Tonight I had a frustrating experience while visiting my local Apple store. I was in the area and decided to get the new iPhone.
The reviews were good and I wanted to try out the new camera features when CyberLancers goes to Amsterdam this
week for Techorama. I planned to purchase one of their most expensive
phones, the iPhone 11 Pro Max.
I arrived at the store about 90 minutes before closing and saw a line. But the line was very short and I didn't think there
would be any problems. An employee asked what I was looking for and I told him. He said they were in stock, but
they were out of time slots and I would need to return another day. I was shocked that they were turning away a paying customer.
They couldn't spare 5 minutes to get me a phone that they had in stock and then take my credit card! I couldn't think of any other
company that denies giving a paying customer a product that they have in stock and telling them to come back later.
This made me think about customer experience and if what we offer them actually detracts from the buying experience instead
of improving it. I understand that Apple tries to create an experience where the customer is given full attention of a sales
associate. They answer questions, and assist with setting up the new phone. But doing so limits the number of customers they
can assist and prevent customers like me, who just want to buy a phone, from being able to do so.
Does your customer experience detract from your customers being able to easily purchase your products? On your website do you
add features that are fun and technically innovative, but really just add extra steps to someone being able to check out or
distract them from what they came to your site to do? I remember an e-commerce site we built some years ago where the client
wanted 3D product views with rotating images. We advised the client against this even though, from a technical perspective,
it was an interesting site to develop. The extra features made the site slower and did not enhance the customer buying experience.
Over our 20+ years of experience at CyberLancers, we have learned what works and what doesn't work. We are some of the most
experienced experts in website, app and SaaS software development and we leverage the latest technologies and utilize best
practices to deliver the best products to our clients. But we always remember why we are developing whatever we are
working on. We write software that keeps the customer first and helps our partners meet their business goals.
We should always be careful in business not to let process or protocol get in the way of a great user experience!