The Importance of User Experience

The best products offer the best experiences. While first impressions are key, a great long-term experience is the best single thing that any product can provide.

There are many elements that lead to great experiences. Design, ease-of-use, and reliability are easy to flag as very important factors. And they are. But no matter how perfect any product is, there will always be customer questions and frustrations. Sometimes they'll be the result of something that could be done better (and a great way to spot how you can improve), but lots of times they'll be the result of something out of your control.

Although my work at Delicious Monster is all about user experience (I help with Delicious Library development and my latest work is the new Delicious Monster Support knowledge base) - working to create a great experience for customers, I'm a customer in the world just as much as anyone else.

Which leads me to a good story.

As everyone knows, the government is not known for its especially great user experience. In fact, if you think of the worst user experience, you probably think of a government-run facility like the DMV or the post office. At these wonderful places, you'll probably find absurdly long lines, emotionless "just doing my job" workers, and a new numerical identity for yourself that is found on the card ticket they ask you to take.

And so maybe not so coincidentally, the post office has recently been a source of frustration for me personally. A few weeks ago, I placed a large order (at least for me) for a couple hundred dollars worth of DVDs from Amazon. Looking forward to nearly doubling my collection, I was surprised when they had yet to turn up a week and a half later.

Checking the post office's tracking information, I noticed that the package was marked as "DELIVERED" only two days earlier. Not really entirely sure where to check first, I went straight to the post office (where I experienced another wonderful experience like the one I described above) and was told they'd "look into it and call me back the next day." Of course they didn't.

Calling them again and re-describing my situation a second time (always a blast) and also inquiring about drop off policy, I was told that the post office wasn't supposed to ever leave this kind package without actually seeing a person. Although a signature was not required, they won't leave it at the door. If no one is home, they will leave a note of attempted delivery, the person told me. (Obviously my delivery guy isn't hip to the system.) Again the representative told me they'd look into it and call me back the next day. I bet you can guess if they did. (By the way, my phone works.)

Oh and the rep also told me - the post office isn't responsible for items that aren't delivered. While legally understandable, I actually find that part pretty hilarious.

Since all of this was getting nowhere, I decided to call Amazon. Although it is true that Amazon actually doesn't publish their customer service phone number (I can imagine how many people call them with straightforward questions or trying to place orders), I was lucky enough to have remembered reading an article that had the number in it a while back, so a quick Google search got me right there. After only a minute or so waiting, I was speaking to a person.

Having previously listened to 21 Dog Years, which I've mentioned here before, I felt like I was already in-the-know when they opened by asked me for my order number (which, by the way, I had ready).

I explained the situation again as well as my post office experience then laughed, telling them "I have no idea what you guys can do, but I figured I might as well see if you have any suggestions." It's a pretty ridiculous to blame Amazon here since they really did everything they were supposed to. They got the items, boxed them up, and shipped them to me. I felt almost bad asking them for their take on the situation. After looking into the order information, the representative got back to me. "Okay," she said, "I've resent the items."

She sort of caught me by surprise. Honestly, I was expecting some kind of explanation like the post office gave me. You know, the good old "We'll look into it [but not really]". I was expecting to be blown off and instead, they went above and beyond and completely solved my problem. Hanging up, I realized that that was exactly the point - it was great customer service.

While a couple hundred dollars worth of DVDs was a big deal to me, it has to be incredibly trivial to Amazon. More important is my continued satisfaction and my perception of the company. And it totally worked. Although I wouldn't have stopped dealing with Amazon just because of this mixup, I would have at least been annoyed over the entire ordeal. Instead, I was really impressed. And if Amazon can impress their customers, not only will they keep coming back, but maybe they'll even tell their friends -- or write about it on their blog. ;)

The DVDs arrived a few days later. They were left on the doorstep of our busy street.

I called the post office again asking about the policy and re-iterating that items can't be left on our doorstep. We'd much rather pick up items at the post office if no one was present. They said that that was totally reasonable and what in fact should be happening. The person on the phone told me she filled out a special request form to make sure that our post office realized this is what we wanted.

A few days later another unrelated package arrived. It was placed on top of my roommate's car (couldn't be bothered to make it to the doorstep?).

The post office rocks.

But seriously, this is a perfect example of user experience. The post office is a broken experience. Amazon is not without shortcomings, but they will take an extra step and align themselves with their users to reach a solution. And it makes a good impression not only on me but one that reflects back on their company favorably.

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