’t Understand What Our Customers Care About!

Customers today aren’t asking for the moon, and they don’t expect to be treated like royalty either. All they want is someone on the other end who gets it.

• So, if I call customer care about a billing issue, I expect the next person I talk to won’t ask me to repeat the same story from scratch. Is it asking too much?
• If I am transferred from one agent to another, I expect my information to be transferred as well.
• I don’t want to repeat myself at every touchpoint.

However, the reality is something you dread.

One minute, you’re chatting online; the next, you’re on hold for 20 minutes, and then the agent who picks up knows nothing about what you said.

This is plain exhausting, and people are quietly walking away because of it.  

Many businesses genuinely think they are doing a good job as they have multiple channels to service customers. They have email, voice, chat, messaging, and even mobile apps. None of this matters if your interactions are fragmented, robotic, and just plain hard.

You should ideally stop measuring your success by the number of channels you use to service. Instead, you should measure your success by how seamless and human those channels feel.

You get the drift, right?

Let me give you a few use cases to illustrate the experience that frustrates and delights you to understand the difference. I have drawn all of these from my personal experiences.

Use Case 1: We’ve Got Your Back

A few years ago, I was traveling with my family on the highway, and we met with an accident.

A larger vehicle sideswiped us at speed, and it did not even stop to check what happened.

Thankfully, nothing happened to any of us. But we were clearly shaken. We called the insurance helpline.

Immediately, the person on the other end checked about our well-being and suggested that they would immediately send a roadside assistance truck and also arrange for an alternate vehicle to transport us to our destination.

Within 20 minutes, the roadside assistance truck came, and an alternate vehicle was also arranged for us to travel. They towed our vehicle to their service station, and after servicing it, the car was delivered to us in four days.

While the accident shook us considerably, the assistance from the insurance was done with so much empathy we have been raving about their service to everyone whom we know.

Use Case 2: The Next Agent Had No Idea

I had an unusual charge on my credit card. So, I immediately filed a fraud complaint on their mobile app, and I received an acknowledgment email right away.

I was of the view that it is being acted upon. I waited a good 24 hours, and I did not receive any response. So, I called their customer care, and the agent who picked up my call asked, ‘What is the issue?’

I gave him the reference number from the email I received. However, he insisted that I take him through the entire issue again. I had to give him the data, transaction ID, and the merchant name again.

The agent apparently couldn’t see the report I filed the previous day. My first thought was, “Why did I even bother to register a complaint on their mobile app?”

I was frustrated with the fact that the bank was not able to connect the dots, and they had separate systems for online complaints and phone calls. And none of them were talking to each other.

Use Case 3: The Salicylic Acid That Never Got Delivered

I kept receiving Instagram reels on the use of salicylic acid based skin cleansing products. I was fascinated by the results shown in the advertisements.

So, I took the bet of ordering one for myself. I was promised a delivery within three days. On the third day, I received my delivery.

To my surprise, what was delivered was a completely different product. So, I emailed customer service about the wrong order, asking them to provide the right product and take the delivered product back.

After four days, I received an email asking me to raise a complaint on their help portal.

I never bothered to do that, and I made a mental note to never buy anything from them.

What Can You Do About This?

Instead of blindly putting together technology to handle these situations, you should pair them up with intent.

Let us look at five things you must do:

1. Unify Data Across Systems

When I call the airline about a delayed flight, I expect the agent to know that I am a frequent flyer and I have already called twice about this.

With this context, the response of the agent would be more appropriate.

Ensure that all the channels and IT systems are tightly integrated so that the agents get a single view of all customer interactions.

2. Design for First-Contact Resolution

The biggest expectation from customers is to have a resolution in their first point of contact. Nothing beats this when it comes to experience.

Empower your agents with the right tools and authority to fix and resolve issues. Don’t just give them the responsibility; also provide them the authority to do so.

3. Add AI to Augment Your Human Agents

Implement AI, but ensure that it doesn’t sound robotic or automated. Use AI to augment the human agent’s ability to offer better customer experiences.

With AI, you can pre-fill forms, suggest next-best actions and responses, identify intent, or even triage requests.

4. Make Your First Response Faster

Even if a request is going to take time, acknowledge the requests faster and give them a timeline for when you would be able to respond.

For instance, I raised a complaint about delayed delivery of a package by the courier company, and I received this as a response.

We’ve received your complaint. It is on us, and rest assured, we will respond to you within an hour and sort this delivery out as soon as possible.

 This definitely gives you emotional assurance.

5. Reward Listening

Would you agree that the most important aspect of communication is your ability to listen?

Teach your agents to listen with intent, acknowledge the needs of your customers, and then respond with empathy. It has to be in this order for it to be effective.

Reward your agents for listening well.

Would it matter if you had the best product, the slickest website, or the biggest ads if your customer experience don’t match up to your customer expectations?

I am afraid not.

What wins you the customer’s trust and loyalty is your ability to show up well in the context of why your customer is coming to you with a request.

All you need is a little context, a little empathy, a little agility, and a little attitude to do good for the customers, and your experience expectation gap will be considerably narrowed.