a breakdown and a caffeine fix
The engine warning light’s come on
Uhoh
And there’s no power when I press the accelerator
Crap
How far have we got to go?
150 miles and it’s 21:57
💀
To set the scene, this was last night, and I was halfway through a 300-mile drive to my parents' house as I’m taking part in the Great North Run on Sunday, the World’s Biggest Half Marathon (officially!).
Ed and I had set off about 5:30 pm at the end of a long day of customer journey fixing, and we were making great time.
Until the light came on, that is.
I finally got to bed at 3 am, so it’s safe to say caffeine will feature heavily today.
Now I’m a bit of an espresso snob. I’ve had a coffee subscription for the last 4 years from a brand that rescues excess coffee beans from big brands' supply chains and sells them to the public, rather than sending them to landfill.
Woke coffee for the win!
Sadly their customer journey is a little… wonky.
Every single month, without fail, I get the same 3 emails:
Your order’s confirmed! No warning, no heads-up, just money coming out of my account and a 1kg of dark roasted beans heading my way, ready or not.
Rate your coffee delivery! I did. I rated them in month 1, and again in month 2 (maybe it didn’t save?). I’ve been ordering from this company every month for 4.5 years. That’s a lot of review requests.
Your last chance to review us! AAAAAAAH!
I mean, it’s just an email, it’s not like they’re knocking on my door or ringing my phone incessantly.
But this is damaging their brand in two subtle but serious ways:
I now delete their emails without opening them because I know what they’re going to say. Every month, thousands of customers are likely doing the same. It’s Pavlovian. Not only are they tanking their email deliverability, but their subscribers are missing their marketing, and it’s slowly eroding their love for the brand.
With all those review requests, you’re going to have to be on the ball month in, month out, because if something goes wrong, all that pent-up frustration is going to come out, and I’ll leave a review you don’t want to see.
And with this brand, something did go wrong.
A few months ago, they sent a semi-serious email saying they were “Getting canned.”
Considering they’d already been forced to rebrand after their original name was too similar to someone elses' IP, I thought they’d pushed things too far, too many times.
And since I hadn’t had my Your Order’s Confirmed! email in a while, I realised I was going to have to look elsewhere for my coffee fix.
And by the time I got their hasty “We’re sorry it was a bad joke that didn’t land” apology and revealed their new range of iced coffee in a can 🙄, I was already out of the door and in bed with another brand of bean grinders.
That had a subscription.
And an app.
And sent a “Head’s Up We’re Sending Your Next Order Soon!” email with options to pause, upgrade, or add extras before my order goes in.
At last! A brand who’ve thought about their customer journey!
Until I got the Your Last Chance To Review Us! email for the second month in a row.
AAAAAAAH!
Retention should be the easiest win — I would have happily stayed loyal much longer after 4.5 years.
(if it ain't broke, don’t fix it).
But one clumsy step lost them a customer in an instant.
And it’s not just eCom brands that can benefit from paying attention to their most loyal customers.
It’s any business, coach, course creator, or company that sells anything to anybody.
If you value customers who love you, rave about you to anyone who’ll listen, and buy everything you create, you can’t cut corners on this.
And if you want help spotting the gaps in your customer journey before your best customers drift away, get in touch and let’s chat about how I can help.
Right, I’m off to get (another) coffee.
It’s going to be a long day.